The Philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche.
Emerson, Thoreau, Basho, Stevenson, Rousseau, Hatzliz, Nietzsche, Robert Frost or Mary Shelley were some of the writers who loved to walk between forests and mountains.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Friedrich Nietzsche are philosophers who have been read as prophets of a strong modern individualism. Emerson is well known for his philosophy of self-reliance, but the meaning of self-reliance has often been misinterpreted as self-sufficiency, as in the ideal of the self-made man, and as a foundation of egoism and narcissism in U.S. culture. Due to his emphasis on the development of the individual human, Emerson has been seen as offering little in the way of ethical or political concern for other people. He has been widely critiqued for his alleged failure to respond in meaningful ways to slavery and the Civil War.
Nietzsche’s individualism has led to his ejection from conversations of politics and ethics. More dramatically, misreadings of his individualism led to his appropriation by twentieth and twenty-first century fascists. Nietzsche was so popular among twentieth century fascists that Adolf Hitler is said to have gifted the collected works of Nietzsche to Mussolini on his birthday. Bringing together Emerson and Nietzsche not only helps to correct their egoistic images, but it also contributes to the ongoing exploration of Emerson’s influence on Nietzsche, who, according to Cavell, was Emerson’s greatest nineteenth century reader.
Reading Emerson and Nietzsche on friendship, I uncover the existential, ethical, and political ways that friends contribute to one’s capacities to think and to be oneself, and thus to be free in a real and meaningful way. Emerson and Nietzsche identify the emergence of a modern egoism supported by capitalist choice and consumption and how they respond through the articulation of a strong individualism that finds freedom in commitment and friendly relationships with other people. In uncovering the role of friendship in Emerson and Nietzsche, I bring to light ethical and political considerations related to neighborliness, vanity, agonism, conversation, pain, hospitality, and love.
Henry David Thoreau a leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden; or, Life in the Woods a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.
Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, in which he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close observation of nature, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and attention to practical detail. He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs.
Thoreau was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the fugitive slave law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending the abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Be a Loser - The Philosophy of Henry David Thoreau, https://youtu.be/9bHM-mhgQyk. Walden is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and—to some degree—a manual for self-reliance.
Walden details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts.
Thoreau makes precise scientific observations of nature as well as metaphorical and poetic uses of natural phenomena. He identifies many plants and animals by both their popular and scientific names, records in detail the color and clarity of different bodies of water, precisely dates and describes the freezing and thawing of the pond, and recounts his experiments to measure the depth and shape of the bottom of the supposedly "bottomless" Walden Pond.
San José, Costa Rica, February 26th, 2023, rafaelvilagut@gmail.com Rafael A. Vilagut-Vega, is an engineer and magister, and since recent years historian, writer, and professional genealogist.
Emerson, Thoreau, Basho, Stevenson, Rousseau, Hatzliz, Nietzsche, Robert Frost or Mary Shelley were some of the writers who loved to walk between forests and mountains.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Friedrich Nietzsche are philosophers who have been read as prophets of a strong modern individualism. Emerson is well known for his philosophy of self-reliance, but the meaning of self-reliance has often been misinterpreted as self-sufficiency, as in the ideal of the self-made man, and as a foundation of egoism and narcissism in U.S. culture. Due to his emphasis on the development of the individual human, Emerson has been seen as offering little in the way of ethical or political concern for other people. He has been widely critiqued for his alleged failure to respond in meaningful ways to slavery and the Civil War.
Nietzsche’s individualism has led to his ejection from conversations of politics and ethics. More dramatically, misreadings of his individualism led to his appropriation by twentieth and twenty-first century fascists. Nietzsche was so popular among twentieth century fascists that Adolf Hitler is said to have gifted the collected works of Nietzsche to Mussolini on his birthday. Bringing together Emerson and Nietzsche not only helps to correct their egoistic images, but it also contributes to the ongoing exploration of Emerson’s influence on Nietzsche, who, according to Cavell, was Emerson’s greatest nineteenth century reader.
Reading Emerson and Nietzsche on friendship, I uncover the existential, ethical, and political ways that friends contribute to one’s capacities to think and to be oneself, and thus to be free in a real and meaningful way. Emerson and Nietzsche identify the emergence of a modern egoism supported by capitalist choice and consumption and how they respond through the articulation of a strong individualism that finds freedom in commitment and friendly relationships with other people. In uncovering the role of friendship in Emerson and Nietzsche, I bring to light ethical and political considerations related to neighborliness, vanity, agonism, conversation, pain, hospitality, and love.
Henry David Thoreau a leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden; or, Life in the Woods a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.
Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, in which he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close observation of nature, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and attention to practical detail. He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs.
Thoreau was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the fugitive slave law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending the abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Be a Loser - The Philosophy of Henry David Thoreau, https://youtu.be/9bHM-mhgQyk. Walden is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and—to some degree—a manual for self-reliance.
Walden details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts.
Thoreau makes precise scientific observations of nature as well as metaphorical and poetic uses of natural phenomena. He identifies many plants and animals by both their popular and scientific names, records in detail the color and clarity of different bodies of water, precisely dates and describes the freezing and thawing of the pond, and recounts his experiments to measure the depth and shape of the bottom of the supposedly "bottomless" Walden Pond.
San José, Costa Rica, February 26th, 2023, rafaelvilagut@gmail.com Rafael A. Vilagut-Vega, is an engineer and magister, and since recent years historian, writer, and professional genealogist.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario