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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. owner.Further reproduction Further reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. SAUNTERING INTO NEW FIELDS: HENRY DAVID THOREAU AND THE

SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

Shawn Chandler Bingham

submitted to the

Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences

of American University

in Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirements for the Degree

o f Doctor o f Phi losophy

Sociology

Chair: X Russell ie, Ph.

An< renner,

Michael Tkacik, PhjD.

Dean of the College /> < 2 4 0 1 Date 2003

American University

Washington, D.C. 20016

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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Shawn Chandler Bingham

2003

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Write with Jury, correct with phlegm.

—Henry David Thoreau

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading o f a book.

—Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SAUNTERING INTO NEW FIELDS: HENRY DAVID THOREAU AND THE

SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

Shawn Chandler Bingham

ABSTRACT

Theorists have argued that the canons within sociology are socially constructed

and function to legitimate a certain type of sociology (Lengermann and Niebrugge-

Brantley 1998). Sociology needs to examine the formulation and application of canonical

criteria and consider the costs of excluding relevant thinkers from sociological dialogue.

This project attempted to apply current canonical criteria to a thinker whose works have

been considered by economics, philosophy, natural history, environmental studies and

literature, but not sociology -- Henry David Thoreau. Using C.W. Mills’ (1959) concept

of sociological imagination and Peter Berger’s (1963) “motifs” as criteria latent content

analysis was conducted on Thoreau’s writings to determine his relevance to sociology.

Analysis of Thoreau’s writings found that he addressed the questions Mills

believed were asked by those possessing the sociological imagination, which focused on

the structure of society, the place of a particular society in history, and the people that

prevail in a particular period. To answer these questions, Thoreau explored how i I!

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. capitalism, government and modem definitions of economic, technological, political and

scientific progress enslaved the individual.

Thoreau’s works demonstrate that his approach to analyzing society correspond to

Berger’s “motifs.” Thoreau attempted to look beyond commonly excepted social goals

and meanings behind human activity (the debunking motif)- He was distasteful of

provincialism and was aware of how the American economic system was producing

certain type of individuals (relativization motif). He made an effort to explore other

cultural value systems and experimented with new ways of living (cosmopolitan motif).

Finally, he recognized a variety of social classes by hosting visitors from all walks of life,

and exploring a number of non-mainstream arenas, including the jail cell

(unrespectability motif).

Like Mills and Berger, Thoreau recognized the dangers of “abstracted

empiricism” and the mechanical dryness of science. His ability to integrate empiricism

with a more humanistic approach demanded by Mills and Berger needs to be explored by

sociology. Current canonical criteria need to be deconstructed and applied to thinkers

who have not been considered relevant to sociology. Further analysis of Thoreau’s work

to determine unique contributions he might make to sociology needs to be conducted.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As a student of sociology, I have been taught to recognize the part that biography

and environment play in determining “life chances.” In my case, the role of family,

teachers and peers could not have been more nurturing and hospitable to intellectual

opportunity, growth and risk. During the first meeting of every “Introduction to

Sociology” course that I teach, I make the argument that my success up until this point

cannot be attributed to my intellectual ability, nor to my work habits (to which those

close to me can attest). There are many who are responsible for getting me to this point

and their recognition is an important segue into this document.

First, my family has provided me with an environment of creativity,

experimentation, stimulation, service and love. They raised me to truly know that “to

those who have been given a lot, much is expected.” You have “socialized” me well!

The debt I owe can never be repaid. Even a lexicographer, like me, cannot put my thanks

into words. Second, there are a number of folks outside of my family who have nurtured

my intellect: my instructors at the Academy of the Holy Names, Jesuit High School,

Flagler College, The University of Maryland at College Park, and American University.

A particular thanks to the Jesuits for teaching me that intellect is fruitless without service

for others.

I am extremely grateful to several extended families. My new family (the Moss

and Maloney clans) provided much support through letters of encouragement that iv

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. included coupons, money for entertainment, and pep talks. I am particularly appreciative

of their patience during all of the times they came to visit or called on the phone and I

was holed up in my room typing away on the computer. My “other” family, the Tkaciks -

Suzy, Michael, Charles, Ben and Samuel (my Godson) - have done quite a lot over the

last six years to teach me what is most important in life. I am particularly thankful to

Michael, for teaching me that the head is nothing without the heart, and for always being

a loving ear about vocational, family and social issues.

My dissertation committee offered me a tremendous amount of freedom to do a

project that was somewhat unconventional. In a number of ways, each member of the

committee has been a part of my journey during graduate school. I am grateful for their

encouragement, guidance and patience. Thanks for putting up with my inability to

proofread!

Finally, I owe a great deal to my wife (my fourth dissertation advisor), who

endured more than anyone could ever ask: cold dinners, canceled movie nights, books

strewn all over our antique furniture, the task of hauling overdue library books to the

library at her school because I reached the limit on my library card, and having to hear all

of my sermons about social problems. Her patience, friendship and unconditional support

and love throughout the last eight years have been amazing. If it weren’t for her, I would

have quit school and moved to Minnesota to be a luthier. This paper is as much hers as it

is mine.

permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT...... ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...... iv

CHAPTER I: SOCIOLOGY’S OMMISSION OF HENRY DAVID THOREAU...... I

Background...... 2

Purpose of the Study...... 5

Conclusion...... 13

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW...... 15

The Branches of Thoreau’s Intellectual Lineage ...... 16

The Fruit of Thoreau’s Lineage...... 21

How the Fields Treat Thoreau ...... 28

Canonization within Sociology...... 43

Conclusion...... 48

CHAPTER HI: METHODOLOGY...... 49

The Research Questions...... 49

Content Analysis of Written Text...... 58

Design o f this Project...... 63

Conclusion...... 67

CHAPTER IV: THOREAU’S SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION...... 69

Thoreau as a Public and Prophetic Voice ...... 69

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Thoreau and Mills’ Criteria ...... 82

The American Economic System...... 85

The American Government ...... 110

Progress...... 125

Conclusion...... 164

CHAPTER V: THOREAU AND BERGER’S MOTIFS...... 166

Berger’s Motifs and Sociological Consciousness...... 167

Thoreau’s Religious Ideals and Berger’s Motifs ...... 206

Conclusion...... 208

CHAPTER VI: IMPLICATIONS...... 210

Dogmatic Theory and Sociology...... 210

Fetishism of Methods ...... 211

Resisting Empiricism...... 215

Thoreau as an Archetype ...... 217

Conclusion...... 224

CHAPTER VII: CONCLUSION...... 225

Thoreau's Challenge to Sociology ...... 228

Future Research...... 233

Conclusion...... 238

APPENDICES...... 240

Appendix A: Coding Categories and Definitions ...... 240

Appendix B: Analytic Memo...... 242

REFERENCES...... 243

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER I

SOCIOLOGY’S OMMISSION OF HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Over the last century, sociology has developed into a field with a canon of

seminal works and a collection of “founding” thinkers. For example, virtually all

introductory sociology textbooks discuss C. Wright Mills’ concept of the sociological

imagination, as well as functionalism, interactionism and conflict theory and theorists

(Anderson and Taylor 2000; Henslin 2003; Kendall 1998; Komblum 1999; Macionis

2001; Newman 1997; Sullivan 2001; Thio 2003; Thompson 2002). More in-depth texts

which cover the history and evolution of sociological thought contain a core group of

thinkers and schools, criteria for their inclusion, and often the author’s own argument for

the inclusion of additional thinkers (Ritzer 2000a).1 Some theorists make the point that

canons are not only socially constructed, but that they also function to legitimate a certain

type of sociology (Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley 1998). Sociology is a field that

continually scrutinizes the concepts of “normalization,” “categorization” and “labeling”

(Becker 1963; De Cecco 1985; Foucalt 1965; Oliver 1962). Therefore, it is important for

sociologists to examine how canonical decisions and criteria are formulated and applied,

to determine the costs of excluding relevant thinkers from sociological texts and

1 These core thinkers include Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, George Mead and George Simmel, among others. Criteria for inclusion, as well as trends of the sociological canon will be discussed more fully in Chapter 2.

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dialogue, and to consistently apply updated criteria for inclusion to past and present to

determine the costs of excluding relevant thinkers from sociological texts and dialogue,

and to consistently apply updated criteria for inclusion to past and present thinkers who

may or may not have been considered for inclusion (Ritzer and Goodman 2002;

Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley 1998).

This project attempted to do the latter of these three tasks. Using the work of

Mills (1959) and Berger (1963) as a “lens,” particularly their definitions of sociological

consciousness as criteria, latent content analysis was conducted on the writings of Henry

David Thoreau to test the relevance of his thought to the field of sociology. Since both

Mills’ and Berger’s concepts are seen as reliable and pertinent criteria by most

introductory sociology textbooks (Anderson and Taylor 2000; Henslin 2003; Kendall

1998; Komblum 1999; Macionis 2001; Newman 1997; Sullivan 2001; Thio 2003;

Thompson 2002), if Thoreau’s work withstands application of these criteria, an argument

can be made for using Thoreauvian thought in sociology. Such application of canonical

criteria, which continually evolves to thinkers outside the current sociological cannon, is

necessary to keep sociological thought and dialogue from remaining stagnant (Gorak

2002; Journal of Classical Sociology 2001; Ritzer 2000; Ritzer and Goodman 2002;

Tucker 2001).

Background

Henry David Thoreau is one of the more well known American transcendentalist

writers of the 19th century. Along with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau popularized the

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transcendentalist movement, which espoused individualism, a reliability in the human

conscience and the indwelling of God in the soul of every individual (Richardson 1986;

Tauber 2001; Witherall and Dubrulle 1999). Thoreau’s writings, most notably the

American classic Walden (1854), are recognized by the general public as classic travel

and nature expositories, and as such, are most often classified as “literature” within

libraries and bookstores. His descriptions of autumn foliage and the patterns of winter

snowflakes are seen as the quintessential literary descriptions of nature, so much so that

environmentalists have embraced Thoreau as a guiding spirit and the “father” of the

environmental movement. Environmentalists have long seen Thoreau’s work as

“environmental” text and as a new way of understanding humanity’s relation to nature

(Botkin 2001; Buell 1995; Foster 1999; McGregor 1997).

However, Thoreau’s writings are also regarded as a critical and radical exemplar

of American political thought (Abbott 1985; Beck 1986; Neufeldt 1989; Tauber 2001;

Walker 1998). His works, including “Civil Disobedience” (1849), Walden (1854),

“Slavery in Massachusetts” (1854), “A Plea for Captain John Brown” (I860), “The Last

Days of John Brown” (1860), and “Life without Principle” (1863), as well as countless

journal entries and a number of speeches, speak to issues of class, poverty, race, work

and leisure, progress, world commerce, democracy and autonomy, the individual and

society, and government and slavery. For example, in two of his most well known works,

“Civil Disobedience” and Walden, he explored the issues of slavery, the Mexican-

American War, the role of government, the duty of citizens who disagree with

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government policy, the nature of work, problems with the modem economy and the

nature of humans.

These and other of Thoreau’s writings have been recognized for their significance

in literary, philosophical, political, economic and ecological thought (Abbott 1985; Buell

1995; Tauber 2001; Walker 1998).2 His explorations of such issues as the character of the

self, the grounding of moral agency and the nature o f knowledge, have gained attention in

the field of philosophy (Tauber 2001). Within the field of economics, Thoreau’s works

have been mined not only for his discourse on work, leisure, slavery and government, but

also for the historical fact that a great deal of transformation of public economic thinking

and behavior took place during Thoreau’s lifetime (Bodily 1995; Diggins 1995; Neufeldt

1989). Historical economists have been particularly interested in Thoreau’s response to

these widespread public economic changes.3

In addition to his profound impact on the environmental movement, several 20th

century thinkers and social activists, including W.E.B. Dubois, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr., have named Thoreau as a substantial influence (Beck 1986;

Condry 1971; Editors of the Seven Arts 1962; Flaxman 1971; Hendrick 1959; Mukheijee

1971; Paul 1962). Several o f Thoreau’s works, such as “Civil Disobedience,” have been

instrumental in formulating the peaceful resistance ideology behind the movements of

Gandhi, King, and other national political reform and resistance movements in countries

such as Bulgaria, Holland, England, India and the United States.

2 Treatment of Thoreau by these disciplines will be addressed in chapter two.

3 Thoreau saw a number of social changes in his time, including broad increases in commerce, the expansion of the railroad and urban development, and an increase in scientific technology.

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Natural historians have focused on lesser-known aspects of Henry David

Thoreau’s intellectual life, such as his knowledge and use of science (McGregor 1997;

Walls 1995). These historians point out that Thoreau had an extensive understanding o f

science, including botany, engineering, phenology, zoology, geology and meteorology.

Thoreau was not only an ardent observer of nature, but was also very adept at

meticulously recording these observations in journals, as he developed and employed a

working scientific methodology over the course of his lifetime (Walls 1995).

Purpose of the Study

This section will state the underlying principles, logic and rationale of the

proposed research. I will begin by stating the research problem, a disparity in the

coverage and use of Thoreau. This will be followed by a discussion of the primary and

secondary hypotheses. A brief discussion of canonical criteria, including suggestions

from George Ritzer (2000a, 2002) and Mills (1959), as well as arguments against strict

canonical adherence, will follow. Finally, specific rationale and implications of carrying

out the research, including the need for a more active application of canonical criteria to

non-sociologists, an infusion of new theoretical life into sociological dialogue and the

exploration of Thoreau as a social thinker who linked Romanticism and Positivism, will

be discussed.

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The Research Problem

Despite wide coverage and use of Thoreau’s writings by a range of academic

disciplines, such as philosophy, political science, economics, environmental studies, and

American literature, sociology is dubiously silent about Henry David Thoreau. His

writings strike at the heart of socio-structural issues, such as work and leisure, equality,

individualism, the nature of humans and government. Additionally, his influence can be

traced to several modem social reform movements.4 Though his works seem to

demonstrate links to sociology, there has been no systematic exploration o f Thoreau's

writings from a sociological perspective to test the relevance o f his work to the field o f

sociology.

Hypothesis

In order to systematically test Thoreau’s relevance to sociology, two hypothesis

have been formulated. First, Thoreau possessed what C. Wright Mills called the

sociological imagination. Mills (1959) suggested several criteria to help us identify the

classic social analyst. The classic social analyst not only recognized the relationship

between history and biography, but was also concerned with the structure of society, its

components and their relation to each other, how particular societies differ from other

varieties of social order, and the meaning of social features for continuance and social

change. The classic social analyst also questioned what types of men and women prevail

in a particular society and in a particular period, as well as how these people were

4 Outside the U.S. and India, Thoreau is associated with other social movements, including Bulgaria, labor party movements in England and environmental movements in the United States.

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“formed, liberated and repressed, made sensitive and blunted” (Mills 1959, 7). These

analysts focused on what kinds of human nature were revealed in the conduct and

character that are observed in society.

If Thoreau was a poet, society was his muse. Kis writings speak to issues that are

core concerns of sociology, such as class, poverty, race, work and leisure, progress, world

commerce, democracy and autonomy, the individual and society, government, social

forces, and slavery. He was not only concerned with the intersection between history and

individual biography, but also focused heavily on components of society, such as

government, slavery and commerce, and the effects these components had on shaping the

types of people who existed in his time.

The second hypothesis is that Thoreau also possessed a particular approach to

social analysis. Thoreau engaged in an early form of evaluative sociology, injecting

moral concern in his societal analysis. He believed that the reason for social analysis was

to uncover rights and wrongs. This meant that social analysis was done with particular

goals in mind. In Thoreau’s approach, knowledge (gained from social analysis) and

action were inseparable. He believed that society had negative effects on humans and that

if individuals observed society and understood how it created barriers to our individual

development, they could understand themselves better and behave differently and more

productively in society. Such an approach is similar to Berger’s four “motifs,” which

entail skepticism and exploration of different classes and cultures.

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Rationale - Canonical Criteria and Omission

The broader rationale for testing the above stated hypotheses pertains to the

inclusion of thinkers in sociological thought and the use of particular criteria at the

expense of omitting certain other thinkers. Over the last century sociology has developed

into a field with a canon of seminal works and a collection of “founding” thinkers. It is

important to look at how such decisions are made. Some academics have proposed

criteria for deciding whom to address in the texts of sociological history and thought

(Gorak 2001; Journal of Classical Sociology 2001; Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley

1998; Mills 1959; Ritzer 2000a; Ritzer and Goodman 2002; Tucker 2001 ;).5 In his classic

work. The Sociological Imagination (1959), Mills defines not only the promise of

sociology as a discipline, but also the archetype of the classic social analyst. These

individuals possess unique abilities to “grasp the interplay of man and society.” Through

the use of their sociological imaginations, they can understand their own experiences and

the experiences of others by locating themselves within their own period. They are atuned

to how individuals, in the “welter of their own daily lives,” develop a false consciousness

of their own social positions (Mills 1959, 5).

These classic social analysts are concerned with the structure of a particular

society as a whole, including its key components and how it may differ from other

societies. They are also interested in where a society stands in human history, as well as

the mechanics by which it is changing. Classical social analysts also want to discover

5 Patricia Lengermann and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley have challenged a traditionally male dominated canon and criteria in their text The Women Founders: 1830-1930 (1998). Likewise, in their introduction to the reader The Blackwell Companion to Major Social Theorists (2002), George Ritzer and Douglas Goodman invite readers to share in developing a new, ever-evolving canon.

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what types of men and women prevail in a particular period. This includes asking what

kinds of human nature are revealed in the character observed in human society. These

questions, according to Mills (1959), are the ones that the best social analysts have asked.

Others have proposed similar criteria in deciding whom to address in the texts of

sociological history and thought. Ritzer’s (2000a) criteria for including theorists in his

text Classical Sociological Theory include those whose ideas have a wide range of

applications and who have played a central role in the development of sociology in

general, and sociological theory in particular. He also includes theorists who dealt with

centrally important social issues and who continue to be relevant to, and read by,

contemporary sociologists (Ritzer 2000a).6 In his book, Ritzer focuses on both

sociologists and non-sociologists whose works meet these criteria. However, he devotes

chapter nine to early female theorists, about whom he states:

Because their contributions are now only being recognized, they do not fit fully the profile of classical sociological theory outlined in the last few paragraphs.... they are classical thinkers who worked in the same time frame as the male theorists previously mentioned... .their theories have a wide range of applications and address centrally important issues... .They were either sociologists or non-sociologists whose work is coming to be seen as important in sociology... .one cannot say their work has stood the test of time as a result of discrimination, they were not widely read or influential in their time, let alone ours Nevertheless, they are included because of the belief that as their work is rediscovered [emphasis mine] and read their influence will grow in future years. (Ritzer 2000a, 5)

By using new criteria and exploring other theorists who have been overlooked, Ritzer,

along with other writers, has opened the canons of sociology for reconsideration. Indeed,

6 These theorists include Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber and George Simmel, among others.

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sociological curriculum examines the writings of many non-sociologists, social

philosophers and critics as precursors to the “classic social analyst.” For example, such

thinkers as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Baron de Montesquieu,

and Karl Marx, are used to explore the development of classical and modem sociological

thought. Despite the inclusion of these individuals within the historical canons of

sociology, many other thinkers remain unexamined. One reason for such inconsideration

may be “pigeonholing” or “labeling.”

Mills (1959) has made an argument against those who he claims do not deserve a

place in this canon. He stated that the qualities of the sociological imagination are

regularly demanded of the novelist and the artist. In fact, he admits that “literary men” as

critics and historians have made attempts to “characterize societies as a whole” and to

“discern their moral meanings” (Mills 1959,17). “Were [Alexis de] Toqueville and

[Hyppolyte Adolphe] Taine [a French critic and historian] alive today,” he asks, ’’would

they not be Sociologists” (Mills 1959, 17). In the absence of an “adequate social

science,” novelists and poets were often the only formulators of private troubles and

public issues, Mills believed. Yet, he argued that these individuals still remained

“literary” figures. Mills (1959, 17) attributed this fact to the public’s inability to

recognize “facts” or “adequate means of knowledge” in their works. Mills states:

Art does not and cannot formulate these feelings as problems containing the troubles and issues men must now confront if they are to overcome their uneasiness and indifference and the intractable miseries to which these lead. The artist, indeed, does not often try to do this. Moreover, the serious artist is himself in much trouble, and could well do with some intellectual and cultural aid from a social science made sprightly by the sociological imagination. (Mills 1959,18)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Such an argument demonstrates the need for the second hypothesis in testing the

relevance of Thoreau’s work to sociology. Many literary men and women have been

discounted from inclusion in the historical canons of sociology due to arguments similar

to Mills’. In his discussion of the promise of the sociological imagination he does not

address the utility of work that has been considered “literature,” nor does he engage in

any further analysis of the work of specific “literary” figures.

Flexible and Inflexible Canons in Sociology

Criteria, such as that which has been laid out by Mills, Ritzer and Berger, has

allowed sociologists as an academic community to decide who merits the title of classic

social analyst or precursor to such an analyst. However, a number of scholars have issued

caveats against inflexible use of criteria. They warn that what is considered “tradition”

changes over time as new ideas emerge and old ideas are rediscovered (Cain 2001). The

risk of a rigid canon selection, or a “timeless” list of social theorists, is that it can lead to

intellectual stagnation or a theoretical “straightjacket” (Hawthorn 2001; Ritzer and

Goodman 2002). The introduction of the Blackwell Companion to Major Social

Theorists, for example, states that it is a text meant to “be used as ‘canon fodder’ in an

open, contestable process of theory construction and reconstruction” (Ritzer and

Goodman 2002, 2). Clearly, some sociologists are aware of the risks of dogmaticism.

Since many within sociology are aware of the “unveiling” nature of the discipline, a

number of scholars and students are employing the necessary strategies to minimize the

intellectual dangers that a strict canon can encourage.

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Patricia Lengermann and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley (1998) make a strong case for

why methods of canonization must be scrutinized. They argue that the history of

sociology and its theories is not only told as a “history of white male agency,” but that

this history is a “social construction arising out of the discipline’s power arrangement”

and reflects “ongoing conflict between exclusionary and inclusionary values and

practices” (Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley 1998, 2). They also make the case that

inclusion in the canon, or even in the syllabus, is “more than an activity of selection”

(Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley 1998, 13). The result of selecting some theorists

(white males) and de-legitimating others (females engaged in applying social science to

social activism) leads to a “trend of scientism, power arrangements within the

sociological community or a politics of knowledge, patriarchal marginalization, and a

reworking of sociology’s intellectual record that created a clear patterning in sociology”

(Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley 1998). An expansion of the canon has several

effects:

The inclusion of the women founders within the canons of sociology’s history expands the possibilities for sociology’s future, giving us examples of what Lemert (1995) has called ‘extramural sociologists,’ that is, social theorists outside the academic professional code. Accepting this practice and possibility in our history makes it possible and practiceable for our present sociological community ‘to relinquish its rigid adherence to the traditional disciplinary standards’ and reach out to the contemporary extramural theorist... .What the ‘extramural’ social theorists, both past and present, most have in common is the ability to convey that that are actively engaged with the problems that matter to people in their immediate everyday lives. (Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley 1998, 310)

Reconsidering the canon and adopting a less rigid approach may result in new

possibilities for the future directions of sociology, a diversity of methodologies and

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approaches, and a return to issues which Mills (1959) and Lengermann and Niebrugge-

Brantley (1998) believe are most important to sociology — issues o f the immediate and

everyday life.

Conclusion

What makes a work more literary and less philosophical, or even less within the

realms of social science? Can a place be made for more “literary” writing within the

canons of sociology? Unless such questions are asked and specific examples tested, the

canons of sociology remain stagnant and thinkers who could provide new direction and

ideas for sociology will remain overlooked. In other words, “who else is waiting to be

discovered" and “what other women and men " had something "important to say about

sociology and social theory ” and await “our discovery to speak once more, adding to

sociology’s multiple meanings (Lengermann " and Niebrugge-Brantley 1998,312)?7

This section began with a review o f the research problem, a disparity in the

coverage and use of Thoreau within sociology. Two hypotheses were presented. These

issues were then placed within the larger debate over the use of a canon within sociology.

Criteria suggested by a number of theorists, including Ritzer, Mills and Berger, were

reviewed. The risks and benefits of rigid and inclusive canonical configurations were also

discussed. Finally, specific rationale and the implications of carrying out this particular

problem were suggested. Implications included a more active application of canonical

criteria to non-sociologists, an infusion of new theoretical life into sociological dialogue.

7 Emphasis mine.

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The next section will review Thoreauvian thought and influences, and how several

disciplines (philosophy, economics, ecology, social reform, science, literature and

sociology) cover and use Henry David Thoreau within their field-specific literature,

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LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will examine Henry David Thoreau’s intellectual lineage as it is

linked to thinkers used within sociological theory, and will review the use of Thoreau’s

work by several academic fields, including sociology. Beginning with schools of thought

such as Romanticism and Transcendentalism, and individuals such as Immanuel Kant and

Jean Jacques Rousseau, a link between Thoreau’s ideas and sociology will be made.

Thoreau’s fusion of Romanticism and Positivism, through his Transcendental and

scientific methods of knowing, will be discussed. A review and assessment of multiple

disciplines’ coverage of Thoreau will follow. This will include an explanation of the

ways in which the fields of literature, science, natural history, philosophy, political

science, economics, social reform and environmental studies have used Thoreau’s ideas.

Specific discussion of how sociology has used Thoreau will be followed by an

exploration of the issue of canonization within sociology. Based on Henry David

Thoreau’s clear intellectual lineage to thinkers used in sociology, a relation in his works

to sociological topics evidenced by coverage of Thoreau in a number of other disciplines

and the void in the available sociological literature, a case will be presented for why this

project was conducted.

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The Branches of Thoreau’s Intellectual Lineage

Many of Thoreau’s concerns, such as methods of knowing, the state of nature, the

relationship of the individual to society, and the effects of society on the individual, can

be traced to earlier thinkers within the development of sociological theory. He was

profoundly influenced by the Romantic and Transcendental movements, which had their

roots in Rousseau, Kant and David Hume (Richardson 1986). Thoreau also reacted to the

works of Adam Smith, and much of his protest to the Wealth o f Nations (1776) can be

found in the first, and longest, chapter of Walden. The links between all of these thinkers

and Thoreau, including a focus on the individual, methods of deriving the characteristics

of natural man, an interest in studying primitive people and a focus on self-realization,

will be discussed in detail in this section.

While Thoreau held steadfast to many of the tenets of the Romantic movement, he

was intrigued by and experimented with the scientific methods that the Enlightenment

had brought forth. He was impressed with the works o f Charles Darwin, and had an

appreciation for measurement and mechanics (Richardson 1986). In fact, his use of social

observation and note-taking demonstrates that he was “almost there” in terms of adopting

a social science methodology. This section will also discuss in detail Thoreau’s use of

scientific methods in looking at both nature and society.

Romanticism and its Forefathers

Thoreau is most often considered a Transcendentalism but it is important to

recognize that Transcendentalism was heavily influenced by Romanticism. As a

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movement, Romanticism emerged in reaction to the Enlightenment’s focus on rationality

and order by espousing subjectivity, passion, imagination, individualism, emotion over

reason, and sense over intellect (Glick 1990). To the Romantics faith and intuition were

essential to understanding society, and any knowledge gained from the spiritual realm

had the same validity as scientific knowledge (Zeitlin 1997). The movement brought a

strong shift from objective to subjective methods of knowing. Many of the thinkers

within the movement saw nature as a source of knowledge of the primitive, and they were

quick to advocate for liberty, as well as intellectual and spiritual revolution (Reuben

2002). Hume’s criticism of the universe as a series of cause-effect relationships,

Rousseau’s focus on the moral will, creativity and conscience, and Kant’s view of

transcendental logic laid the groundwork for the Romantic movement (Zeitlin 1997).

Kant believed that the mind was, by nature, a creative and active entity which

played a role in sensory experience, and he wanted to free the mind from its dependence

on external sources for knowledge (Zeitlin 1997). Kant’s move from the objective to the

subjective was an effort to squelch the emphasis in the Enlightenment on determinism,

which did not allow for human creativity (Jones 1969). It was also a reaction to Locke’s

conception of the human mind as passive. Kant held to a ‘Transcendental logic,” that

knowledge was found in the subjectiveness of human thinking, rather than the objects of

experience.

Rousseau focused on criticizing modernity. He was primarily concerned with the

idea of “natural man” and the methods used to deduce his characteristics, conceptions of

culture and society, the origins and consequences of society, and the possibilities of

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social change (Zeitlin 1997). To Rousseau, like the Romantics, freedom was fundamental

and the perfection of the individual was possible. First, however, it was necessary for

individuals to understand the laws o f nature in order to fit the most appropriate social

order to natural law. Since Rousseau believed that humans in nature were void of social

and cultural traits, he wanted to devise a method to determine what “natural man” was

like. Rousseau believed this method would guide the process o f change (Zeitlin 1997).

His methods included studying primitive people and observing animals in their natural

habitat (Zeitlin 1997). In contrast to thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes and John Locke,

Rousseau believed that it was civil society, not nature, that gave rise to problems and war.

Humans in civil society had become dependent on others in many ways, including living

in the opinion of others (Glendon 1999). Rousseau believed that human needs were

simple; therefore, few resources, including property, were needed. He argued that a

perfect balance would be one in which needs and resources were equal.

Transcendentalism

The ideas of Kant and Rousseau were brought to Thoreau through

Transcendentalism by way of Romanticism. Transcendentalism began as a reform-

oriented movement that rose from the secularization of modem thought under the impact

of science and technology, and as a reaction to the rationalist, conservative institutions

that Unitarianism and Calvinism had become (Frederick 1998; Reuben 2002). The term

was first mentioned in Kant’s Critique o f Pure Reason (1971), and it created a new era in

metaphysical thought (Richardson 1986). Kant believed all knowledge was

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transcendental and concerned not with objects, but with the mode of knowing objects

(Hampson 1997). Transcendentalists believed in the reliability of the human conscience,

and they argued that God was present in the souls of all. Therefore, Transcendentalism

can be seen as an expression of American democracy, because it held that all men and

women had an equal chance of experiencing God directly, regardless of wealth or social

status (Frederick 1998). Since Transcendentalists were more politically active than many

of the other writers of their time, their ideas threatened social institutions, such as the

church (Richardson 1986).

Rueben (2002) has pointed out several of the foci, influences and effects of the

transcendental movement. Transcendentalists stressed the present moment, self-reliance

and human thinking, and the idea that one could transcend or rise above lower animalistic

impulses and move from rational to the spiritual realm. Basic assumptions and agreed-

upon premises include: (1) the intuitive faculty, rather than the rational or sensical,

became the means for conscious union of the individual psyche with the world psyche,

(2) an individual is the spiritual center of the universe and in the individual can be found

the clue to nature, history and the cosmos, (3) the structure of the universe duplicates the

structure of the individual, and (4) individual virtue and happiness depend on self-

realization, which depends on desires to (a) embrace the whole world and become one

with it and (b) withdraw to remain unique and separate (Reuben 2002).

Rueben (2002) also points out that influences came from: (1) Plato’s idealism

according to which reality subsists beyond appearances of the world, (2) Immanuel i I Kant’s notion of native spontaneity of the human mind, rather than the passive

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conception of Locke and Hume’s empirical views of knowledge development, and (3)

Coleridge’s importance of wonder, anti-rationalism and individual consciousness.

Transcendentalism was a philosophy of individualism aimed at reform and the self-reliant

citizen who was independent. As a result, a number of the followers within the movement

o focused on many of the great issues of the time. They believed that through self-

education, contemplation, meditation, reflection and observation, a greater consciousness

of ultimate reality could be attained (Frederick 1998). Transcendentalists expressed their

philosophy through lecturing and a broad range of social reform activities (Wilson 1998).

The New England Transcendentalists stressed individual autonomy and freedom, not

social isolation, and much of their work brought their members into society, rather than

out of society (Richardson 1986).

Romanticism, in its English and German forms, influenced the Transcendental

movement heavily. The Romantics’ intense celebration of the individual led to a

preoccupation in poetry, visual arts and music, in order to communicate the personal

experience in a representative manner (Hampson 1997). Common tenets in Romanticism

and transcendentalism included: concern for the common man, renewed interest in folk

culture, revolution of feeling against form, carving out new forms of expression and

thought, and nature as a constant companion, teacher and dynamic presence (Hampson

1997).

8 Emerson, Thoreau and Frederick Douglass wrote and spoke often on the issues of slavery, education and commerce. Other Transcendentalist members, such as Hawthorne and Whitman injected political and moral imperatives into their literature.

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The Fruit of Thoreau’s Lineage

We can see strong parallels between Kant, Rousseau, Romanticism,

Transcendentalism, and Thoreau’s concerns; these links have been demonstrated by a

number of scholars (Richardson 1986; Worley 2001). Thoreau’s emphasis on subjective

and intuitive knowledge, his consideration o f the state of nature, including his methods of

stripping away “civil man” to find natural man, his staunch defense of the individual and

the effect of society on the individual can be traced back to Kant and Rousseau through

the Transcendentalist and Romantic movements.

Thoreau, Transcendentalism and Romanticism

Thoreau took from Romanticism and Transcendentalism the focus on individual

consciousness and action, emphasis on spontaneity and wonder, especially with nature, a

concern with methods of knowing, and a call for social reform. He was also concerned

with self-realization, as his philosophy of reform began with self-examination.

Thoreauvian works such as “Walking” (1862) demonstrate his spiritual and scientific

appreciation of nature (Stabb 2001). “Civil Disobedience” explores the right and

obligation to follow one’s conscience and why the individual must often dissent from

society. In Walden he attempted to deduce natural man, and explored what it means to

live well, the effects of society on humans and the complex beauties of nature. He exerted

his extreme individualism and love of freedom and liberty in “Slavery in Massachusetts,”

where he attacked the government’s support of slavery. In works such as Cape Cod

(1865) and The Maine Woods (1864) he chronicled his travel deep into nature and his

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search for true wilderness and Indians, as well as the common sense and mysteries which

could be found in nature (Lenat 2001).

The centrality of Thoreau’s thought and work was aimed at advocating

individuality. He believed that independent action developed from a questioning attitude

of the mind (Witherall and Dubrulle 1999). It was through individual reflection that one

could understand how society, which in Thoreau’s time was a growing industrial and

commercial society, impeded individual development and understanding. Only by ridding

the self of the many negative influences of society and by going back to one’s inherent

nature, could one improve the world in which one lived.

Thoreau and Rousseau

The are several of links between the ideas of Jean Jacques Rousseau and Thoreau.

Both focused on natural man and the methods used to deduce his characteristics. They

were also both interested in conceptions of culture and society, the origins and

consequences of society and possibilities of social change. Both also believed that in

order to obtain self- realization it was necessary to first understand the laws of nature.

Just as Rousseau saw the study of primitive people and the behavior of animals as a

method of insight into natural man, Thoreau studied the American Indian and even

recorded and analyzed the behavior of animals in Walden. Rousseau rejected the Lockean

idea that property was important, and Thoreau certainly agreed with this notion: “Most of

the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but

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positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind” ( Walden 269). It was civil society,

according to both thinkers, that gave rise to problems (Glendon 1999; Zeitlin 1997).

Thoreau and Smith

Due to the rapid economic and technological progress that was occurring during

his lifetime, Thoreau became interested in how the ideas of economists were changing the

world. Richardson (1986) has explored this interest, particularly as Thoreau developed it

in reaction to the work of Adam Smith. He points out that Thoreau was not interested in

the wealth of nations as much as he was in the wealth of individuals. In addition, much of

“Economy,” the first chapter of Walden, is “an application of Smith’s ideas and

terminology to the individual case” (Richardson 1986,167). Richardson (1986, 168)

argues that Thoreau agreed with Smith on several issues covered in Walden, such as the

idea that productive labor was the basis of wealth and that labor was the standard by

which value can be estimated. However, Thoreau’s agreement with Smith ends there.

Richardson (1986) goes on to explain that Thoreau disagreed with Smith on issues such

as the definition of true wealth and the desirability of division of labor:

Smith is all for this division [of labor], of course, since specialization increases production, but this is precisely the point at which Tlioreau — like Emerson before him — draws the line. From the division comes dehumanization and alienation. Thoreau’s whole experiment at Walden is a protest against the dogma that the division of labor is beneficial to the individual. Where Smith wanted to see consumption maximized, Thoreau wanted to see it minimized and simplified. (Richardson 1986, 168)

Much of Walden explores the economics of daily life through prescriptions of

simplification and the experiment of self-sufficiency in maintaining life’s necessities,

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such as food, clothing and shelter. In addition to these extended arguments for

simplification in personal lifestyle, much of Thoreau’s work derails the societal changes

that were a result of the capitalistic economic structure as it was evolving in the mid-

1800’s.

The influences of theorist, such as Kant, Rousseau and Smith, and schools of

thought, such as Romanticism and Transcendentalism, intellectually link Thoreau to the

development of sociological theory. Specifically, these influences can be traced to

Thoreau’s emphasis on subjective and intuitive knowledge, his consideration of the state

of nature, including his methods of stripping away “civil man” to find natural man, his

staunch defense of the individual, his view of the effects of society, including its

capitalist structure, and his recognition of a need for social reform. While many of

Thoreau’s ideas can be traced to the Romantic movement, he was also intrigued by the

one of the Enlightenment’s most innovative products — science.

Thoreau as Scientist

Thoreau has been characterized as “poet-naturalist,” “staunch individualist,”

“anti-materialist,” Romantic, reformer and Transcendentalist (Richardson 1986;

Witherall and Dubrulle 1999; Worley 2001). His two most well-known activities, the stay

at Walden pond and the night spent in jail which became the basis for “Civil

Disobedience,” represent Transcendentalist ideology in action. However, he was also a

land surveyor, pencil maker, and keen observer of natural phenomena, particularly as he

became interested in seeing life in more scientific terms (Friesen 1999). Newer

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interpretations of his work have found him very interested in, though eventually

disappointed with, science and its methodologies (Botkin 2001; Walls 1995; Witherall

and Dubrulle 1999).

While Transcendentalism was opposed to science, Thoreau was fascinated by

technology and often used science to illuminate his ideas and writings (Baym 1965;

Witherall and Dubrulle 1999). He became interested in the abilities of science to express

thoughts and provide "sight," or to give voice to all phenomena. He also became

occupied with creating a new way of knowing by integrating several disciplines into a

synthesized approach. Laura Walls (1995, 11) believes that this was an attempt to "give

voice to all agents that created the world he knew, human and non-human, present, future

and past” and to “reach a connective truth through the commonplace particulars of daily

life in a place exemplary only in its ordinariness.” Thoreau’s ideas on this mission are

clear throughout his writings:

Every man tracks himself through life, in all his hearing and reading and observation and traveling. His observations make a chain. The phenomena or fact that cannot in any wise be linked with the rest which he has observed, he does not observe. (Thoreau Journal XIII77-78)

This interest in the particulars o f daily life and how each person observed and traced their

own life strongly links his purposes for using science and observation to the wonder and

intrigue with the place and biography of the sociological imagination.

Such objectives lead Thoreau to engage in a number of different scientific

activities. He studied "mechanics, astronomy, optics, and electricity under the rubric of

natural philosophy" (Walls 1995,6). He also measured and recorded countless natural

phenomena, such as water depth, and collected and labeled species, using the "details of

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rural nature (and country) into explorations of perception, epistemology, economy and

morality" in exploring the "daily sustenance and ongoing chaotic processes of life"

(Walls 1995, 5). Thoreau engaged in a number of activities using the systematic methods

he had learned from science, including a detailed study of Indian culture and history. By

the time of his death he had taken thousands of notes on Indians, including accounts from

visitors, travelers, explorers and missionaries, in an effort to compile “the first scientific

account of an Indian tribe” (Richardson 1986, 222). He spent time taking field notes on

their cooking methods, canoes, and trap construction.

Recognition of the scientific facets of Thoreau’s work has only recently been

discussed. Nancy Baym (1965) suggests that there are three readings of Thoreau and his

relation to science. The ecological view holds that Thoreau was an ecologist before

ecology emerged, but this view ignores clear anti-scientific bias in his writing. The

humanist view argues that Thoreau was opposed to science, but turned to it in a loss of

inspiration. The symbolist view contends that Thoreau was always a poet and never a

scientist. Baym (1965) argues that Thoreau was a Transcendentalist and a scientist

simultaneously, and that Thoreau saw the job of a scientist as learning nature well enough

to anticipate it. However, Thoreau soon learned that such precision was impossible, and

as science came to eliminate the personality and capacities of the investigator from

investigation, Thoreau became disenchanted with the increased objectivity and decreased

subjectivity:

I think that the man of science makes this mistake, and the mass of mankind along with him: that you should coolly give your chief attention to a phenomena which excites you as something independent of you, and not as it relates to you. (Thoreau Journal X164-165)

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Baym (1965) uses this quote to argue that for Thoreau the meaning of every fact was the

purpose that it served in human education, and that there was no way to know the

significance o f a fact if we do not allow our response to the fact to enter into our

observations.

Thoreau was close to adopting the methods of a modem sociological approach to

studying society. Methodologically, he used historical-comparative methods in writings

about different groups of people, including the American Indians. He also employed

science in exploring nature, and used his observations o f society for his writings on

slavery, government and capitalism. All of these interests, concerns and activities suggest

not only a sociological imagination, but also an evaluative approach to analyzing society.

As reviewed above, Thoreau was concerned with many of the questions Mills listed as

criteria of the classic social analyst. His approach to exploring these issues was not only

to provide individuals with tools to operate autonomously, but also to unveil the illusions

of society and change the social order, all marks of an evaluative, critical social scientist.

Thoreau’s intellectual lineage has been linked to the development of sociological

theory through Kant, Rousseau and Smith, as well as Transcendentalism and

Romanticism. His interests in using science to illuminate social and natural phenomena,

anticipate nature and understand the particulars of daily life have also been covered. The

ways in which various academic disciplines have employed Thoreauvian thought within

their fields will now be explored.

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How the Fields Treat Thoreau

The literature reviewed thus far has demonstrated that Thoreau was concerned

with issues of society and was familiar with methodologies needed to engage in

systematic study of natural phenomena. An important question that must be raised at this

point, given Thoreau’s interest in economics, politics, science and reform, is which fields

have addressed his works. This section will explore the recognition of Thoreau

domestically and abroad. This will be followed by a review of how several fields use

Thoreau: economics, political theory, philosophy, environmental studies, ecology, social

reform, literature and sociology. The gap in the sociological literature, as well as the

manner in which this project attempted to bridge that gap, will be discussed in the closing

of this section.

The growth of Henry David Thoreau’s reputation has been considered an

American phenomena, given the fact that few of his books sold while he was alive and

that many discounted him as an imitator of Emerson (Tempe 1971). Widespread interest

in his books after his death began with an increased interest in natural history and nature

writings among the general public. Thoreau’s 1890 biographer, Henry Salt, who worked

to popularize Thoreau’s writings outside of the United States, predicted that if Thoreau

“is a good deal misrepresented at present, time will set that right” (Salt 1968, 197). Salt’s

prediction has come to fruition, even if this interest has been limited only to certain fields

outside of literature.

Thoreau is recognized primarily for his contributions to American literature. His

works, such as Walden, The Maine Woods, and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack

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Rivers, remain influential as exemplary depth-filled descriptions of nature, and of

biographical travel writing (Van Doren Stem 1971). Yet, Thoreau’s writings have also

been recognized as influential works of political philosophy, economic and ecological

thought, and social reform. Thoreauvian thought is often covered in survey courses of

American philosophy, political science and environmental studies at a number of schools,

such as Amherst College, Yale University and Depaul University. In fact, regarding

Thoreau’s reach, literary columnist Jonathan Yardley, editor and book reviewer for The

Washington Post, states: “From libertarians to the civil rights marchers, the right wings to

the vegetarians, almost every organized (and unorganized) American ism has found

something to its taste in Walden, so wide is the net it casts” (Yardley 1985, 24).

Thoreau’s ideas have been adopted by all sides of all debates, and are often

misinterpreted, missing or incomplete. Buell (1995b) states that Thoreau has been

canonized as a natural historian, pioneer ecologist and environmentalist, social analyst,

and anarchistic political theorist. Now, this canonization will be reviewed.

Economics, Politics and Philosophy

Thoreau’s concerns for (1) the relationship between the social order and the

nature of man, (2) the tensions between liberty and employment, (3) the means by which

a new social order can be created, (4) the character of the self, (5) the grounding of moral

agency and (6) the nature of knowledge have gained attention in ethical, economic and

political philosophy (Abbot 1995; Tauber 2001; Walker 1998). Within economics,

Thoreau’s works have been mined not only for his discourse on work and leisure, but also

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for the historical fact that a great deal of transformation of economic thinking and

behavior took place during his lifetime (Bodily 1995; Diggins 1972; Neufeldt 1989).

Historical economists have been particularly interested in Thoreau’s response to these

widespread changes. They have focused on Thoreau’s coverage of the tensions between

liberty and employment in times of economic change, and how this tension could

undermine the autonomy of the individual laborer (Walker 1998). Thoreau was well

aware of the changes that were taking place in his time, such as the transformation of

infrastructure, rise of the media, and the changes in working conditions. As a result, he

saw employment as the “most practically important of all questions” (Thoreau 1951,

106). Work was central to Thoreau in the emerging society, and he believed that how one

dealt with the issue determined a great deal of that individual’s life.

Thoreau’s concern with employment, particularly in Walden, has also been

covered by a number of political theorists. Several of these theorists point out that

Walden should be considered political theory because of its central focus on liberty for

citizens within modem market democracies (Neufeldt 1989; Walker 1998). In Walden,

Thoreau stated that the current political system, at the level of employment, had produced

few benefits over feudalist systems in Europe. Walker (1998) points out Thoreau’s four

arguments regarding the tensions between democracy, autonomy and employment. First,

to be truly free meant to have time to figure out what one wanted to do and then having

the ability to do it. Thoreau, however, believed the laboring individual had no time to be

anything other than a machine. Second, conditions of employment contracted the self and

created a barrier to the intellectual autonomy needed to enact liberty. Third, seeking

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success in terms of the current work environment meant accepting public opinion about

the definitions of good living. Finally, a preoccupation with commerce and agriculture

resulted in the neglect o f humanity. Such arguments are similar to another political

economist’s view of the effects of the capitalist system on the workers within it: Karl

Marx.

Throughout Walden, Thoreau focused on enacting democracy in the economy of

everyday activity, and the implications of this for work and leisure. Both economists and

social reformers have been interested in exactly how Thoreau worked out such tension.

Leonard Neufeldt (1989) has written on Thoreau’s work as democratic self-cultivation

literature, pointing out that Thoreau saw democratic citizenship in contradiction with

enterprise and the work structure of his time. Thoreau highlighted this in Walden by

discussing how the conditions of employment undermine the autonomy of individuals.

Walker (1998) believes that Thoreau’s prescription of practices to offset the economic

barriers to autonomy is actually an alternative household economics. These instructions

included thought experiments to clarify one’s fundamental needs, ways to prevent the

effects of public opinion, and household accounting methods. Thoreau also offered

lessons on how to avoid economic dependency and exploitation in social relations, ways

of approaching nature that would allow one to view it as more than just a tool for human

needs, and dietary strategies to promote some of the above suggestions (Walker 1998).

These prescriptions have been of particular interest to scholars, as they not only suggest a

“here and now” approach to living, but also demonstrate how to avoid the negative

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aspects of modem living, while adopting some of the positive characteristics of

modernity (Walker 1998).

A focus on self-exploration is just one of the themes of Thoreau’s work that has

attracted the attention of philosophy. Tauber (2001) has reviewed the coverage of

Thoreau within the field of philosophy and makes several arguments in regards to

Thoreau and his use of philosophy. First, Thoreau engaged “key philosophical issues of

his time, including fragmentation of experience and the elusive epistemological character

of our identity” (Tauber 2001,4). Second, time was central to Thoreau’s ontology and

experience, particularly the individual’s enslavement to conventional time. Third, the self

was of central concern to Thoreau, particularly the self as knower and the self as a moral

character. Underlying Thoreau’s idea of selfhood was primacy of the individual agency,

the character o f self-determination and moral demand for free action (Tauber 2001). In

tracing the metaphysics of the self, Thoreau wanted to integrate aesthetic, spiritual, and

scientific faculties to forge a synthesis of diverse experiences and disparate knowledge

(Tauber 2001). He was also intensely concerned with morality, and he challenged the

reader at the level of “moral reckoning.” In other words, by announcing his view, he

demanded that individuals confront their own values, resulting in “expressiveness of the

self’ and a “dialogue with one’s own moral personalities” (Tauber 2001,10).

Environmental Studies and Ecology

Thoreau has also been portrayed as a champion of the environment.

Environmentalists have long seen Thoreau’s work as “environmental” text and as a new

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way of understanding humanity’s relation to nature (Buell 1995). His work explores such

issues as the relationship between nature, the environment and civilization, particularly as

this relationship has evolved in capitalist societies (Botkin 2001).

Daniel Botkin (2001), an ecologist, believes that Thoreau addressed some of the

most important questions in modem environmental studies. These include asking what a

person’s connections with nature can be, both physically and spiritually, and asking what

is, and what ought to be, the connection between civilization and the environment.

Thoreau had a method in his life and work that provided a good approach to the

knowledge of nature in a time of societal and technological transition. These

technological transitions often led to new views of nature. Botkin (2001) sees Thoreau’s

life as a metaphor for a path to nature-knowledge and a resolution of questions about

humanity’s relationship with the natural world. He argues that through Thoreau’s life

activities he began to ask the questions that individuals need to ask themselves. One of

the questions Botkin (2001) believes that must be raised, and that Thoreau began to

address, is the issue o f whether western civilization and nature are compatible. Thoreau

focused on valid ways of knowing nature, as he employed both an intuitive and scientific

view of nature. He also pointed out the importance of nature to civilization:

The civilized nations- Greece, Rome and England- have been sustained by the primitive forest which anciently rotted where they stand. They survive as long as the soil is note exhausted little is to be expected of a nation when the vegetable mould is exhausted and it is compelled to make manure of the bones of its fathers. There the poet sustains himself on his own superfluous fat, and the philosopher comes down on his marrow-bones. (Thoreau “Walking” 614)

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Botkin (2001) sees in Thoreau’s work an ethic that nature is necessary for the best

civilization, and nature without civilization has no meaning for human beings.

In his book The Environmental Imagination, Lawrence Buell (1995b) explores

Thoreau, nature writing and the American culture. He argues that Thoreau’s Walden

project is a model of western sensibility processing through the constraints of Euro

centric, androcentric and homocentric culture to arrive at a vision that is environmentally

responsive (Buell 1995b). In discussing Thoreau’s rise within the environmental

movement, Buell (1995b) points out several uses of Thoreau within ecology,

environmental studies and natural science. Starting in the 1940’s with the rise of

ecological biology came an increase in the use of Thoreau’s field observations. Many

scholars also began to explore Thoreau’s epistemology of nature, which has been

investigated by juxtaposing Thoreau as empiricist with Emerson’s idealism (Porte 1992).

Some also focused on Thoreau’s “shifting stance toward nature” against a backdrop of

Romantic self-consciousness, and the phenomenology of the perceptual structures in

terms of which Thoreau saw nature (McIntosh 1974). The idea o f Thoreau as

environmentalist-prophet also emerged particularly because Thoreau saw that “American

capitalism was set on a course that would ultimately ravage all wild nature on the

continent— perhaps even in the world” (Merton 1970,40).

Quite relevant to this project, Buell (1995b) is interested not only in Thoreau’s

status as an icon of environmental consciousness, but also as one of the first writers to be

added to the American literary canon after the late 19th century. In his analysis of

Thoreau’s canonization, he posits that canons are indispensable for discourse on text-

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centered fields, as long as they are subject to change. Buell (1995b) claims that the

reinvention of the old first canon image of Thoreau has been defined by cultural and

social historians, eco-philosophers, concerned scientists and environmental activists,

rather than literature specialists.

Social Reform

Thoreau wrote a number of reform-oriented works, including “Civil

Disobedience,” “Slavery in Massachusetts,” “A Plea for Captain John Brown,” “The Last

Days of Captain John Brown,” “Life without Principle,” ‘The Service” (1902), “Paradise

(to be) Regained” (1843), Walden and “Reform and Reformers” (1866). Many of these

writings have been used as a call for environmental reform, self-reform and political

reform. Both abroad and domestically, figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, W.E.B. DuBois

and Martin Luther King, Jr., embraced Thoreau’s ideas of civil disobedience. Although

he was interested in the reformation and renewal of society, organized reformers and

professional reform usually “rubbed Thoreau the wrong way” (Richardson 1986,104).9

To Thoreau, mass reform movements began at the wrong end — he was more interested in

beginning with self-reform.

In reference to this self-reform, Lemer (1962) points out that Thoreau’s

individualism can easily be overemphasized: Thoreau was more interested in solving the

problems of living in the world than going about drastically changing it. However, he did

lecture and write against slavery, particularly when the Fugitive Slave Law was passed in

9 Thoreau’s skepticism of preachers and other prophets, religious and political, is clearly displayed in his essay “Life without Principle.” This will be discussed in chapters four and five.

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1850, requiring northern law enforcement officials to capture and return runaway slaves.

He also helped some runaway slaves and ardently defended radical abolitionist John

Brown (Beck 1986). His value of individual action can be seen in his own lifestyle:

In a period when men were on the move, he remained still; when men were on the make, he remained poor; when civil disobedience broke out in the lawlessness of the cattle thief and the mining town rowdy, by sheer neglect, Thoreau practiced Civil disobedience as a principle, in protest against the Mexican war, the fugitive slave law and slavery itself. (Mumford 1962, 13)

Such action in word and deed has inspired and influenced a number of people. Paul

(1962) points out that it is not only important to understand who influenced Thoreau, but

also whom Thoreau has influenced, especially those significant personalities who have

influenced modem civilization with their ideas and actions. While Thoreau’s essays had

little impact on the 19th century, in the 20th century, his works have became a manual for

social protest (Beck 1986).

Thoreau’s domestic and international influences have been well documented.

Gandhi’s “Satyagraha” put civil disobedience in action in India and South Africa (Beck

1986; Paul 1962). Some argue that by his influence on Gandhi, Thoreau had a hand in the

making of modem India (Mukherjee 1971). Martin Luther King, Jr. was impressed with

Thoreau’s idea that one individual can set a moral revolution in motion, and King used

many of the techniques of civil disobedience in the civil rights movements (Beck 1986;

Paul 1962). Tolstoy read Thoreau closely and questioned why more Americans did not

pay attention to him in the midst of the extreme capitalist spirit in the United States

(Krzyzanowski 1971). Thoreau has also been influential on Benton McKaye, an

environmental philosopher who started the Appalachian Trail, the sociologist David

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Riesman (author of The Lonely Crowd), and W.E.B. DuBois, as well as radical

movements in Bulgaria, and the Netherlands (Bakratcheva 1993; Paul 1962). In England,

the early socialists took up Walden, which influenced such Victorian Era writers as

Edward Carpenter. Henry Salt, the English biographer who popularized Thoreau in

England, greatly influenced the socialist, anarchist and humanitarian movements of

England, and was friends with Gandhi, George Bernard Shaw, G.K. Chesterton and

William Morris. These individuals protested against prison conditions, corporal

punishment, and racism (Condry 1971). In Holland, Thoreau’s influence on the author

Frederik van Eden, one of the most famous figures in Dutch literature, encouraged van

Eden to take up the socialist movement, establishing colonies called the Society for

Community Ownership of Land (Flaxman 1971). In fact, it was Thoreau’s popularity

within literary activist circles that helped to increase his broader popularity within the

general public.

This powerful influence has been perceived as threatening at times. Many saw

Thoreau as a “conscientious objector” to all things traditional and customary in his

withdrawal into Walden. Even the U.S. government recognized the power of Thoreau’s

writings:

When in the mid-1950’s, the United States Information Service included as a standard book in all their libraries around the world a textbook of American literature which reprinted Thoreau’s ‘Civil Disobedience’, the late Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin succeeded in having that book removed from the shelves- specifically because of the Thoreau essay. (Harding 1968, 10)

Suspicion of Thoreau’s work can be found in his critique of American government.

Thoreau was put under house arrest and then sent to jail for not paying his poll tax. This

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incident led to the essay “Civil Disobedience,” in which he attacked the American

government and laid out the duties of a citizen when moral law conflicts with government

law. In fact, Thoreau’s influence on social reform is, in part, due to his ability to reach

those grappling with the issue of tyrannical governing law, and the rights and duties of

these individuals in relation to this government (Hendrick 1959). Thoreau’s work speaks

to applied issues of the human condition:

But in spite of everything, he has never quite lost his tenacious grip on our imagination. Is it because of the conscientious objector in him, which our indeterminate and facile democracy has always found it hard to forgive? At bottom, we love self discipline, we love obstacles, we love austerity, and Thoreau is a perpetual reminder, the most vivid reminder our history affords us, that it is the toughness, the intransigence of the spiritual unit which alone gives us democracy. (Editors of the Seven Arts 1962, 12)

This “grip on our imagination” was the means by which Thoreau was first introduced to

the public, primarily through his ability to capture and articulate the details of life and

nature in written word. I will now turn to Thoreau’s recongnition as a quintessential

literary figure.

Literature and Thoreau

Thoreau’s works have been most widely examined by authors and critics in the

field of literature. Walden is now regarded as among the masterpieces of American

literature (Wood Krutch 1981). Some literary critics have focused on the themes of

Thoreau’s ideas, such as enjoyment of life, relation of man to nature, and spiritual

awakening. However, most concentrate on the style, structure and language use in

Thoreau’s works (Anderson 1964; Drake 1962a; Van Doren Stem 1970). William Drake

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(1962a) argues that it is necessary to approach Thoreau as an artist. Others make a similar

claim:

Walden is more than a social protest, although it is that too. It is an autobiography, a venture into philosophy and a book about nature. Most of all, it is a work of literature- and a supremely good one, one of America’s best. (Van Doren Stem 1970, 5)

In The Magic Circle o f Walden (1968), Anderson claims that the style of Walden is even

more important than its content. He argues for reading Walden as a poem, assuming that

its meaning lies not in its logic, but in its language, images and symbolism.

Most literary critics show a similar interest in the style and structure of Thoreau’s

work. Of particular importance to these critics is Thoreau’s use of metaphors, symbolism,

language use, imagery and descriptions (Anderson 1964; Drake 1962a; Paul 1962; Van

Doren Stem 1970). These critics argue that it is only when we look beyond for the

implied and respond to the symbolism, suggestion and association, that we can reach the

central parts of Walden (Van Doren Stem 1970). Thoreau’s use of “pithy, original and

memorable phrases” and intensely personal messages set him apart from other writers of

the 19th century (Van Doren Stem 1970,6). He is well recognized for his ability to

articulate his themes and ideas in text form:

the most important cause of Thoreau’s lasting success is his power over words. At his best he is a superb writer, one of those shapers of language who give age-old ideas their final form. Thanks to this, his sentences and paragraphs escape from the dead hands of time. (Canby 1939, 28)

He integrated thought and experience, speculation, storytelling and concrete fact with

imagery of animals, leaves, and journeys (Anderson 1964; Drake 1962a).

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The use of metaphor and imagery in Thoreau’s work not only receives the most

attention from critics, but was Thoreau’s primary means of paralleling human experience

with analogous facts in nature (Drake 1962b). Walden Pond “lies at the center” as a

symbol of the purity and harmony that is unattainable, yet yearned for by humans

(Anderson 1968, 18). Drake (1962b) points out that Thoreau’s use of metaphor relays

total experience, not just intellectual, and allowed him to exploit common objects he

observed. For example, the river in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers serves

as a metaphor for Thoreau’s thought and exploration (Drake 1962b). Spring-winter and

moming-nighttime dichotomies represent reform, consciousness, spiritual sleep and

awakening. The effect of exploring such relations is self-realization:

The strategic metaphor in Walden becomes the exploration of one’s own life surroundings, because only here has the centrality of the focus from which to lay out measurements in all directions. One finds himself wherever he is by finding where he is. Walden Pond is not only as deep as one’s self, deepening on the extent of its service to the imagination; for nature provides the only trustworthy measure of man. The mind of man thrives and develops by meeting and coming to term with the world he lives in. The metaphor in Thoreau’s hands is shaped to express that relationship. Self-discovery is thus linked with discovery of facts outside oneself. (Drake 1962a, 91)

This exploration of relationships -- such as humans to nature, self to society, inward

realization to outward realization, and worker to economy — is the primary concern of

philosophers, economists, and political theorists who analyze Thoreau’s work. Literary

critics, however, are more concerned with the manner in which Thoreau articulated such

concepts, such as his style, language and imagery.

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Sociology and Thoreau

Despite wide coverage of Thoreau’s writings by a range of academic disciplines,

which attests to his transdisciplinary approach to studying the world, sociology is

dubiously silent about Henry David Thoreau. In fact, few writers have addressed

Thoreau’s work from a sociological perspective. During several passages of his work

Human Nature and Social Order (1964), Charles Horton Cooley briefly used Thoreau’s

self-isolation in Walden to demonstrate how the individual is always tied to the social

order in some manner, suggesting that even Thoreau labored to communicate and was

dependent on books and friends, which were the subject of his communication. He stated

that, “There is, in fact, a great deal of sound sociology in Thoreau” (Cooley 1964, 94).

However, his use of Thoreau remained undeveloped and did not go beyond brief uses of

Thoreau’s name for illustrative purposes.

Two other sociologists have considered Thoreau’s writings. Don Martindale

wrote a chapter titled “Sociology of the Personal Essayist” in Mohan and Wilke’s

Critical Realism and Sociological Theory (1980). This work addresses the biographical,

temperament and style parallels of Thoreau and Elwyn Brooks White. However, the work

functions more as a literary comparison of the two writers than as a systematic

exploration of the sociology within Thoreau’s writing. The same year that Martindale’s

work was published, Elden Seamans, late Professor of Sociology at Cameron University,

presented a paper titled the “Sociology of Henry David Thoreau” at the 1980 Mid-South

Sociological Association conference. This work remains unpublished and is available in

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only one library in the United States, the library of the State University of New York at

Buffalo. It was not available as a reprint through the Mid-South Sociological Association.

In his essay, Seamans (1980) pointed out important themes in Thoreau’s work

that have been reviewed and explored previously by scholars from other disciplines.

These included a consideration of nature, an attempt to understand oneself, and a

criticism of men and manners of his time, humans as “machines” in factory

environments, peer pressure as an important part of social life, and individuals living in

tension with society. He quickly addressed Thoreau’s consideration of work, law, means

of knowing and conformity. However, his attempt to develop all of these issues in a ten

and a half page document was unsuccessful. He did not adequately make his analysis of

Thoreau specifically sociological. In fact, he did little to expand on the work that other

disciplines have conducted in examining Thoreau’s work. Seamans (1980) provided little

evidence on which his conclusions were based, offering few passages by which the reader

can draw their own conclusions. More importantly, he introduced few relationships

between sociological concepts and Thoreau’s work. The paper lacks a consistent

sociological approach or theme throughout, and fails even structurally, as it jumps from

topic to topic at each new paragraph without connecting all of the issues together into a

synthesis related to sociology.

To his credit, he did conclude that Thoreau saw four modes active in

socialization: observation, education, artifacts and meaning. Yet, as in most of the

document, this statement remains undeveloped. He only addressed two of these modes in

the paper, and his treatment of the two does not go beyond three sentence paragraphs per

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mode. Apart from incorporating the concept of socialization and using the term

“symbolic interactionist” (in describing Thoreau’s view that meaningful knowledge is

only gained during personal experience), Seamans’ work fails to effectively link

Thoreau’s body of works to specific sociological concepts, analysis and thought. His

approach in looking at Thoreau’s views of such issues of work and conformity have not

taken knowledge or perspective of Thoreau any further than philosophical and economic

approaches to Thoreau have.

At this point, the ways in which various disciplines have used Thoreauvian

thought have been explored. Many of the issues considered by scholars from economics,

political theory, philosophy, ecology, and social reform hit at the crux of what is

considered most important in the field of sociology. These issues include the relationship

of the individual and society, the effects of modernization, work life, methods of

knowing, and the role of the government. Despite a clear connection between the

concerns of both Thoreau and sociology, there is a gap in the sociological literature. Now

it is necessary to explore why such a gap exists.

Canonization within Sociology

Thoreau’s absence from sociological coverage should be of no surprise. The

canons of sociology have been, until recently, extremely rigid, despite the fact that

historically the canon has included many non-sociologists (Lengermann and Niebrugge-

Brantley 1998; Ritzer 2000a). However, as newer theorists have reexamined the purpose

of sociology as a discipline, they have begun to engage in a disciplinary self-reflection:

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It [sociology] is predicated on an awareness of and commitment to, the human variety that individuality and collectively is the final subject of sociology and its politics of truth...... sociology has the ability to identify (when well done) to represent the role, interests, and emotions of the dominant society and the ‘others.’ That attribute, predicated on political and moral concerns, but grounded in analytic rigor, sets it apart from other social sciences which historically have embraced the institutional assumptions and ideological explanations from the status quo. It also allows the analysis and theorizing of sociologists to be reflective of those diverse audiences, and to break with conventional assumptions about functions, institutions and practices and boundaries. (McGuire 1998,2)

Many sociologists have recognized that the ability to represent the dominant and the

“other” is not sociology’s birthright, and that if sociology is to be “done well,” as

McGuire (1998) suggests, this logic of critique must be applied to the discipline of

Sociology itself, including the canon.

A number of theorists have argued for a more open canon within sociology and

have sounded caveats to a rigid canon (Hawthorne 2001; Ritzer and Goodman 2002;

Tucker 2001). Hawthorne (2001) points out that sociology has a paradoxical relation with

itself and that it lacks sociological self-understanding, which results is intellectual

stagnation. Other theorists, such as Ritzer and Goodman (2002) have attempted to create

“canon fodder” by metatheorizing and arguing for a more open canon. They reject a

timeless list of theorists, since the social world and social theories are continually

changing. They also argue that inclusion in the canon should not just be based on who is

original or exemplary enough, but on who is sociological enough. This depends on the

present image of the field, as well as present issues. Ritzer and Goodman (2002) agree

with Rorty (1984), who suggests that individual freedom should be a part of canons:

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He or she should be free to create a new canon, as long as they respect the right of others to create alternative canons... .they should be urged to try it, and see what other sort of historical story they can tell when these people are left out and some unfamiliar people are brought in. (Rorty 1984,67)

Ritzer and Goodman (2002) view their volume, The Blackwell Companion to Major

Social Theorists, as a “periodic report” of the canon and it is their hope that their volume

will aid in the rewriting of the canon by others. They close the introduction by stating that

“canons are always open and it is to that openness that this volume is dedicated” (Ritzer

and Goodman 2002, 20). Clearly, a reexamination of the canon has been deemed

necessary.

One of the ironies of the rigidity of the canon is that many of the theorists

included in the canon early on were not professional sociologists. Yet, as the canon and

sociology have evolved, criteria for inclusion has become increasingly narrow. Steven

Rosenthal (1995) argues that progressive changes in the most enlightened textbooks have

been modest and he looks to the reader Social Theory: The Multicultural & Classic

Readings (1993) to make a case for looking at social theory and canons in a new way:

In his ‘introduction’ Lemert distinguishes between ‘professional’ and ‘lay’ social theorists and insists upon the value and legitimacy of both. He thus democratizes social theory by conceptualizing it as a normal accomplishment of human beings...... If we apply Lemert’s distinction between ‘professional’ and ‘lay’ social theorists, we find that most of the theorists who are typically studied in sociological theory courses were actually not ‘professional sociologists.’ Karl Marx studied law, philosophy, political economy and revolution. Max Weber was primarily trained in history and economics. Herbert Spencer was an engineer, William G. Sumner was a Theologian, Lester Ward was a paleobotanist, and Charles Cooley was a mechanical engineer and economist. (Rosenthal 1995, 3-5)

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Rosenthal not only re-visits the inclusion of non-sociologists in the canon, but also raises

the possibility of considering the relation of other non-sociological thinkers to the field of

sociology.

Despite arguments for a more open canon, others, such as the editors at the

Journal o f Classical Sociology (2001), believe the canon has always been open. They

argue for the benefits of a canon, pointing out that:

A canon, however uncertain and contested, has been important as a common platform in the study of sociology, as a framework for teaching sociology students and as one component in building a common research purpose.... The notion of a canon implies the possibility of an orthodox sociological tradition or even a professional code of practice, but sociological orthodoxy has been seriously under attack (by feminism, postmodernism, queer theory, the techniques of literary deconstruction, critical theory, rhetorical analysis, textual critique, postcolonial theory and so forth). In fact, the content of the canon were always open to criticism, because the notion of a crisis in sociology has been a persistent theme in sociology (Gouldner 1971). (Journal o f Classical Sociology 2001, 6).

While there is disagreement over the last sentence of this passage, there is agreement on

the constant need of fluidity, even among those with a more conservative view of the

canon: “What constitutes the canon is something that helps to shape and define, but the

precise features of that canon remain fluid. The canon is an evolutionary project or

intellectual ambition, whose specific contours and contents must remain open to debate”

(Journal o f Classical Sociology 2001,6-7).

For theorists such as Ritzer and Goodman (2002) and Hawthorne (2001), self

reflection within sociology has reopened the canon, particularly as a means of staying

true to the disciplinary mission and avoiding an intellectual stagnation within the

discipline. Such disciplinary examination has been the bulwark of arguments for

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increased freedom to create alternative canons. Some are even coming full circle in

recognizing the contributions of non-sociologists and with such realizations, are thinking

anew about the direction of social theory. This project has attempted to break new ground

in the area of alternative canons by exploring a thinker who has been considered a “non

sociologist” and testing the relevance of his thought to sociology.

It is clear from the coverage of Thoreau by the fields of philosophy, political

theory, ecology, environmental studies, natural philosophy, history and literature that

Thoreau was interested in responding to a number of issues. He addressed widespread

economic and technological changes, how to enact democracy in the economy of

everyday activity and democratic self-cultivation (Neufeldt 1989), the relationship

between the social order and nature of man, the means by which a new social order could

be created, the character of the self, the grounding of moral agency, and the nature of

knowledge. He also explored the compatibility between Western civilization and the

environment, knowledge of nature, and the importance of nature to civilization. Despite

these interests, which hit at the crux of many of the main issues of sociology, and a clear

intellectual lineage which connects him to the development of sociological theory, there

is a lack of sociological literature which addresses Thoreau. This project has attempted to

redress this disparity by determining how his works relate to sociological concepts,

thought and analysis.

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Conclusion

This section began by reviewing Thoreau’s intellectual lineage, including Kant,

Rousseau, Smith, Romanticism and Transcendentalism. A connection was made between

Kant’s ideas of subjectivity and methods of knowing, Rousseau’s interest in deducing

natural man, and Thoreau’s ideas and published works. Thoreau’s interest in positivism,

through his use of scientific methods, was also discussed. A review and assessment of

multiple disciplines’ coverage of Thoreau, including sociology, was followed by an

examination of canonization within the field of sociology. It was determined that

sociological coverage of Thoreau is lacking. The next section will describe methods that

were used to test the two hypothesis presented in chapter one - that Thoreau possessed a

sociological imagination and that he engaged in an particular approach to social analysis.

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METHODOLOGY

This chapter will address the methodology of this project from conceptualization

to formation of conclusions. It will begin by discussing the theories that have been used

to build the research questions. These theories include Mills’ concept of the sociological

imagination and Berger’s “motifs” presented in An Invitation to Sociology (1963). A case

will be made for why these theories were chosen. This will be followed by a more in-

depth explanation of Mills’ and Berger’s theories and how the research questions were

devised from these theories. In the second half of this chapter, a case will be made for the

use of latent content analysis. This will include a review of the weaknesses and strengths

of this qualitative method. Proposed sampling methods, coding categories and guidelines,

as well as reliability and validity, will then be explained.

The Research Questions

Mills’ (1959) work on the sociological imagination was used to build a theoretical

framework for testing the first research question and hypothesis. His concepts are

consistently viewed as reliable criteria of sociology and the sociological imagination

(Anderson and Taylor 2000; Henslin 2003; Kendall 1998; Komblum 1999; Macionis

2001; Newman 1997; Sullivan 2001; Thio 2003; Thompson 2002). The concepts

reviewed in The Sociological Imagination (1959) are used by most major introductory 49

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sociology texts as an introduction to the basic concerns, questions and approaches of

sociology as a discipline. By using Mills (1959) as a “lens,” particularly his definitions of

the “sociological imagination” and “classic social analyst” as criteria, an analysis of the

writings of Henry David Thoreau can be contextualized within sociology in order to test

his relevance to this field. If a strong case can be made that Thoreau’s work withstands

application of Mills’ criteria, a stronger argument can be made for using Thoreauvian

thought in sociology and for re-examining canonical criteria.

For testing the second research question and hypothesis (Thoreau engaged in a

particular type of social analysis that was evaluative in nature), Berger’s An Invitation to

Sociology was used. In this work, Berger laid out the sociological perspective as four

“motifs” which allow individuals to remove the veil and see the many layers of society in

a method that is not unlike that used by Thoreau. Like Mills, Berger’s work and ideas,

such as the phrase “things are not what they seem” (Berger 1963, 23), are referenced in

most introductory textbooks within sociology (Anderson and Taylor 2000; Newman

1997). Berger’s An Invitation to Sociology has been one of the most popular

supplementary texts in sociology since it was published (Kessel 2002).

Kessel (2002) has attempted to use Mills and Berger to make a case that Erich

Fromm, though not a sociologist, has a sociology within him. By using Mills and Berger

as “generally accepted sociological figures to provide a context,” Fromm’s ideas “can be

understood as largely sociological” (Kessel 2002, 2). Kessel (2002) argues that both

Mills’ and Berger’s works are very recognizable in sociological discourse and provide a

common ground to identify ideas as sociological. He does not attempt to use Mills nor

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Berger as absolute criteria, but instead uses their concepts to contextualize Fromm within

sociology:

However, it is not my purpose to make a sociologist out of Fromm, although he is referred to as such here and there... .my purpose is to elucidate a sociology in Fromm’s ideas...a sociological perspective which could inform Sociology in general as well as Critical and Humanistic Sociology in particular.... We must first establish an ‘evaluative context’ in which Fromm can be identified as having these sociological credentials. In order to do this, a type of ‘justification’ for doing so must be made clear. . . and it must come from within the discipline of sociology itself. He must be situated within a larger sociological orientation which sheds light on his approach and ideas. This ‘context’ or ‘justification’ must consist of ideas which find a common and broad-based acceptance in the discipline ... the point here is to situate Fromm within a framework of sociological inquiry and interest. (Kessel 2002, 1-2)

Kessel finds these ideas that have common and broad-based acceptance in sociology

within the works of Mills and Berger, pointing to the wide recognition of Mills’ and

Berger’s work as justification for using them to contextualize Fromm’s work in

sociology:

I believe these generally known and accepted sociological figures [Mills and Berger] provide the ‘context’ by which Fromm’s ideas might be understood as largely sociological. I’m not maintaining, however, that ‘sociological’ is simply equal to thinking like Mills or Berger Rather, what I am maintaining is that their names and works are very recognizable in sociological discourse and thus, they provide a common ground to, as least, identify ideas as sociological. Their recognizability and utility in sociology is nor greater than in introductory textbooks and readers. It is exceedingly difficult to pick up either type of book without finding at least some mention of them, especially in the initial chapters and articles. I would be more pressed to find a more familiar concept in the discipline of Sociology than the ‘sociological imagination.’ .. .the ideas of Mills and Berger emerge as a potential evaluative context of the sort needed for this essay’s purpose. (Kessel, 2002, 2)

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The ability of Mills’ and Berger’s works to provide a familiar and accepted context for

evaluating the relevance of other works to sociology seems explicit. However, Kessel

(2002) points out that there is something else about integrating the work of Mills and

Berger that provides a benefit for testing the hypotheses. Mills provides the questions that

sociology must ask, while Berger provides the critical thinking method by which these

questions are to be asked. These aspects of Mills and Berger will be discussed in the next

section.

Mills and a Sociological Context

Which concepts within Mills’ The Sociological Imagination have proven to be so

useful and widely accepted within the field of sociology? Why are Mills’ ideas the

foundation on which other sociological concepts are taught within introductory sociology

courses and texts? To explore these questions it is necessary to first look at Mills’

definitions of the “sociological imagination” and “classic social analyst.” Then, the

discussion will move on to connect Mills’ work to research question number one.

Mills (1959, 7) believed that possessing the sociological imagination was the most

“fruitful form of self consciousness” that suddenly awakened individuals, making their

capacity for astonishment lively again. The possessor of the sociological imagination

experiences a “transvaluation of values,” and understands the relation between biography,

fate and life chances, within a particular historical context.

Mills further expanded on these ideas by laying out specific criteria which

identify the classic social analyst. He discussed the types of questions that the best social

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analysts have asked, and questions that are raised by anyone possessing a sociological

imagination. This most “fruitful form of self consciousness” involves asking three types

of specific questions. The first is: What is the structure of this particular society as a

whole? Mills (1959) believed that there were a number of sub-questions related to this

one. These included: What are the components of society, and how are they related to one

another? How does this society differ from other varieties of social order? And Within a

society, what is the meaning of any particular feature for its continuance and social

change?

The second major question asked by those possessing the sociological

imagination is: Where does this particular society stand in human history? Mills (1959)

stated that additional questions related to this are: What are the mechanics by which it is

changing? What is its meaning for the development of humanity as a whole? How does

any particular feature we are examining affect, and how is it effected by, the historical

period in which it moves? What are the essential features of this period? How does the

period being considered differ from other periods? and What are its characteristic ways of

history-making?

Finally, those possessing the sociological imagination also were interested in

asking: What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and in this period?

Mills (1959) believed that in order to answer this, other questions were necessary: What

varieties of men and women are coming to prevail? hi what ways are they selected and

formed, liberated and repressed, made sensitive and blunted? What kinds of human

nature are revealed in the conduct and character observed in this society and in this

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period? and What is the meaning for human nature of the features of the society being

examined?

The first group of questions, which focuses on social structure, components, and

social change, consumed such theorists as Herbert Spencer and Emile Durkheim. The

second group, which focuses on societies as standing in historical periods, was of interest

to such theorist as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The third group, which focuses on

human nature and the “types” of people that prevail in particular societies, can be seen in

the works of Max Weber. These theorists, by Mills criteria and by inclusion in the canon

of sociological theory, have been considered classical social analysts. These

characteristics and questions were also used for formulating the specific components of

research question number one. Using Mills’ criteria for the classic social analyst and

possession of the sociological imagination, there are a number of questions to ask of the

data to test the first research question. The general question, “what evidence is there that

demonstrates that Thoreau was concerned with any of the questions raised in Mills’

criteria,” can be broken up into parts by focusing on the three groups of questions

suggested by Mills. These questions suggested by Mills will provide a sociological

context in which to consider Thoreau’s relevance to the field. Using these established

criteria, arguments for or against Thoreau’s relevance to Sociology will be more valid.

Berger and Sociological Context

Like Mills’ work, Berger’s An Invitation to Sociology contains concepts that have

proven to be o f utility within the field of sociology. His other works have also been

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influential. The Social Construction o f Reality (1967) became one of the most widely

read theory books of the time (Ritzer 2000a). Berger presents the sociological perspective

as a “’form of consciousness’ organized around four motifs (or themes)” (Kessel 2002,

3). To Berger, sociological consciousness creates a transformed perspective where

individuals find out that “things are not what they seem” and that social reality has “many

layers of meaning” (Berger 1963, 23). This consciousness provides the “ability to look at

a situation from the vantage points of competing interpretations” (Berger 1963, 38). He

suggests several means to gain sociological consciousness, which he terms “motifs.”

These include the debunking motif, the unrespectability motif, the relativization motif,

and the cosmopolitan motif.

The debunking motif is referred to by Berger (1963, 38) as an “umasking

tendency,” a way to see “through the facades of social structures.” This motif allows one

to “unmask the pretentions and propaganda by which men cloak their action with each

other” (Berger 1963, 38). Kessel (2002) suggests that the roots of this debunking are

methodological and that the debunking motif is presupposed by asking sociological

questions:

It is presupposed in the following three ways: 1. By being interested in looking some distance beyond the commonly accepted or officially defined goals of human action. 2. By having a certain awareness that human events have different levels of meaning, some of which are hidden from the consciousness of everyday life. 3. By having a measure of suspicion about the way human events are officially interpreted by the authorities, be they political, juridical, or religious in character. (Kessel 2002, 7)

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Kessel (2002) also points out that Berger linked the debunking motif with the concept of

ideology, which Berger defines as ideas that serve to rationalize vested interest of groups,

that distort reality and which are “unmasked as self-deception” (Berger 1963, 41).

The unrespectability motif suggests that any society can be divided into 2 sectors.

The respectable sector is the “middle class,” while the unrespectable sector includes

everyone else (Kessel 2002). Berger suggests that language is the means of distinguishing

between the two sectors. His unrespectability motif looks at social reality from all

perspectives, as he says in his own words, “not only from the perspective of city hall

positions of society, but also from that of the city jail” (Berger 1963, 47). Such a

perspective leads one to the relativization motif, which allows an individual to recognize

that the values of different cultures and those within a culture can become relativized.

This motif also allows individuals to realize that their social location is relative to many

factors (Kessel 2002). It also allows the individual to see the ways in which meaning

systems often provide a total interpretation of reality.

Finally, the cosmopolitan motif brings an openness to the world and other ways of

thinking and acting, allowing the individual to be “at home wherever there are other men

that think” (Berger 1963, 53). This leads to a “taste for other lands,” and creates an

individual who is “inwardly open to the measureless richness of human possibilities,” and

“eager for new horizons and new worlds of human meaning” (Berger 1963, 53). When a

person can transcend the expectations of a society and live as a citizen of the world,

feeling at one with the world, the cosmopolitan motif is present.

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Using Berger’s motifs as a context, research questions were developed to test

Thoreau’s relevance to the field of sociology. The first was: What kind of debunking did

Thoreau engage in? Sub-questions included: What evidence is there to prove that

Thoreau’s approach to social analysis was evaluative and that he injected moral concern

into his analysis? How did he look beyond commonly accepted goals of human action?

Did he explore different levels of meaning and how they are hidden from the

consciousness of everyday life? Did he have a measure of suspicion about the way human

events were interpreted by authorities, such as political, juridical and religious authority?

Did Thoreau’s analysis uncover social rights and wrongs? If so, how? What particular

goals did he have in mind in doing the analysis? Were knowledge and action inseparable?

What effects did Thoreau believe that society had on humans? What methods of “seeing”

did Thoreau us in his analysis? and How did he use “natural man” as a way of seeing?

The second major question is: Did Thoreau employ an unrespectability,

relativization and/or cosmopilitan motif? Sub-questions include: Did he look at social

reality from a number of perspectives? Which ones and what methods did he use to do

this? Did he look at other cultures? Did he explore ways in which meaning systems of

societies provide a total interpretation of reality? Did he have an “openness to the world

and other ways of thinking and acting” or a “a taste for other lands?” and Was he

“inwardly open to the measureless richness of human possibilities, eager for new

horizons and new worlds of human meaning”? All of these questions allow any

conclusion to go further than simply stating that Thoreau raised sociological questions,

into exploring whether he used sociological logic, methods and analysis.

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Content Analysis of Written Text

Because this project aimed to analyze the writings of Henry David Thoreau,

content analysis was used. Neuman (2000) points out that there are generally three

different research problems for which content analysis is used. When there is a large

volume of text, content analysis can allow for a representative, systematic and efficient

means of analyzing the documents using sampling and multiple coders. Content analysis

is also useful when topics must be studied using historical documents or when the topic

must be studied at a distance. Most importantly, content analysis can uncover meanings

of a text that may not be easily seen. Neuman (2000) also suggests topics appropriate for

content analysis, which include themes in popular songs, trends in topics covered by

newspapers, ideological tones of editorials, sex role stereotyping in text books, or themes

in advertising messages. However it is used, it is a technique that examines content in

written or symbolic form, including words, pictures, symbols, ideas, and themes (Berg

1998; Holsti 1969; Neuman 2000).

Strengths and Weaknesses o f Content Analysis

The strength of content analysis -- in both reliability and validity -- lies in the

systematic process used for organizing and analyzing content. Berg (1998) lists the

interaction of two processes involved in content analysis: specification of content

characteristics (basic content elements) and the application of specific rules for

identifying and recording those characteristics. Coding is the way in which the data are

systematically organized into units that allow precise description of content

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characteristics (Holsti 1969; Krippendorff 1981; Neuendorf 2001). Systematic, valid and

reliable coding requires specifying the designated units to be coded, the coding categories

and the coding rules.

Coding categories should represent the purposes of research, such as the research

question. Subject matter categories are the most frequently used in content analysis

(Holsti 1969). When categories are conceptually and operationally defined, coders can

produce more reliable results. The guidelines used in coding create an operational link

between data, theory and hypothesis. To create coding guidelines, Holsti (1969) states

that a number of decisions must be made: How is the research problem defined in terms

of categories? What unit of content will be classified? and What systems of enumeration

will be used? Any method chosen is based on certain assumptions about the data and the

inferences that can be drawn from that data. Measurement in content analysis uses

structured observation, or systematic careful observation based on written rules that

categorize and classify observations (Neuman 2000). These aspects of content analysis,

and latent analysis in particular, allow rich text to be analyzed in a systematic manner.

However, the ability to make conclusions from non-reactive data is often limited. The

data in this case, the writings of Henry David Thoreau, limit the questions that can be

asked.

Content analysis allows for random sampling and precise measurement of text,

which increases reliability and validity (Krippendorff 1981; Weber 1990). Abstract

concepts within text can be measured by devising operational definitions and using

coding guidelines. However, generalizations about the text can only be limited to the text

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itself. While content analysis can uncover meaning within a text, it cannot interpret the

significance of the content, make conclusions about the effect of the text on those that

read it, determine the truthfulness of an assertion, nor determine aesthetic qualities of

literature (Neuman 2002). Content analysis should be “considered as a supplement to, not

a substitute for, subjective examination of documents” (Holsti 1968, 602). Researchers

should always examine texts directly (Neuman 2002). There are, indeed, more qualitative

versions o f content analysis, which will be the focus of examination in the next section.

Manifest Versus Latent Content Analysis

While there has been some debate about the quantitative requirement of content

analysis, there is also argument that a quantitative approach to content analysis restricts

this method to a single system o f enumeration, presenting both theoretical and practical

problems (Holsti 1969). Behind the arguments for a total quantitative approach to content

analysis is the assumption that frequency is the only valid index of importance. This

assumption can lead to a bias in the selection of problems to be investigated. Qualitative

content analysts have questioned this assumption, arguing for a more interpretive

approach to text.

According to Berg (1998), content analysis can take two forms: manifest and

latent. Manifest analysis focuses on elements that are physically present and countable.

For example, it can document frequency of remarks or the amount of space the remarks

take up within a text. While manifest content analysis is highly reliable, it does not take

into account the connotation of words (Neuman 2002). Latent analysis involves an

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interpretive reading of the symbolism underlying the presented data. While latent analysis

may be less reliable than manifest analysis, the validity of latent analysis can be greater

than manifest because meaning is often communicated in text that depends on other

factors than just specific words. Berg states that when latent data analysis is used

“researchers should offer detailed excerpts from relative statements that serve to

document the researchers interpretations” and a “safe rule of thumb is to include at least

three independent examples for each interpretation” (Berg 1998, 226). Texts should be

analyzed in terms of explicit themes and relative emphasis on various topics. Given the

research questions of this project, manifest content analysis was not a sufficient

methodological approach, since interpretation, meaning and themes were important parts

of testing the hypotheses. Manifest coding does not take the connotations of words or

phrases into account. The case for using latent content analysis is strengthened when the

research question, and the specific questions which will be asked of the data, are broken

down into component parts.

Reliability in Content Analysis

Reliability in content analysis depends on a number of factors. These factors

increase the systematic, replicable characteristics of content analysis. Generally, content

analysis involves specific rules for identifying and recording content characteristics.

Coding is the way in which data are systematically organized into units that allow precise

description of content characteristics (Holsti 1969). Systematic and reliable coding

requires specifying the designated units to be coded, the coding categories and the coding

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rules. Subject matter categories are the most frequently used in content analysis (Holsti

1969). When these categories are conceptually and operationally defined, coders can

produce more reliable results.

Although these structured observations lend to reliability in all content analysis

methods, with written rules for classifying and categorizing information, latent coding

tends to be less reliable than manifest coding (Neuman 2000). This is due to the fact that

interpretations of textual meaning can vary, whereas, the absence or presence of a term is

a more absolute measure. Reliability can depends on coders’ knowledge of language and

social meaning, as well as training, practice and written rules (Neuman 2000).

Validity in Content Analysis

Content analysis addresses the issue of validity through coding guidelines, which

create an operational link between data, theory and hypothesis (Krippendorff 1981).

Validity of latent coding can exceed that of manifest coding because people communicate

meaning in many implicit ways that depend on context, not just specific words (Neuman

2000). However, the choice of categories and content units can enhance or diminish

likelihood of valid inferences (Holsti 1969). For inferences to be relevant, there must be

appropriate indices of themes. These indices are provided by defining the structural

properties of the thematic units. Along with appropriate indices, validity can be increased

by other methods, such as a clear link between theory, hypothesis and data analysis, and

by having specific coding guidelines. In this project the concern was with content

validity, so a clear set of criteria aided the attempt to make the appropriate inferences.

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Design of this Project

Based on the preceding reasoning, latent content analysis was employed, using a

purposive sample of the writings of Thoreau that have already been examined by other

disciplines. Open, axial and selective coding was conducted on these texts, and analytic

memos of the coded data were recorded. This section will review the coding categories,

guidelines and issues of reliability and validity specific to this project.

Sampling in Latent Content Analysis

One of the aspects of content analysis which adds to reliability is the ability to

sample multiple texts. There are several steps in content analysis sampling (Berg 1998;

Holsti 1969; Neuendorf2001; Neuman 2000). The first step is to list all members of a

class of documents about which generalizations will be made. Since this project aimed to

make generalizations and specific claims about the writings of Thoreau, purposive

sampling of only Thoreau’s writings was employed. The writings included the following

texts/documents: Walden, A Week on the Concord and the Merrimack Rivers (1849),

“Civil Disobedience,” “Life without Principle,” The Maine Woods, Cape Cod (1865),

“Slavery in Massachusetts,” “A Plea for Captain John Brown,” “The Last Days of John

Brown,” “Walking” (1862), “The Service,” “Paradise (to be) Regained,” and Thoreau’s

journals. Several of these writings are shorter essays that began as speeches (“A Plea for

Captain John Brown”), while others, such as Walden, are lengthier works. Most of

Thoreau’s writings were bome out of his journals, creating a structured biographical

account of Thoreau’s personal experiences, such as traveling or journeying.

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Because some of the general themes of the documents vary from specific

statements about social structure to general observations of nature while traveling in Cape

Cod, a second purposive sample from all of Thoreau’s writings is needed in order to test

the research questions and hypotheses. Holsti (1969, 130) points out that in absence of

criteria for selecting the most important sources for a study sample, it is possible to use

the pooled judgment of experts — that is to use “sources as rated most important by

professionals.” Therefore, only the writings that the fields of philosophy, economics,

political science, social reform or environmental studies have found are relevant to

Thoreau’s broader views on society, were chosen. These writings are listed in the

previous paragraph.

Coding: Unit o f Analysis, Categories and Guidelines

In this research project, the units to be coded were themes -- a single assertion

about a subject (Holsti 1969). Themes are important for research on values, attitudes,

assertions and beliefs. Since the concern was with Thoreau’s ideas and attitudes on a

number of subjects, themes were the unit of analysis, rather than single works,

paragraphs, sentences or words. Thus, the length of coded text varied.

The coding categories for this project were devised directly from the research

questions, which were derived from Mills’ and Berger’s criteria. Appendix A shows

definitions used for assigning text to coding categories. Since neither Mills nor Berger

provide explicit operational definitions for such institutions as “government” or

“customs,” most of the coding definitions were taken from the Oxford Dictionary o f

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Sociology, 2nd Edition (1998). First, the data was coded using the aforementioned

categories. This was done by hand, using color coding within the actual text. Open

coding was initially done, in a first pass of the material. In this pass, the data were viewed

without prior assumptions or arrangement. The text was split into parts, tagged with

codes in the margin and preliminary questions and notes were made. Passages were

collected to “saturate” categories. A coding database listing page numbers under

categories was developed. As notes become more complex, axial coding was started.

Axial coding helped to explore categories and concepts that cluster together and

to organize these categories into a sequence, as well as to begin asking more complicated

questions of the data (Neuendorf 2001). Making connections between categories allowed

the data to be arranged in new ways and comparison of multiple occurrences of themes.

In the final phase of coding, selective coding, a final category scheme was devised.

Specific themes that provided strong evidence for or against the hypotheses were chosen,

and more complex comparisons and contrast between coded data were made.

After the final coding pass, more complex analytic memos of the coded data were

compiled. The specific research questions were applied to the data, in a more interpretive,

latent analysis of the coded data. In this way, analysis was somewhat like illustrative

method or ideal type analysis. There were standards against which the data were

compared — Mills’ or Berger’s criteria of sociological approaches. Within the analytic

memos, notes were taken on direction (support or opposition) and intensity (strength or

power of a message). More general notes were made after all analytic memos were

complete as to frequency (how often subject occurs) and space (amount of space of

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volume allocated to a subject). This was conducted for both major research questions and

their sub-questions. A format sample of the analytic memos can be found in Appendix B.

Reliability and Validity Issues Specific to this Project

In this project, themes were the unit of analysis, which could have been

problematic, because the theme is not a natural unit for which physical guides exist.

Many sentences contain more than one theme and identifying proper boundaries between

them is a judgment process for which it may be difficult to formulate rules that cover

every type of theme that occur in the text (Holsti 1969). In all types of content analysis,

category reliability depends on the ability to formulate categories for which “empirical

evidence is clear enough so that competent judges will agree to a sufficiently high degree

on which items belong in a certain category and which do not” (Holsti 1969, 135).

Therefore, an attempt was made to improve reliability by ensuring a clear link between

research questions and theory, and between category units and the research questions.

Clear coding definitions, which guided the organization of the data, were also developed.

To ensure reliability during organization and analysis of the data multiple coding sessions

(open, axial and final coding) were conducted and detailed analytic memos were

recorded. The analytic memos allowed detailed notation of frequency, intensity, direction

and space allocation, as well as recording of interpretation when applying the research

questions to all coded data.

Validity of the conclusions is interrelated with above mentioned sampling and

reliability plans. Content validity, also know as face validity, is the most frequently relied

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on in content analysis and, in descriptive research, is normally sufficient (Holsti 1969). It

is usually established through the informed judgment of the investigator and by asking

several questions about the research process: (1) are the results plausible? (2) was the

sample representative of his writings? (3) were the categories adequate for the purposes

of the study? and (4) was the coding reliable? Both the coding categories and the

sampling plan were devised from previously established criteria. The coding categories

were adopted from Mills’ criteria of a classic social analyst and Berger’s definition of

“motifs.” The sample was devised from the writings that have been covered previously

by other fields outside of literature (philosophy, economics, political science, social

reform and environmental studies). Subjectivity is always an issue in the interpretation of

written text. To aid to the validity of the conclusions, evidence is provided within the text

of this document in the form of block quotes so that readers can compare the conclusions

reached in this project with conclusions they draw from reading the passages.

Conclusion

This chapter reviewed the methodology employed in this project. Theories used

to devise the research questions, including Mills’ sociological imagination and Berger’s

“motifs,” were examined. A link was drawn between these theories and the research

questions specific to this project. A case was made for the use of latent content analysis,

which included a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of this method, as well as

reliability and validity issues. The sampling plan, coding and analysis methods were also

explained. Open, axial and selective coding was discussed. Finally, reliability and

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validity issues specific to this project were discussed. The next chapter will review the

findings of research question number one -- did Thoreau possess a sociological

imagination?

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THOREAU’S SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

This chapter will address research question number one: Did Thoreau possess a

sociological imagination? It will begin with a discussion of how Thoreau’s religious

beliefs influenced his critique of society. This will be followed by a review of Thoreau’s

mission as a thinker and a writer, including his dissatisfaction with society, his prophetic

mission, and his Transcendental emphases on life’s basic necessities, self reliance and

nature. Discussion of Thoreau’s mission will be followed by an exploration of his

audience, whom he had hoped to reach through his written work and speaking venues.

The remainder of the chapter will address Thoreau’s sociological imagination using

Mill’s criteria. This will include evidence that Thoreau considered how structures of

society, such as the economy and government, effected the individual. Within this

section, Thoreau’s ideas about the varieties of men and women that prevailed in his

society will be explored. Evidence will also be presented to demonstrate that Thoreau

focused on the place o f his society in human history through his comparison of “civilized

man” with the “savage” or “natural man.”

Thoreau as a Public and Prophetic Voice

It is important to first understand Thoreau’s mission in order to determine how he

might be contextualized within sociology. His objectives cannot fully be grasped without 69

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an understanding of his philosophical and religious ideals, which were heavily influenced

by Romanticism and Transcendentalism. These ideals had a strong impact on his social

critique, including the institutions he chose to scrutinize. With these ideals in mind,

Thoreau aimed to reveal many of the illusions of society, and remove the false

consciousness of individuals. As a writer and public speaker, Thoreau actively sought a

public venue for his works and ideas, and was successful at reaching broad and

specialized audiences.

The Effect o f Thoreau's Spirituality on his Social Thought

Thoreau’s religious ideas, primarily influenced by Romanticism and

Transcendentalism, had a marked effect on his social thought and criticism. His concepts

of nature as a source of learning, the divine and higher truth, as well as his focus on self-

realization and cultivation, strongly influenced his critiques of society. Thoreau believed

that society trampled on these Transcendental priorities. As will be demonstrated in the

rest of this chapter, his critiques of the economy and government, and his ideas on social

reform and progress can all be traced back to his Transcendentalist values.

Transcendentalism was a popular reform movement between 1836 and 1860

which sought a mystical experience of the divine. Paul Rueben (2002) states that there

were four basic premises of Transcendentalism. First, the individual was the center of the

universe, and in the individual one could find the clue to nature, history and the cosmos.

Second, the structure of the universe duplicated the structure of the individual self, so that

knowledge begins with self-knowledge. Third, nature was a living mystery full of signs.

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Fourth, individual virtue and happiness depended on self-realization. Since God was

believed to be present in every individual, and the individual’s soul was identical to the

world’s soul, direct experience of God was available on earth. Emphasis in

Transcendentalism was placed on the here and now, rather than the afterlife. Democratic

in nature, followers believed that every human, regardless of class or status, could

experience God directly, without the mediation of a religious authority figure:

Transcendentalism, in fact, really began as a religious movement, an attempt to substitute a Romanticized version of the mystical ideal that humankind is capable of direct experience of the holy for the Unitarian rationalist view that the truths of religion are arrived at by a process of empirical study and by rational interference from historical and natural evidence. (Buell 1986, 46)

Transcendentalism and Nature

With a mystical slant, a number of transcendentalists, including Ralph Waldo

Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thoreau, focused on the natural world as a source of

the divine. Nature was an outward representation of the human mind and spirituality. In

Thoreau’s time, wilderness was certainly not a place to seek spiritual clarity, as it was

looked upon as an arena of the uncivilized (Duncan 2001). However, Transcendentalists

took quite a different approach to nature. Since nature was divine, Thoreau looked at it as

a source of symbolic meaning, illumination and spiritual instruction (Duncan 2001):

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. (Thoreau Walden 343)

Yet I experienced sometimes that the most sweet and tender, the most innocent and encouraging society may be found in any natural object, even for the poor misanthrope and most melancholy man. There can be no very

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black melancholy to him whose lives is in the midst of Nature and has his sense still.... I was suddenly sensible of such a sweet and beneficent society in Nature, in the very patterning of the drops, and in every sound and sight around my house, an infinite and unaccountable friendliness all at once like an atmosphere sustaining me. I was so distinctly made aware of the presence of something kindred to me, even in scences which we are accustomed to call wild and dreary, and also that the nearest of blood to me and humanest was not a person nor a villager, that I thought no place could ever be strange to me again. (Thoreau Walden 383-384)

In nature one could find harmony, knowledge, sustenance and the divine. In fact, nature

was the place where humans were closest to their original goodness. Transcendentalists,

including Thoreau, believed that the essential nature o f humans was good, and that left in

a state of nature they would seek the good (Campbell 2002). It was society, or for

Thoreau, certain types of societies, that corrupted humans. Harmony with nature was a

way to revisit the goodness that social institutions had destroyed:

I love Nature partly because she is not a man, but a retreat from him. None of his institutions control or pervade her. There is a different kind of right that prevails. In her midst I can be glad with an entire gladness. If this world were all a man, I could not stretch myself, I should lose all hope. He is constraint, she is freedom to me. He makes me wish for another world. She makes me content with this. None of the joys she supplies is subject to his rules and definitions. What he touches he taints. In thought he moralizes. (Thoreau The Journal o f Henry David Thoreau 511)

Since Transcendentalists believed nature was an outward representation of the

human mind, Thoreau was open to the mystical manner in which nature would shed light

on the human interior, and to using nature as a “tool of reflection” to reveal “higher

truths” (Duncan 2001, xix). However, while other transcendentalists saw only the

symbolic value of nature, Thoreau believed its utility was not simply abstract. It was

actually a “sensate reality” (Duncan 2001, xix). For Thoreau, nature had both spiritual

and material significance (Buell 1995a, 171); he saw nature as a form of “heaven on

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earth.” This accounts for Thoreau’s focus on the here and now and the immediate

moment, rather than the afterlife: “Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads”

(Thoreau Walden 314).

Transcendentalism and the Self

Thoreau’s quest to stand close to nature was, in part, an effort to explore selfhood

(Hansen 1990). Transcendentalism and its forerunner, Romantic Modernism, advocated

an appropriate relationship between the individual and society:

Which is predicated upon a distinction between a true self and a false self, with the latter understood in terms of the social roles that society imposes upon and demands of the individual. This societal imposition, in turn, is seen as a violation of the self s integrity and the individual’s expressive freedom.. . . The principal cause of human failure seemed obvious [to the Transcendentalists]: it was society, that mass of forms and conventions and institutions by which men were held captive, alienated from their true selves Indeed, for a Transcendentalism all social structures can become oppressive ... by restricting moral choice. (Rice 1999, 1-3)

Since every human possessed the divine spirit, all had the potential to develop a more

ideal self and a more ideal society. However, this realization and its subsequent

development were thwarted by society. In other words, freedom of the self to develop

was of primary importance over the demands of social institutions, because conventional

social institutions aimed to “bring people in line with standards that were external to the

self’ (Rice 1999,4). Thoreau not only possessed an unwillingness to give in to social

expectations, but centered his writing around critiquing institutions that squelched

individual freedom and development.

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Such a movement toward individual freedom was not anti-social, nor did it

advocate a withdrawal from society, nor acting as a hermit (Richardson 1986, 56). The

self-cultivation that Thoreau sought was found not by separating the individual from

society, nor being physically alone, but was a “fundamental solitude within the self’

(Hansen 1990, 131). One aspect of this development was self-reliance. Dependence on

others, through exchange or division of labor, created a risk that Thoreau would not

tolerate: “No doubt another may also think for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he

should do so to the exclusion of my thinking for myself’ (Thoreau Walden 301).

Thoreau’s entire experiment at Walden was an exercise in self-sufficiency. Self-

sufficiency was accomplished by living simply and not buying-in to the traps of luxury

items or other goods which required extensive exchange, lengthy work time or division of

labor. Self-reliance, rather than dependence on others for exchange and services, allowed

for the simplistic lifestyle necessary to engage in self-exploration. It was the self,

Thoreau believed, that was an endless arena for exploration: “Nay, be a Columbus to

whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of

thought explore a private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of being alone”

(Thoreau Walden 560). This intense self-exploration corresponded to the main tenets of

Transcendentalism, which valued the individual as a clue to nature, history and the

cosmos.

A Prophetic Voice

There are a number of ways in which these religious ideals effected Thoreau’s

analysis of society, leading him to critique the current social milieu. He saw society as

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trampling on his ideals about the individual, nature, and self-realization. His frustration

with an American society that swallowed the individual was evident:

Nevertheless, this points to an important distinction between the civilized man and the savage; and, no doubt, they have designs on us for our benefit, in making the life of a civilized people an institution, in which the life of the individual is to a great extent absorbed, in order to preserve and perfect that of the race. But I wish to show what a sacrifice this advantage is at present obtained, and to suggest that we may possibly so live as secure all the advantage without suffering any of the disadvantage. (Thoreau Walden 286-287)

Thoreau approached his disillusionment head on, attacking the institutions which were

most suppressive of the individual and attempting to reveal the illusions by which these

institutions functioned.

Thoreau held a number of institutions responsible for this disharmony. The

American capitalist structure that emerged during the late I700’s and early 1800’s stifled

the individual in several ways. It included a factory system that Thoreau believed

exploited individuals and kept them from self-development. The ethic of this system put

extreme value in work itself, as well as attainment of goods. Such an emphasis on

avariciousness created what Thoreau called “anxiety” over being fashionable or having

adequate wealth or standing within society. The more time individuals spent engaged in

work, or in acquiring goods, the less time they had for self-development. The economy

was expanding commercial ventures into nature and creating commodities out of natural

objects, which interfered with a proper relationship with nature. The capitalist work

structure, such as decreased self-sufficiency due to division of labor, was also preventing

the individual from self-development. The ideas propagated by the ethos of capitalism

were anti-simplicity, Thoreau believed.

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Other institutions fared no better than the economy in fostering the individual.

The government was subsuming the will of the individuals in a number of ways,

including the most extreme example of slavery. Transcendentalists argued strongly for

Abolition, since they believed that the divine was present in everyone. They believed that

all individuals deserved respect, including women and people of other races. In his

staunch defense of the self and fight for self-cultivation, Thoreau pointed out that even

the educational system was not doing its part. His emphasis on lived experienced lead

him to critique the rote memorization and traditional methods of the schoolhouse. With a

focus on the here and now, Thoreau and other Transcendentalists became involved in

social reform, speaking out against all institutions that aimed at bringing individuals in

line with standards external to the individual.

Part of Thoreau’s mission, then, can be seen as a prophetic one. Lewis Hyde

(2002) suggests that in seeking to open the readers eyes to see nature, and to recognizing

the illusions and self-emptiness created by many of the institutions of society, Thoreau’s

role was one of prophet. Through the prophetic voice, the reader is awakened to his or her

“quiet desperation”; our ignorance became lifted and our dissatisfaction roused. Hyde

(2002, xxi) points out that Thoreau had a “genius for perspective -- for getting or

imagining himself into situations where common things can be seen from uncommon

angles.” This prophetic view links Thoreau’s work to the vantage point required of the

sociological imagination and Berger’s relativization motif:

What interested him in retrospect about his night in the Concord jail was the novel view it offered him on his home ground.... This urge to get outside the ordinary marks a large portion of Thoreau’s pursuits. We see it in his endless reading of travel books, his

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interest in Native Americans, his temporal and spatial fantasies (imagining Concord by way of Rome, for example, or from some far distant star), and above all in his going to nature . . . (Hyde 2002, xxi)

Thoreau’s lifetime of experimenting with seeing in new ways is exemplified in the

Walden experiment of retreating to nature. Thoreau was very skeptical of the biased view

of authority figures, particularly those who ran the political institutions of his time. Hyde

(2002) believes that by retreating to the woods Thoreau was able to see social institutions

freshly and speak about them with authority. This prophetic and fresh voice was aimed at

removing the false consciousness of individuals and allowing them to see in novel ways:

I would fain say something not so much concerning the Chinese and Sandwich Islanders as you who read these pages, who are said to live in New England; something about your condition, especially your outward condition or circumstances in this world, in this town, what it is, whether it is necessary that it be as bad as it is, whether it cannot be improved as well as not. I have traveled a good deal in Concord; and every where, in shops, and offices and fields, the inhabitants appear to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways. (Thoreau Walden 259-260)

Given his dissatisfaction with the characteristics of American society, Thoreau set

out to demonstrate how exactly such institutions and beliefs encumber self-development.

He attempted to do so in several ways. Thoreau turned commercial lifestyle on its head

by portraying it as a hindrance and an illusion, rather than a social improvement or

progress.10 Larger homes and faster production did not necessarily mean a better life. In

the industrial work system, humans became no more than a “machine.” This

dissatisfaction with the current economic structure led Thoreau to focus on discovering

the absolute necessities of life. He was interested in finding out the bare essentials that

10 Thoreau discussed the burden that increased consumption created for the individual. Additional time, which could have been spent on leisure, was required for the upkeep of homes and for cleaning and dusting home furnishings.

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humans needed, or what was so important to human life that few humans do without it.

Thoreau used the experiment and experience at Walden to answer this question.

It was in this context that he argued ardently for simplicity as a lifestyle. The

“bourgeois (sub)urbanite anxiety” of the New England Culture was an ill in need of

prescription (Buell 1995b, 149). By reducing personal desires, Thoreau believed

individuals would be more content, self sufficient and autonomous. Such an approach not

only allowed ordinary events to become more meaningful, but would reduce the stress

and desperation brought on by cultural materialism. The drive for obtaining more

possessions required more work, which allowed little time to seek inner peace and to be

self-reliant. Rueben (2002) states that Thoreau’s emphasis on simplification tied into

several of his transcendentalist beliefs. First, an individual was not only the spiritual

center of the universe, but also the clue to history, nature and the cosmos; Therefore, all

knowledge must begin with knowing the self (Rueben 2002). Second, nature was a living

mystery and is full of signs. Third, individual happiness depended on self-realization.

Simplification of lifestyle would allow individuals the liberty of being able to be the

center of one’s own world and to seek knowledge in nature, as Transcendentalists

believed each individual should. Thoreau idealized the Spartan simplicity of such people

as the American Indians, whose priorities and lifestyles allowed them to focus on issues

of the mind and the soul.

All of these issues — social materialism, simplification of lifestyle, and the

necessities of life -- were not considered by Thoreau to be grand philosophical issues, but

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were everyday problems which touched the lives of all people. His “here and now”

approach was both immediate and practical:

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but to so love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically. (Thoreau Walden 270)

Using his prophetic voice, he was aiming more at immediate individual reform and self-

realization than at a broad social reform movement. The discussion will now move on to

explore Thoreau’s audiences, who he attempted to reach and who might have had access

to his works during his lifetime.

Thoreau's Audience

Steven Fink (1995) has written extensively on Thoreau and his audience. He

begins by pointing out that the factors which determine any literary audience include the

literary marketplace, how the writer defines himself/herself and the writer’s goals. To

determine Thoreau’s audience, Fink (1995, 71) believes a number of questions must be

asked: What type of influence did Thoreau want to have on his audience? Who did he

hope would read his works or hear his lectures? How did he hope to attract and sustain

his audience? and Who had access to the books, magazines and lyceums? It is clear that

Thoreau had ambitions of publishing his works. He wrote about the benefits of publishing

written work in a college essay entitled, “Methods of Gaining or Exercising Public

Influence” (Fink 1995, 73) and about having public influence: “I have no private good --

unless it be my peculiar ability to serve the public” (Thoreau Journal 1393).

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Thoreau began his public writing in the Dial, a Transcendentalist magazine with a

small circulation. However, the Dial proved to be too radical and esoteric to allow

Thoreau’s work exposure to any broad audience (Fink 1995). After the Dial folded,

Thoreau’s “A Walk to Wassachusett” (1843) was published in the Boston Miscellany, a

literary and fashion magazine aimed at a popular audience. Thoreau was successful in

publishing his works in several other more popular and widely circulated publications.

“Paradise (to be) regained” and “The Landlord” were published by The Democratic

Review in 1843. Three years later, Thoreau was able to obtain the services of Horace

Greeley as his unofficial literary agent. Greeley succeeded at selling Thoreau’s travel and

nature writings to Graham's Magazine and The Union Magazine o f Literature and Art.

Though he found popular audiences receptive to his nature writings, Thoreau really

wanted to be accepted as a serious social critic (Fink, 1995).

Thoreau believed that a more immediate way of gaining the recognition he

wanted was to use the lecture arena to air many of the ideas that mainstream editors shied

away from; but, with the publication of “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau began to gain the

reputation he was looking for as a social critic (Fink 1995). Using multiple venues

Thoreau soon realized that he could appeal to the more popular audiences with his travel

and nature writing, to the abolitionists with works such as “Slavery in Massachusetts,”

and to the audiences o f the lyceum events, which included mostly middle class laborers.

While his first published book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers, was

a commercial failure, Walden was published by one of the most prestigious firms in New

England, Ticknor and Fields (Fink 1995). The book was reviewed widely. In Walden

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Thoreau actually made a clear attempt to identify the audience he was aiming to reach.

He stated that he wanted to say a word to his neighbors, in order to tell them what he

knows about their lives. However, he also stated he was mainly concerned with those

who were spiritually impoverished, or in his words, “the mass of men who are

discontented” (Thoreau Walden 271). Fink (1995) explains this “impoverished” audience:

Having first suggested that ‘Perhaps these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students,’ he therefore subsequently adds, ‘I also have in mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters’ (W 3, 6,16). Thoreau projects into his narrative an implied audience that is essentially benighted, trapped by their own materialism and expediency; but in doing so he implicitly invites his actual readers to identify with the alternative values represented by his search for spiritual enrichment. (Fink 1995, 85)

The message of Walden, then, was aimed at anyone who had bought-in to the illusory

rewards that the capitalistic industrial society promised.

It seems clear that Thoreau thought consciously about who he wanted to reach

and made efforts to reach both a broad and special interest audience. Fink (1995)

demonstrates such consideration on the part of Thoreau by quoting from his Journal:

“After lecturing twice this winter I feel that I am in danger of cheapening myself if by

trying to become a successful lecturer, i.e., to interest my audiences” (Thoreau Journal 7

79). Fink (1995) also believes that these thoughts suggest that Thoreau was

uncomfortable with his relation to the audience. Despite this discomfort, Thoreau was

successful at finding audiences among both the popular literary magazines and the special

interest publications and venues. While the popular magazines audiences were more

receptive to his travel and nature writings, the special interest journals and venues,

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including the middle class lyceum attendees and readers of publications that sympathized

with abolition, proved to be receptive to Thoreau’s social and moral reform ideologies.

Thoreau’s critiques of society were bome out of his religious ideals. His prophetic

mission was to unveil the ways in which society structured individual freedom, including

human relationships with nature. As a writer and speaker Thoreau sought and was

successful in reaching popular and special interest groups. This prophetic mission, in the

questions it raised and its vantage point, was similar to the perspective required of Mills’

sociological imagination and Berger’s four motifs. These similarities now lead the

discussion into research question number one.

Thoreau and Mills’ Criteria

The remainder of this chapter will present evidence to support the argument that

Thoreau possessed a sociological imagination, using Mills’ criteria. Chapter three

reviewed Mills’ sociological imagination, including his three specific questions groups,

which are ask by those possessing a sociological imagination. To review briefly, the first

question is: What is the structure of this particular society as a whole? Mills (1959)

believed that there were a number of subquestions related to this question. These

included: What are the components of society, and how are they related to one another?

How does this society differ from other varieties of social order? and Within a society,

what is the meaning of any particular feature for its continuance and social change?

The second major question asked by those possessing the sociological

imagination is: Where does this particular society stand in human history? Mills (1959)

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stated that additional question related to this are: What are the mechanics by which it is

changing? What is its meaning for the development of humanity as a whole? How does

any particular feature we are examining affect, and how is it affected by, the historical

period in which it moves? What are the essential features of this period? How does the

period being considered differ from other periods? and What are its characteristic ways of

history-making?

Finally, those possessing the sociological imagination also were interested in

asking: What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and in this period?

Mills (1959) believed that in order to answer this, other questions were necessary: What

varieties of men and women are coming to prevail? In what ways are they selected and

formed, liberated and repressed, made sensitive and blunted? What kinds of human

nature are revealed in the conduct and character observed in this society and in this

period? and What is the meaning for human nature of the features of the society being

examined? In order to demonstrate that Thoreau possessed the sociological imagination,

evidence that he actively considered these issues muse be provided. The remainder of

this chapter will demonstrate that Thoreau considered issues from each of these groups of

questions.

Within his works there are three primary questions that Thoreau addressed which

correlate to Mills criteria. It is important to note that few, if any, of the classic social

analysts within the canon explored all of the questions in Mills’ criteria. Thoreau’s

interest in these questions lay within his critique of modernism. In works such as

Walden, “Life without Principle” and “Civil Disobedience,” he addressed structures of

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his society, such as the economy and government, and how these were coming to effect

the individual. In his discussions of the economy and the government, Thoreau also

described the varieties of men and women that prevailed in his society. Finally, he

focused on the place of his society in human history through his comparison of “civilized

man” with the “savage” or “natural man.”

Thoreau’s religious and philosophical ideals were at odds with the sweeping

changes that were taking place in 19th century American society. With the capitalist

economy expanding, industry was altering the workplace, railroads and mills were

changing the landscape and capitalist ethos was altering social values towards fashion

and money. Likewise, the American government was emerging as a more powerful

institution, but its expedience, and often unchecked power, led to injustice.11 With

scientific advances, such as the publication of Darwin’s Origin o f Species (1859), science

was emerging as a prominent method of knowledge. All of these changes served to

adversely affect the individual, which Thoreau so valued.12 He critiqued all of them in an

effort to demonstrate that the evolution of society was not a unilateral process and that

there was much to be learned from more primitive civilizations.

11 Thoreau focused on the government’s willingness to sacrifice American lives in order to gain territory in Mexico. He also was active in abolitionist movements, arguing that no moral government would allow the enslavement of one-sixth of its population.

12 Thoreau believed the self needed to be an autonomous entity. However, the capitalist work structure created obstacles to self-development, the American government forced citizens to acquiesce to its will and science used an objective, rather than a subjective, method of knowledge.

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The American Economic System

Perhaps one of most reoccurring topics of Thoreau’s writings is the American

economic system. His discussions of the effects of the American economy on the

individual life, time, the social value system, and nature address topics from all three of

Mills question groups. These include: What are the components of society? How this

society differs from other varieties of social order? Where this particular society stands in

human history? What is its meaning for the development of humanity as a whole? What

varieties of men and women prevail in the social order? and In what ways are they

selected and formed, liberated and repressed, made sensitive and blunted?

Thoreau was interested in how the evolving industrial capitalist economy was

coming to effect life on a number of levels. First, the economy was structuring the

individual’s daily life with increasing force. Workplace, work time, and leisure time all

became structured by economic forces, resulting in less time for individual development

and human relations. Second, the economic system also structured the social value

system, including social definitions of progress, as well as human and material value. The

ethos of capitalism determined who and what was given value in society, creating a

structure of inequality. Finally, the capitalist system was also structuring physical space,

the environment, and human relation to the environment.

Thoreau began “Life without Principle” with a call to consider “the way we spend

our lives” (Thoreau “Life without Principle” 632), making the claim that there has been

little “written on the subject of getting a living” (Thoreau “Life without Principle” 637).

From the reformers of history to modem thinkers, society has provided little input on the

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issue. Thoreau believed it was a most timely issue given the state of the American

economic system of his time. He saw his world as a place of non-stop industry:

The world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! I am awakened almost every night by the panting of the locomotive.... there is no Sabbath. It would be great to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work. I cannot easily by a blank-book to write my thoughts in; they are commonly ruled for dollars and cents I think there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, to life itself, than this incessant business. (Thoreau “Life without Principle” 632)

This world of non-stop work and industry was an obstacle to the real business of life,

self-development.

How the Economy Structured Individual Life

Thoreau’s primary critique of the market system was that it functioned as a place

of servility and humiliation rather than a place of self-dependence, extinguishing

independence, self-development, the individual and life itself (Gilmore 1985). The

economy was increasingly structuring individuals’ lives, alienating them from themselves

and others, while instilling anxiety and desperation. As consumers, individuals became

more preoccupied with superfluous activities, and as workers humans became no more

than a machine. Thoreau believed that one could not even spend time developing

relationships with others due to preoccupations and fear of losing ground in the

marketplace:

Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that. Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true

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integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the market. He has no time to be anything but a machine. (Thoreau Walden 261)

But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon ploughed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed,. . . It is a fool’s life,. . . The finest qualities of our nature, like the blooms of fruit, can be preserved only by die most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly. (Thoreau Walden 261-262)

It is very evident what mean and sneaking lives many of you live; for my sight has been whetted by experience; always on the limits, trying to get into business and trying to get out of debt. . . that you may persuade your neighbor to let you make his shoes, or his hat, or his coat, or his carriage, or import his groceries for him; making yourselves sick, that you may lay up something against a sick day, something to be tucked away in an old chest. . . no matter how much or how little. (Thoreau Walden 262)

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation . . . A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes only after work. (Thoreau Walden 263)

The incessant anxiety and strain of some is a well-nigh incurable form of disease. We are made to exaggerate the importance of what work we do; and yet how much is not done by us! or, what if we had been taken sick? How vigilant we are! (Thoreau Walden 266)

The ways by which you may get money almost without exception lead downward. To have done anything by which you earned money merely is to have been truly idle or worse. If the laborer gets no more than the wages which his employer pays him, he is cheated, he cheats himself... .Those services which the community will most readily pay for, it is most disagreeable to render. You are paid for being something less than a man. (Thoreau “Life Without Principle” 634)

A fixation on work ethic extinguished human dignity. Thoreau believed that many of the

best parts of humans were squandered on this lifestyle. It was a “downward spiral” of

sickness, desperation and anxiety. Individuals were cheating themselves out of what they

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could become. In short, workers became no more than animals. Thoreau makes this case

when discussing the use of animals in farm labor:

I am wont to think that men are not so much the keepers of herds as herds are the keepers of me, the former are so much the freer. Men and oxen exchange work; but if we consider necessary work only, the oxen will be seen to have greatly the advantage, their farm is so much the larger.. . . When men begin to do.. .but luxurious and idle work, with their assistance [animals], it is inevitable that a few do all the exchange work with the oxen, or, in other words, become the slaves of the strongest. Man thus not only works for the animal within him, but, for a symbol of this, he works for he animal without him. (Thoreau Walden 310-311)

The effect of this system was objectification and the invalidation of life. Thoreau’s

definition of cost demonstrates his views on how the capitalist system invalidated life:

“The cost of anything is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be

exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run” (Thoreau Walden 286). As workers,

individuals became objectified in the market experience, which was contrary to the

subjective experience Thoreau and the rest of the Transcendentalists were seeking.

Thoreau observed the market’s hold on the individual. Many, he thought, saw the

market as the only choice in getting a living. Michael Gilmore (1985, 39) believes that

Thoreau recognized “fetishism of fashion” (which will be discussed shortly) and the

“reification” of the market:

By mystifying or obscuring man’s involvement in the production of his social reality, reification leads him to apprehend that reality as ‘second nature.’ He perceives the social realm as an immutable social order over which he exerts no control. The result is to greatly diminish the possibility of human freedom. (Gilmore 1985, 39)

Thoreau’s writings render Gilmore’s conclusion valid. Humans viewed their situation as

“fate,” and believed that there was no choice left:

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But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon ploughed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed . . . it is a fool’s life. (Thoreau Walden 261)

Yet they honestly think there is no choice left. But alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear. It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true to day may turn out to be falsehood to-morrow, mere smoke of opinion, which some had trusted for a cloud that would sprinkle fertilizing rain on their fields. What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new. (Thoreau Walden 264)

We are made to exaggerate the importance of what work we do; and yet how much is not done by us! . . . So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibility of change. This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre. All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant. Confucius said, ‘To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.’ When one man has reduced a fact of the imagination to be a fact to his understanding, I foresee that all men at length establish their lives on that basis. (Thoreau Walden 266-267)

Thoreau believed that many had established their lives on the idea that the market was

fact, and a natural aspect of society. Humans believed they had “no choice,” denying

“change,” rather than entertain the “many ways” they might solve the problem of

livelihood. The “better parts” of humanity were being wasted by the beliefs that the

market was the only way.

How the Economy Structured Time

As Thoreau sought a more non-conventional and non-linear lifestyle, capitalism

was structuring time more than ever. The economy was not only structuring how people

were “getting their living,” but also how they were spending their time. Time had become

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a commodity, or form of capital. Both work and leisure time became more structured.

With a new cost-benefit measurement of time, more time was spend on work, which

resulted in decreased time spent on self-development activities. The whole “village day”

was becoming structured by the temporal agents of capitalism:

The startings and arrivals of the cars are now the epochs in the village day. They go and come with such regularity and precision, and their whistle can be heard so far, that the farmers set their clocks by them, and thus one well conducted institution regulates a whole country. Have not men improved somewhat in punctuality since the railroad was invented? Do the not talk and think faster in the depot than they did in the stage-office? ... To do things ‘railroad fashion’ is now the by-word;. . . We have constructed a fate, an Atropos, that never turns aside. (Thoreau Walden 369-370)

James Guthrie (2001) has written extensively on Thoreau’s view of time. He

points out that Thoreau, who was a measurer by trade, was familiar with making exact

calculations of distance, time and volume. Thoreau spent much of his time in nature

measuring the depth of lakes, and other phenomena. Yet, Thoreau was actually seeking a

reform of structured time, particularly the commodification of it. Time had become an

object, and experience of it was objectified, rather than the Transcendental ideal of

subjective experience (Guthrie 2001, 131). Thoreau believed the human construct of time

had no equivalent in nature. In his emphasis on experiencing the present moment,

Thoreau drew a distinction between economic constructs of time, and time experienced

naturally (Guthrie 2001). Thoreau’s idea o f time was tied to his views on experiencing

nature:

The message implicit within Thoreau’s distinctive blend of fact and mysticism is that although we may tell ourselves we are perceiving the ‘wild’ when we visit the remote forests, or even when we penetrate to the depths of our unconscious, it is only when we can truly gauge the depth,

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splendor, and persistence of time that we will truly be seeing, for the first time, the ‘wild’ ... (Guthrie 2001,250)

Thoreau also wanted to point out the illusions of the capitalist incentive system in

regards to time. Many workers were motivated by the logic that the more money they

had, the more free time they would possess. Thoreau argued that this was incorrect.

Humans had less free time than ever, despite having more luxuries. Materialism altered

time as well, since the more debt people went in to buying goods, the more their time was

owed to someone else (Guthrie 2001). The larger the home or farm that one owned, the

more time was required for upkeep.

Thoreau looked to the East to offering advice on time to the West, in order to

transcend conventional time. He constructed a model of temporal differences between the

occidental and the oriental (Guthrie 2001). While Thoreau’s message is laden with

symbolism, the point is clear:

Behold the difference between the Oriental and Occidental. The former has nothing to do with this world; the latter is full of activity ... There is a struggle between the oriental and occidental in every nation; some who would forever be contemplating the sun, and some who are hastening toward the sunset... the former walketh but in that night, when all things go to rest in the night of time. The contemplative Moonee sleepeth but in the day of time, when all things wake. (Thoreau A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, 141)

Those with an oriental view of time operate where time is not operative, sleeping when

the rest of the world is bustling and active when this bustling “sets.” These individuals

had transcended conventional time. The ability to transcend the hold and structure that

conventional time enacted on individuals would actually improve relations with other

humans, Thoreau believed. He commented on how relations were actually better in

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nature, where temporal pressures were not applied to the relationship dynamics: “I had

more visitors while I lived in the woods than at any other period in my life; I mean that I

had some. I met several there under more favorable circumstances than I could anywhere

else. But fewer came to see me on trivial business” (Thoreau Walden 394). He pointed to

his own experiment at Walden to demonstrate the possibilities of transcending

conventional time.

How the Economy Structured the Social Value System

Thoreau also believed that the economic system was structuring the social value

system. This value system, in turn, affected social relations. He observed that much of the

population bought-in to the ethos under which capitalism functioned. He argued that

capitalist ethos structured the social value of material items, such as the need for a large

and omate home, and the worth attributed to individuals. Capitalist ethos had become

entrenched not only in the other social institutions, such as the political system, but also

in the American value system. Economy had become the sacred “truth” by which most

lived their lives:

So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibility of change. This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre. All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant. Confucius said, ‘To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.’ When one man has reduced a fact of the imagination to be a fact to his understanding, I foresee that all men at length establish their lives on that basis. (Thoreau Walden 266-267)

And I thought, such is the labor which the American Congress exists to protect -- honest, manly toil -- honest as the day is long — that makes his

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bread taste sweet, and keeps society sweet -- which all men respect and have consecrated; one of the sacred band, doing the needful, but irksome drudgery. (Thoreau “Life without Principle” 634)

As society came to consider these “truths” to be “fact,” they began to base their lives on

these ideals and protecting them as “sacred.”

Concrete examples of these “truths” were made clear by Thoreau as he explored

how material items were given social value, or became fetishized. In particular, he looked

at social ideas about clothing. He first considered the basic utility of clothing and how,

with the capitalist ethos, need evolved into something altogether different:

As for clothing, to come at once to the practical part o f the question, perhaps we are left oftener by love of novelty and a regard for the opinions of men, in procuring it, than by true utility. Let him who has work to do recollect that the object of clothing is, first, to retain the vital heat, and secondly, in this state of society, to cover nakedness, and he may judge how much of any necessary or important work may be accomplished without adding to his wardrobe. (Thoreau Walden 276)

The effect of applying a social value to clothing, in a capitalist society, was that decisions

about which clothes to purchase or wear were based on public opinion, novelty and

fashion, rather than utility. Anxiety and scrutiny over clothing trumped more important

matters, such as tending to the conscience:

No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch on his clothes; yet I am sure that there is a greater anxiety, commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean and unpatched clothes, than to have a sound conscience.... I sometimes try my acquaintances by such tests as this- who could wear a patch, or two extra seams only, over the knee? Most behave as if the believed their prospects for life would be ruined if they should do it. It would be easier for them to hobble to town with a broken leg than with a broken pantaloon (Thoreau Walden 277)

Fashion had become the subject of the individual and social conscience, as the public

believed that their “prospects for life” could be damaged by their clothing choices.

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Thoreau argued that many were “sailing under false colors” if the authority of public

opinion on the issue of clothing had become a crisis in their lives:

Our moulting season, like that of the fowl’s, must be a crisis in our lives. The loon retires to the solitary pond to spend it. Thus also the snake casts its slough, and the catepillar its wormy coat, by an internal industry and expansion; for clothes are but our outermost cuticle and mortal coil. Otherwise we shall be sailing under false colors, and be inevitably cashiered by our own opinion, as well as that of mankind. (Thoreau Walden 279)

This opinion, or “truth” by which most lived, often became the “authority” of the market,

eventually structuring values of consumption. For example, Thoreau described an

incident where he had requested a particular form of clothing, but his tailoress informed

him that he was out of style:

When I ask for a garment of particular form, my tailoress tells me gravely, ‘They do not make them so now,’ not emphasizing the ‘They’ at all, as if she quoted an authority as impersonal as the Fates, and I find it difficult to get made what I want, simply because she cannot believe that I mean what I say, that I am so rash that I may find out by what degree of consanguinity They are related to me, and what authority they may have in an affair which affects me so nearly; and, finally, I am inclined to answer her with equal mystery, and without any more emphasis of the ‘they’--... Of what use this measuring of me if she does not measure my character, but only the breadth of my shoulders, as if it were a peg to hang the coat on. We worship not the Graces, nor the Parcae, but Fashion. She spins and weaves and cuts with full authority. The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveller’s cap and all the monkeys in America do the same. (Thoreau Walden 280)

The markets, however, were not strictly governed by structured authoritarian

dictates; there was not simply a “they” who prescribe market behavior, as Thoreau’s

tailoress suggested. Rather, consumer behavior within the market and public opinion

toward particular products was often whimsical, leaving the manufacturers clamoring to

figure out the most desired and contemporary fashions:

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The childish and savage tastes of men and women for new patterns keeps how many shaking and squinting through the kaleidescopes that they may discover the particular figure which this generation requires today. The manufacturers have learned that this is merely whimsical. Of two patterns which differ only by a few threads more or less of a particular color, the one will be sold readily, the other lie on the shelf, though it frequently happens that after the lapse of a season the latter becomes the most fashionable. (Thoreau Walden 281)

In this materialist culture, consumer behavior was not driven by utility or need, but a

desire to be “fashionable.” Capitalist ethos structured the primary motives of consumer

behavior.

How the Economy Structured the Value Attributed to Individuals

Thoreau also focused on how the capitalist ethos structured the social value

attributed to human activity and ultimately to humans themselves, resulting in social

stratification. The capitalist value system determined which activities, and, by

association, which individuals were characterized as valuable, industrious, efficient, or

There is a coarse and boisterous money-making fellow ... who is going to build a bank wall under the hill along the meadow and he wishes me to spend three weeks there digging with him If I do this, most will commend me as a working an industrious and hard working man; but if I chose to devote myself to certain real labors which yield more profit, though but little money, they may be inclined to look on me as an idler.. . . If a man walk in the woods for the love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed as an industrious and enterprising citizen. (Thoreau “Life Without Principle” 632-633)

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The value of a person increasingly became attributed to the utility of their physical body,

or their contributions to the market:

If a man was tossed out of a window as an infant, and so made a cripple for life, or scared out of his wits by Indians, it is regretted chiefly because he was thus incapacitated for — business. (Thoreau “Life Without Principle” 632)

I see advertisements for active young men, as if activity where the whole of a young man’s capital. (Thoreau “Life without Principle” 635)

Commonly, if men want anything of me, it is only to know how many acres I make o f their land -- Since I am a surveyor — or, at most, what trivial news I have burdened myself with. They never go for my meat; they prefer the shell. (Thoreau “Life without Principle” 631)

The result of this social value system was increased social stratification. As

fashion became worshiped, or fetishized, characteristics which were a result of social

relations, such as status, became attributed to certain types of clothing. Those with less

desirable clothes or less worthy careers were, themselves, deemed less desirable and less

worthy. Outward or non-personal attributes, such as clothing or careers, were used to

asses internal characteristics, such as individual character. Material goods, such as

clothing, were increasingly used to symbolize class status:

It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes. Could you, in such a case, tell surely of any company civilized men which belonged to the most respected class? When Madame Pfeiffer, in her adventurous travels round the world, from east to west, had got so near home as Asiatic Russia, she says that she felt the necessity of wearing other than a traveling dress, when she went to meet authorities, for she ‘was now in a civilized country, where people are judged of by their clothes.’ Even in our democratic New England towns the accidental possession of wealth, and its manifestation in dress and equipage alone, obtain for the possessor almost universal respect. But they who yield such respect, numerous as they are, are so far heathen, and need to have a missionary sent to them. Beside, clothes

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introduce sewing a kind of work which you may call endless; a woman’s dress, at least, is never done. (Thoreau Walden 277-278 )

Aside from assigning certain value to individuals, the ethos of materialism was so

strong that it usurped life itself, such as the sad event of a man’s death. Thoreau

recounted how the death of a local resident brought people out to pawn through his

belongings, rather than to mom his death:

Not long since I was present at the auction o f a deacon’s effects, for his life had not been ineffectual:- ‘The evil that men do lives after them.’ As usual, a great proportion was trumpery which had begun to accumulate in his father’s day.... And now, after lying half a century in his garret and other dust holes, these things were not burned; instead of a bonfire, or purifying destruction of them, there was an auction, or increasing of them. The neighbors eagerly collected to view them, bought them all, and carefully transported them to their garrets and dust holes, to lie there till their estates are settled, when they will start again. When man dies he kicks the dust. (Thoreau Walden 321-322)

The scene Thoreau depicted is analogous to animals scavenging a carcass. Not even in

event of the death of an acquaintance did materialism cease. A life ended, but the life of

the consumer good did not. Materialism had outlived the individual.

Thoreau saw that the economic system was increasingly able to structure

individual life, creating obstacles to individual liberty by instilling anxiety, alienation and

despair.13 He pointed out how society made this system seem natural, with many in

society believing it was the “only choice.” The economic system also structured time,

commodifying and objectifying it. The capitalist ethos assigned different values to

material goods and to individuals. Such values became a “truth” by which humans led

13 Thoreau’s biggest aversion to the capitalist ethos was that it altered the focus, in time and value, off the individual, self-cultivation, and nature, while focusing attention on production and consumption.

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their lives. A large part of the value assigned to human activity was determined by utility,

or how much physical production was provided for the market. The status symbols that

emerged from the fetishism of market goods often led to social stratification.

Objectification and stratification trampled on Thoreau’s championed individual.

However, the economy was also encroaching on another of Thoreau’s sacred arena’s —

nature.

The Economy and Nature

Thoreau was the only major American writer to have made a living from

surveying tracts of land, which gave him a command of geography (Buell 1995b, 276).

This practical view of nature, along with Thoreau’s spiritual understanding of nature, led

him to believe that the current economic structure alienated humans from nature in

several ways. First, the economy was increasingly marketing nature, emptying it of its

spiritual meaning and ruining its purity. Second, the economy was invading and

physically destroying nature in a number of ways, including animal extinction.14 The

result of the physical and symbolic destruction of nature was a change in the way humans

could relate to it. The economy was structuring humans relation to nature.

Thoreau was deeply aware of the role that place played in how individuals

perceived their experience of nature (Schneider 2000,1). Place implied a relationship

between an individual and a context, so a sense of place could actually connect

individuals with the environment, protecting them from separateness and the world’s

14 Thoreau also wrote about the destruction of nature by removal of trees, forest fire and the traces left by humans, including the logging industry.

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indifference (Tuan 1992). Thoreau’s entire purpose for Walden was to present it as a

place, and he attempted to view it in as many ways as he could, from the perspective of

the human, to the view of the fish, bird, and insect (Mcgrath 2000). This “place-sense”

led to human integration into and connection with nature:

From this time forth Walden is solidly established as a place, and we are prepared for the next chapter’s insistence that solitude does not mean isolation, that nature itself is neighborhood (1 3 2 ).... Nature remains other, but connected, meaningful albeit not fully known: not terrain, but place. In the process of perceiving this place-sense for himself, the speaker creates it for the reader also. (Buell 1995a, 268).

Place-sense was important for understanding nature as a neighborhood, as a meaningful

arena of purity, and a stimulus of spiritual exploration. However, Thoreau was more than

aware of the encroachment of industry into the realm of nature and its subsequent effects

on “place”:

The whistle of the locomotive penetrates my woods summer and winter, sounding like the scream of a hawk sailing over some farmer’s yard, informing me that many restless city merchants are arriving within the circle of the town, or adventurous country traders from the other side.. . . timber like long battering rams going twenty miles an hour against the city’s walls . . . Indian huckleberry hills are stripped, all the cranberry meadows are raked into the city; up comes the silk, down goes the woolen; up come the books, but down goes the wit that writes them. If the cloud that hangs over the engine were the perspiration of heroic deeds, or as beneficent as that which floats over the fanner’s fields, then the elements and Nature herself would cheerfully accompany men on their errands and be their escort. (Thoreau Walden 367-368)

Marketing Nature

A number of Thoreau’s works address the marketing of nature by the American

economic system, including Walden, Journal, and The Maine Woods. The market system

had quite a different view of nature than the view Thoreau held. To Thoreau “wealth”

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meant “spiritual purity, simplicity, and leisure,” and Walden was an ideal place for that

“business” (Buell 1995, 153). Nature, itself, was meant to be a place of reflection and

self-cultivation: “A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is

earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature”

(Thoreau Walden 435). It was also meant to be a place of purity:

White Pond and Walden Pond are great crystals on the surface of the earth, Lakes of Light. If they were permanently congealed, and small enough to be clutched, they would, perchance, be carried off by slaves, like precious stones, to adorn the heads of some emperors; but being liquid, and ample, and secured to us and our successors forever, we disregard them. They are too pure to have a market value; they contain no muck. How much more beautiful than our lives, how much more transparent than our characters, are they! (Thoreau Walden 448)

However, capitalism had a different use for nature. Thoreau was troubled by industry’s

encroachment into his “holy nature,” including the traces left behind by the logging

industry (Quetchenbach 2000).15 This encroachment profaned nature, draining it of its

spiritual meaning and purity. Sacred natural objects, such as land or water, were turned

into an investment and the simple farmer was transformed into a businessman.

Now the trunks of trees on the bottom, and the old log canoe, and the dark surrounding woods, are gone, and the villagers, who scarcely know where it lies, instead of going to the pond to bathe or drink, are thinking to bring its water, which should be as sacred as the Ganges at least, to the village in a pipe, to wash their dishes with!—to earn their Walden by the turning of a cock or drawing of a plug! That devilish Iron Horse, whose ear-rending neigh is heard throughout the town, has muddied the Boiling Spring with his foot, and he it is that has browsed off all the woods on Walden shore, that Trojan horse, with a thousand men in his belly, introduced by mercenary Greeks! Where is the country's champion, the Moore of Moore Hill, to meet him at the Deep Cut and

15 In The Maine Woods (93) Thoreau wrote how he was “strangely affected” when he saw a ring bolt drilled into a rock on a solitary lake, which had been left behind by the loggers.

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thrust an avenging lance between the ribs of the bloated pest? (Thoreau Walden 441)

Thoreau believed that the entire process was transformative, altering the nature of the

goods that capitalism had seized from the wilderness and absconding with them back to

the city.

Thoreau discussed his disdain for this transformation process in a number of

ways, including his descriptions of Flint, an entrepreneur of agriculture, the removal of

ice from Walden Pond for commercial purposes, and the transport and marketing of

huckleberries. Flint, the agricultural entrepreneur, is introduced in the chapter o f Walden

entitled “Ponds.” In describing Flint, Thoreau discussed how the use value of natural

objects on the farm was replaced by their exchange value, altering the very nature of the

object (Gilmore 1985, 37). His opinion of Flint is clear:

I respect not his labors, his farm where everything has its price; who would carry the landscape, who would carry his God, to market, if he could get anything for him ;. . . on whose farm nothing grows free, whose fields bear not crops, whose meadows no flowers, whose trees no fruits, but dollars, who loves not the beauty of his fruits, whose fruits are not ripe for him till they are turned to dollars. (Thoreau Walden 445)

Thoreau further explored the marketing of particular natural objects by recounting the

removal of ice from Walden Pond. He described the arrival of a hundred men with sleds,

drill-barrows, turf-knives, spades, saws and pike-staffs who came in the winter of 1846 to

1847 to extract ice from Walden Pond:

They went to work at once, ploughing, harrowing, rolling, furrowing. . . a gang o f fellows by my side suddenly began to hook up the virgin mold itself, with a peculiar jerk, clear down to the sand, or rather to the water-- . . . all the terra firma there was— and haul it away on sleds,... They divided it into cakes ... and these ... were rapidly hauled away to an ice platform, and raised by grappling irons and block and

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tackle, worked by horses, on to a stack . . . They told me that on a good day they could get out a thousand tons, which was to yield about one acre. (Thoreau Walden 535-536)

Yet, he clearly pointed out that this was not the purpose for which nature intended the

lake:

Thus for sixteen days I saw from my window a hundred men at work like busy husbandmen, with teams and horses and apparently all implements of farming .. . I shall look from the same window on the pure sea-green Walden water there, reflecting the clouds and the trees, and sending its evaporations up into solitude . . . or [I] shall see a lonely fisher in his boat, like a floating leaf, beholding his form reflected in the waves, where lately a hundred men securely labored. (Thoreau Walden 538)

Whereas the lake was meant to be an object of reflection, purity and solitude, these

properties were ignored by the workers. The exchange process of nature had emptied

these most important aspects of nature, and structured it as an arena of work.

Likewise, in his description of the transport and marketing of huckleberries on

their way to Boston Thoreau explained the change that the fruit underwent:

The fruits do not yield their true flavor to the purchaser of them, nor to him who raises them for the market.... It is a vulgar error to suppose that you have tasted huckleberries who have never plucked them. A huckleberry never reaches Boston;... The ambrosial and essential part of the fruit is lost with the bloom that is rubbed off in the market cart, and they become mere provender. As long as Eternal Justice reigns, not one innocent huckleberry can be transported thither from the country’s hills. (Thoreau Walden 422)

The “wildness” and truest essence of the fruit was profaned in the exchange process.

Thoreau believed such activity made wilderness “tame and cheap,” because humans

could not read fully into its meaning:

Nowadays almost all man’s improvements, so called, as the building of houses and the cutting down of forests and of all large trees, simply deform the landscape, and make it more and more tame and

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cheap.... while heaven had taken place around him, and he did not see angels going to and fro, but was looking for an old post-hole in the midst of paradise. (Thoreau “Walking” 598)

The Anglo-American can indeed cut down and grub all this waving forest and make a stump speech and vote for Buchanan on its ruins, but he cannot converse with the spirit of the tree he fells — he cannot read the poetry and mythology which retire as he advances. (Thoreau The Maine Woods 229)

The wildness, purity and spiritual utility of nature became depleted by capitalism’s

unnatural definitions of value and utility. The very essence of nature was altered by the

exchange process of industry.

Economy and the Physical Destruction o f Nature

It was not only the spiritual aspects of nature that Thoreau believed were being

transformed, but also the physical. He was aware of the extermination of animals and of

conservation as a public issues (Schneider 2000, 1; Buell 1995a, 173). In his writing

Thoreau noted a spectrum of the imprints that humans had left in the wilderness. In

“Ktaadn,” a chapter of The Maine Woods, he noted a less extreme, yet still disconcerting,

trace left by humans:

But it was still startling to discover so plain a trail of civilized men there. I remember that I was strangely affected when we were returning, by the sight of a ring-bolt well drilled into a rock, and fastened with lead, at the head o f this solitary Ambejijis Lake. (Thoreau The Maine Woods 42)

These footprints of civilization in nature distressed Thoreau, but in Walden he explained

the more intense effects of civilization on nature, as he described an observed change in

the physical area of Walden since his arrival:

When I first paddled a boat on Walden, it was completely surrounded by thick and lofty pine and oak woods . . . But since I left

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those shores the woodchoppers have still further laid them waste, and now for many a year there will be no more rambling through the aisles of wood, with occasional vistas through which you see the water. My Muse may be excused if she is silent henceforth. How can you expect the birds to sing when their groves are cut down? (Thoreau Walden 440-441)

Some of the more extreme impacts Thoreau described were a direct result of the lumber

milling industry. He was aware of the rapid expansion of the milling industry, which was

altering the landscape of a number of areas that he visited in Massachusetts and Maine.

He even spent time visiting the loggers in several camps and mills, documenting the

conditions of work and the characteristics of the workers:

The mills are built directly over and across the rivers . . . as a driven log becomes lumber merely. Think how stood the white-pine tree on the shore of Chesuncook, its branches soughing with the four winds, and every individual needle trembling in the sunlight - think how it stands with it now - sold perchance to the New England Friction Match Company! There were in 1837, as I read, two hundred and fifty saw mills on the Penobscot and its tributaries above Bangor. . . and they sawed two hundred millions of feet of boards annually.. . . The mission of men there seems to be, like so many busy demons, to drive the forest all out of the country, from every solitary beavers swamp, and mountain side, as soon as possible. (Thoreau The Maine Woods 4-5)

Such observations led Thoreau to believe that the lumbering industry was responsible for

the careless destruction of entire forests by accidental fire, due to the fact that the area

itself was devalued after the pines were cut:

The lumberers rarely trouble themselves to put their fires out, such is the dampness of the primitive forest; and this is one cause, no doubt, of the frequent fires in Maine, of which he hear so much on smoky days in Massachusetts. The forests are held cheap after the white pine has been culled out...( Thoreau The Maine Woods 41)

In addition to the removal of trees, Thoreau also noted the effects of the

destruction on other aspects of the ecosystem, including animals. Many of his

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descriptions in Walden included animal activity and animal characteristics, since he

considered animals as some of his closest neighbors, both spiritually and physically. He

pointed out that a partridge, a robin and and a phoebe all made their homes in close

proximity to his cabin. Thoreau took great delight in watching and describing a number

of animals found deep within nature, such as the otter and woodchuck. Such a connection

to and appreciation of the natural world account for his discomfort with the intrusion of

the economy into the forest:

When I consider that the nobler animals have been exterminated here, the cougar, panther, lynx, wolverene, wolf, bear, moose, deer, the beaver, the turkey, etc., etc., — I cannot but feel as if I lived in a tamed, and, as it were, emasculated country,... (Thoreau Journal VIII220)

Animals were as much a part of the wilderness as the vegetation, and as its natural

inhabitants, were an imperative part of the spiritual community of the wilderness:

What is a country without rabbits and partridges? They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and venerable families known to antiquity as to modem times; of the very hue and substance of nature, nearest allied to the leaves and to the ground,— and to one another; it is either winged or it is legged. (Thoreau Walden 523)

In the chapter of Walden entitled "Winter Animals," Thoreau discussed different

types of wildlife, including geese, owls, jays, foxes, rabbits, grouse, mice and even

hunting dogs. He later suggested in the chapter of Walden entitled “Brute Neighbors” that

overhunting of the region was becoming a reality, and he described the hunting ratio as

ten hunters to one loon:

In the fall the loon (Colymbus glacialis) came, as usual, to moult and bathe in the pond, making the woods ring with his wild laughter before I had risen. At rumor of his arrival all the Mill-dam sportsmen are on the alert, in gigs and on foot, two by two and three by three, with patent rifles and conical balls and spy-glasses. They come rustling through the

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woods like autumn leaves, at least ten men to one loon.. . . But now the kind October wind rises, rustling the leaves and rippling the surface of the water, so that no loon can be heard or seen, though his foes sweep the pond with spy-glasses, and make the woods resound with their discharges.... and our sportsmen must beat a retreat to town and shop and unfinished jobs. But they were too often successful. (Thoreau Walden 479)

In dark winter mornings, or in short winter afternoons, I sometimes heard a pack of hounds threading all the woods with hounding cry and yelp, unable to resist the instinct of the chase, and the note of the hunting- horn at intervals, proving that man was in the rear. (Thoreau Walden 519)

Man was in the rear, moving rapidly into nature’s arena, while animal and plant life were

suffering the consequences.

While some consider Thoreau’s work “shallow ecology,” he did have a vision of

sustaining the environment for “healthy for human endeavors” by correcting inefficient

land use practices, saving wilderness areas and preventing pollution (Schneider 2000, 7):

The kings of England formerly had their forests ‘to hold the king’s game,’ for sport or food, sometimes destroying villages to create or extend them; and I think that they are impelled by a true instinct. Why should not we, who have renounced the king’s authority, have our national preserves, where no villages need to be destroyed . . . ’ or shall we, like villains, grub them all up, poaching on our own national domains? (Thoreau The Maine Woods 156)

Each town should have a park, or rather a primitive forest, of 500 or a thousand acres, where a stick should never be cut for fuel, a common possession forever, for instruction and recreation ... (Thoreau “Wild Fruits” 238)

It seems clear that he also had a prophetic view of the physical damage that could be

done if steps were not taken to promptly end the capitalist “exchange value” perspective

of natural resources:

At present, in this vicinity, the best part of the land is not private property; the landscape is not owned, and the walker enjoys comparative

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freedom. But possibly the day will come when it will be partitioned off into so-called pleasure grounds, in which a few will take a narrow and exclusive pleasure only, -- when fences shall be multiplied, and man traps and other engines invented to confine men to the public road, and walking over the surface of God’s earth shall be construed to mean trespassing on some gentleman’s grounds. To enjoy a thing exclusively is commonly to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it. Let us improve our opportunities, then, before the evil days come. (Thoreau “Walking” 602)

This infringement — the traces left behind, fires, deforestation, over-hunting, and

decrease of public land -- functioned to decrease the individual’s physical contact with

nature, including animal life and vegetation.

Capitalism and Human Relationships with Nature

The effect of the spiritual and physical destruction of nature was an alienation of

humans from a proper and spiritually productive relationship with nature. The very way

in which humans could relate to nature was being altered by capitalism: “The explorers,

and lumberers generally are all hirelings, paid so much a day for their labor, and as such,

they have no more love for wild nature, than wood-sawyers have for forests” (Thoreau

The Maine Woods 119). This was quite different than Thoreau’s ideal relationship in

which humans were open to learning what nature had to teach. In reality, they were

taking a different route:

What is it that makes it so hard sometimes to determine whither we will walk? I believe there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright. It is not indifferent to us which way we walk. There is a right way; but we are very liable from heedlessness and stupidity to take the wrong one. (Thoreau “Walking” 602)

Humans were not “yielding” to nature’s magnetism. This was partly due to the fact that in

Thoreau’s society the term “wilderness” was considered uncivilized, ungodly,

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treacherous, pagan, and dirty, and was certainly not a place to seek spiritual clarity

(Duncan 2001, xi).

Thoreau not only took an opposing view, but held that hope for American society,

and even for civilization, could be found in nature, if humans were willing to take an

alternative view of its utility. In nature, he argued, society could not only find more

nourishment than in the materialism that the capitalist ethos was offering, but also

preservation. Nature would serve to “brace mankind” from many of its problems:

The West of which I speak is but another name for the Wild; and what I have been preparing to say is, that in Wilderness is the preservation of the World. Every tree sends its fibres forth in search of the Wild. Cities import it at any price. Men plow and sail for it. From the forest and wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind... . The founders of every state which has risen to eminence have drawn their nourishment and vigor from a similar wild source. (Thoreau “Walking” 609-610)

Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields, not in towns or cities, but in impervious and quaking swamps. (Thoreau “Walking” 611)

How near to good is what is wild. (Thoreau “Walking” 611)

There is strength, the marrow, of Nature... A town is saved, not more by the righteous men in it, than by the woods and swamps that surround it. A township where one primitive forest waves above while another primitive forest rots below,- such a town is fitted to raise not only com and potatoes, but poets and philosophers for the coming ages. (Thoreau “Walking” 613)

Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows which surround it. We need the tonic of wildness, — to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground. (Thoreau Walden 557)

Nature offered society a physical encounter with goodness and strength. Thoreau argued

that if society was willing to accept the succor that nature could provide, it could improve

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both the intellect and the heart. Nature could help direct the thoughts of humans.

Likewise, thoughts, ideas and vision were retarded by a lack of a proper relationship with

nature:

I trust that we shall be more imaginative, that our strengths will be clearer, fresher, and more ethereal, as our sky, — our understanding more comprehensive and broader, like our plains, -- our intellect generally on a grander scale, like our thundering and lightning, our rivers and mountains and forests, -- and our hearts shall even correspond in breadth and depth and grandeur to our inland seas. (Thoreau “Walking” 608)

We are accustomed to say in New England that fewer and fewer pigeons visit us every year. Our forests furnish no masts for them. So, it would seem, fewer and fewer thoughts visit each growing man from year to year, for the grove in our minds is laid to waste, -- sold to feed unnecessary fires o f ambition, or sent to the mill— . . . Our winged thoughts are turned to poultry. They no longer soar... (Thoreau “Walking” 627)

Nature was a “tonic,” and without a relationship with nature and the grand benefits of it,

humans became trapped in a limited world, unaware of their own potential and alienated

from their own natures.

Through the marketing of natural resources the economy was encroaching into

nature, altering its spiritual essence, and yolking its exchange value, rather than its purity

and potential for self-cultivation. The economy was also physically destroying nature,

through deforestation, fires, hunting, and inefficient use of land. The effect of these

trends was an alienation of humans from nature and a structuring of their relation to it.

The relationship could offer social benefits, such as preservation, higher order thinking

and hope. Yet, the opportunities for such relationships were being destroyed by the

expanding market system, according to Thoreau.

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The American Government

Several of Thoreau’s works, such as his well-known treatise on the American

government, “Civil Disobedience,” and “Slavery in Massachusetts,” contain his ideas on

government as a social institution, his opinions on the political character of his fellow

citizens and his views of social change and progress. These topics correspond to

questions from all three of Mills criteria groups. Questions from group one that Thoreau

addressed include: What are the components of society? and How does this society differ

from other varieties of social order? Questions from group two include: What varieties of

men and women prevail in the social order? and In what ways are they selected and

formed, liberated and repressed, made sensitive and blunted? Questions from group three

include: Where does this particular society stand in human history? and What is its

meaning for the development o f humanity as a whole?

In his essays Thoreau explored how the government trampled on individual

liberty. The utilitarian, or as Thoreau referred to it, “expedient,” government imposed its

will on the individual conscience. Thoreau also critiqued the character of the American

citizen, whom he believed was unwilling to take action necessary to stand against the

government. The inaction of citizens helped allow the will of the state to take precedence

over their individual beliefs and consciences. Thoreau also pointed out that the notion of

American freedom was, in many ways, an illusion.16

16 Thoreau argued that “American” democracy required the citizen to acquiesce the individual will to the will of the government.

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Government and the individual

Thoreau believed that the government was unjust, and that it perpetuated

inequality, utilitarianism, and brute force.17 While many take Thoreau’s statement, “The

government is best which governs least” (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 109) as a call for

no government, this was not his intent. Thoreau’s writings demonstrate this:

But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-govemment men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 111)

He believed the powerful political system of his time was eliminating the most natural

aspect of the person by placing one’s duty as a citizen and to the law above duty to the

individual conscience and morality. To Thoreau, the government that trampled on the

individual was certainly not the pinnacle of political evolution, nor the most effective, as

many citizens believed. He argued that further progress could be made over the current

system. Thoreau also argued that the role of any government was to make life more

valuable. Yet, he saw his government as decreasing life’s value by placing the

importance of allegiance to the state as a citizen over the moral conscience of the

individual. To Thoreau, this was living hell:

I dwelt before, perhaps, in the illusion that my life passed somewhere only between heaven and hell, but now I cannot persuade myself that I do not dwell wholly within hell. The site of that political organization called Massachusetts is to me morally covered with volcanic scoriae and cinders, such as Milton describes in the infernal regions. If there is any hell more unprincipled than our rulers, and we, the ruled, I feel curious to see it. Life

17 Slavery, the “majority rules” approach to decision making, and government use of force with its citizens were three examples of injustice.

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itself being worth less, all things with it, which minister to it, are worth less. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 106-107)

The utilitarian aspect of the American government system asked the individual to

acquiesce to its will with the understanding that the government would act in the interest

of all. Such an agreement, Thoreau argued, was unjust, since the government was

ultimately imposing its will on the individual. This agreement between the citizen and the

state resulted in a decreased value of the individual, and, ultimately, a number of social

injustices, including slavery and the Mexican War. Thoreau also argued that such an

agreement stifled individuality and denied humanity, interfering with the individual’s

own path to self development and cultivation:

I would remind my countrymen that they are to be men first, and Americans only at a late and convenient hour. No matter how valuable law may be to protect your property, even to keep soul and body together, if it do not keep you and humanity together. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 102)

I feel that, to some extent, the State has fatally interfered with my lawful business. It has not only interrupted me in my passage through Court Street on errands o f trade, but it has interrupted me and every man on his onward and upward path, on which he had trusted soon to leave Court Street far behind. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 107)

Thoreau explored a number of mechanisms within the government that

disempowered and devalued the individual. These mechanisms included expediency, the

power structure, a view o f law as a symbol of morality, and physical force. Beginning

with the first of these, it is evident that Thoreau detested the utilitarian approach of the

government, with its focus on expediency, majority vote, and legal dictates, rather than

individual conscience and morality:

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This is expediency, or choosing that course which offers the slightest obstacles to the feet, that is, a downhill one. But there is no such thing as accomplishing a righteous reform by the use of ‘expediency.’ ...... Will mankind never learn that policy is not morality -- that it never secures any moral right, but considers merely what is expedient? chooses the available candidate — who is invariably the Devil — and what right have his constituents to be surprised, because the Devil does not behave like an angel of light? What is wanted is men, not of policy, but of probity — who recognize a higher law than the Constitution, or the decision of the majority. The fate of the country does not depend on how you vote at the polls — the worst man is as strong as the best at that game; it does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot-box once a year, but on what kind of man you drop from your chamber into the street every morning. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 103-104)

Thoreau believed the logic of the “majority rules” approach to policy, which held that the

majority would make the morally correct decisions, was flawed. Any system that required

individuals to resign their consciences to legislators and to the majority was doomed to

immorality.18 The voice of the majority was often determined through voting, which

Thoreau viewed as an activity of chance where the individual conscience was only

counted when it is in the majority. Voting, to Thoreau, was merely an act of making

one’s desires known, not acting on those desires:

All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even votingybr the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 115-116)

18 Thoreau was suspicious of authority figures and of the mainstream belief system of capitalism Any encroachment of these entities onto an individual’s autonomy was a threat to liberty, in general.

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Voting did not express one’s ability and motivation to actually exercise the individual

will, nor the morally correct option, by acting. While voting did enable expediency,

Thoreau believed it left the individual will and morality to chance. The mere existence of

a conscience suggested to Thoreau that humans should be individuals before citizens, and

that decisions of right and wrong should be made by the individual conscience, not the

majority.

Thoreau also recognized how power and force were used as a mechanism to

subdue the individual in society. The power and dominance of the majority, according to

Thoreau, was not because the majority were right, nor the most fair, but were simply the

strongest:

After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?—in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 111)

Thoreau argued that those who were considered enemies of the state were not confronted

on moral or intellectual terms, but with physical force. The government often used its

physical strength or threats to impose its will. This was a form of enslavement, as the

threat of force often subdued people into serving or complying with the state’s interest:

Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not bom

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to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They only can force me who obey a higher law than I. They force me to become like themselves. I do not hear of men being forced to have this way or that by masses of men. What sort of life were that to live? When I meet a government which says to me, ‘Your money or your life,’ why should I be in haste to give it my money? It may be in a great strait, and not know what to do. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 126-127)

The ability to employ physical force on the individual led to government abuse of

power and other injustices. By imposing their will on the individual, the government

authority figures perpetuated injustice, inequality and abuse — the ultimate sins against

the individual and liberty. Thoreau had little confidence in these government authority

figures, since power was held in the hands of an unrepresentative few. Authority figures,

including judges and governors, wielded a great deal of power, often unfairly. Particular

abuses by government figures about whom Thoreau wrote and spoke were the Mexican

War and slavery. For example, military forces were used on a broad level to further the

political and economic agendas of a limited number of people, including hunting down

slaves. Thoreau viewed these actions as government sanctioned inequality:

The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 109-110)

The whole military force of the State is at the service of a Mr. Suttle, a slaveholder from Virginia, to enable him to catch a man whom he calls his property; but not a soldier is offered to save a citizen of Massachusetts from being kidnapped! Is this what all these soldiers, all this training, have been for these seventy-nine years past? Have they been trained merely to rob Mexico and carry back fugitive slaves to their masters? (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 94-95)

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Because of their willingness to use government as a tool, Thoreau questioned the source

of these figures’ authority, as well as their morality and motives. He believed their

leadership was not commissioned by God, nor by moral statutes. Often, these leaders did

not even execute the laws of the state, but chose instead to use their influence and

authority on the side of the slave holder:

Again it happens that the Boston Court-House is full of armed men, holding prisoner and trying a MAN, to find out if he is not really a SLAVE. Does any one think that justice or God awaits Mr. Loring's decision? For him to sit there deciding still, when this question is already decided from eternity to eternity, and the unlettered slave himself and the multitude around have long since heard and assented to the decision, is simply to make himself ridiculous. We may be tempted to ask from whom he received his commission, and who he is that received it; what novel statutes he obeys, and what precedents are to him of authority. Such an arbiter's very existence is an impertinence. We do not ask him to make up his mind, but to make up his pack. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 92)

I had thought that the Governor was, in some sense, the executive officer of the State; that it was his business, as a Governor, to see that the laws of the State were executed; while, as a man, he took care that he did not, by so doing, break the laws of humanity; but when there is any special important use for him, he is useless, or worse than useless, and permits the laws of the State to go unexecuted What I am concerned to know is, that that man's influence and authority were on the side of the slaveholder, and not o f the slave -- of the guilty, and not of the innocent -- of injustice, and not of justice. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 94)

Thoreau pointed to the expedient and unjust political process to argue that the means by

which these few authority figures were selected was problematic, since the choices were

limited and certainly not representative of the population at large.

I hear of a convention to be held at Baltimore, or elsewhere, for the selection of a candidate for the Presidency, made up chiefly of editors, and men who are politicians by profession; but I think, what is it to any independent, intelligent, and respectable man what decision they may come to? Shall we not have the advantage of his wisdom and honesty,

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nevertheless? Can we not count upon some independent votes? . . . He forthwith adopts one of the candidates thus selected as the only available one, thus proving that he is himself available for any purposes of the demagogue. His vote is of no more worth than that of any unprincipled foreigner or hireling native, who may have been bought. Oh for a man who is a man, and, as my neighbor says, has a bone in his back which you cannot pass your hand through! (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 116-117)

The “trammeled” judgment of one person was as problematic as majority rule.

Thoreau and other “friends of liberty” believed that the administration of justice by such

authorities was mere accident, and it would even be better to trust the opinion of the

masses than the opinion of one government leader, since the latter choice left the fate of

millions in the hands of a few:

Recent events will be valuable as a criticism on the administration of justice in our midst, or, rather, as showing what are the true resources of justice in any community. It has come to this, that the friends of liberty, the friends of the slave, have shuddered when they have understood that his fate was left to the legal tribunals of the country to be decided. Free men have no faith that justice will be awarded in such a case. The judge may decide this way or that; it is a kind of accident, at best. It is evident that he is not a competent authority in so important a case. It is no time, then, to be judging according to his precedents, but to establish a precedent for the future. I would much rather trust to the sentiment of the people. In their vote you would get something of some value, at least, however small; but in the other case, only the trammeled judgment of an individual, of no significance, be it which way it might. But think of leaving it to any court in the land to decide whether more than three millions of people, in this case a sixth part of a nation, have a right to be freemen or not! But it has been left to the courts of justice, so called — to the Supreme Court of the land -- and, as you all know, recognizing no authority but the Constitution, it has decided that the three millions are and shall continue to be slaves. Such judges as these are merely the inspectors of a pick-lock and murderer's tools . . . and there they think that their responsibility ends. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 97)

The so called “courts of justice” were scant resources of true justice. Though a

change was needed, Thoreau knew these leaders drew their livelihood and status from the

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current political system, and were likely to do little to change the system. He

demonstrated perhaps his closest parallel to Mills’ sociological imagination when

discussing the extreme bias of the government authorities. These figures were unable, in

Mills’ words, to “think themselves away” from their social situation and look anew it

objectively. Thoreau noticed the incapability of government leaders to adopt such a

perspective in order to behold facts of the very institution in which they work:

I know that most men think differently from myself; but those whose lives are by profession devoted to the study of these or kindred subjects, content me as little as any. Statesmen and legislators, standing so completely within the institution, never distinctly and nakedly behold it. They speak of moving society, but have no resting-place without it.. . . Still, his quality is not wisdom, but prudence. The lawyer's truth is not truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.. . . he is unable to take a fact out of its merely political relations, and behold it as it lies absolutely to be disposed of by the intellect-- what, for instance, it behooves a man to do here in America to-day with regard to slavery, but ventures, or is driven, to make some such desperate answer as the following, while professing to speak absolutely, and as a private man—from which what new and singular code of social duties might be inferred? (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 133-135)

I am sorry to say that I doubt if there is a judge in Massachusetts who is prepared to resign his office, and get his living innocently, whenever it is required of him to pass sentence under a law which is merely contrary to the law of God. I am compelled to see that they put themselves, or rather are by character, in this respect, exactly on a level with the marine who discharges his musket in any direction he is ordered to. They are just as much tools, and as little men. Certainly, they are not the more to be respected, because their master enslaves their understandings and consciences, instead of their bodies. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 102-103)

Few were willing to resign from their authority positions, even when their beliefs

contradicted with the law. Fewer were able to “behold a fact,” our to observe objectively,

outside of their political relations and individual intellects. In other words, most were

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unable to divorce their own personal interests and biography from their decisions. Like

the soldier, these figures took orders, but were enslaved through their conscience, rather

than their bodies.

An additional problem of the political process that suppressed the individual was

the public view of law as analogous to morality. The law, and the Constitution in

particular, were the absolute standard by which expedient decisions were made. This

absolute respect for the law denigrated humans.19 Thoreau believed that more than

respect for law, society needed a respect for the right. Law did nothing to make humans

more just. Mere respect for law made humans into objects, or “shadows of humanity”

which were living in body, but dead in intellect and conscience:

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder- monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart.. . . Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power? Visit the Navy Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts—a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments, . . . (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 111-112)

19 In Thoreau’s view, the individual had no moral discrepancy when the law was imposed on them. This was even more degrading when the law, itself, was immoral.

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Thoreau argued that if individuals were allowed to use their consciences, the collective

action of these individual consciences might effect an entire corporation or institution.

Instead, they were deemed “good citizens” if they joined the militia or standing army,

while those who served the state with their consciences were considered enemies.

Thoreau believed those deemed “good citizens” were truly no more free to exercise their

will than stones or wood:

The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 112)

This labeling process, often determined by laws, functioned to keep citizens attuned to

the social value system. Thoreau believed the best citizens were labeled and treated as

enemies, while those who conformed were labeled “good citizens.”

Thoreau saw the dangers of the government as an institution, with its emphasis on

expediency, citizenry, majority, law and its unrepresentative and unjust authority figures.

These were a substantial threat to the individual, freedom and morality. With a utilitarian

approach, and laws that were drafted and voted on by only a few authority figures, the

will of the individual was suppressed. Yet, there was another force at work which

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threatened individual liberty of many, as well as morality. This factor was the character

of the American people.

Character o f the American People

While Thoreau did see the government as a forceful social structure that trampled

on individual freedom, he also believed the character of the American people did nothing

to change this situation. He criticized all citizens, particularly New Englanders, whose

character was marred by complacency in the face of injustice. He believed his fellow

New Englanders were more interested in commerce and territory than liberty. Even if

they spoke out against injustice, they were not likely to act on these sentiments:

I lately attended a meeting of the citizens of Concord, expecting, as one among many, to speak on the subject of slavery in Massachusetts; but I was surprised and disappointed to find that what had called my townsmen together was the destiny of Nebraska, and not of Massachusetts, and that what I had to say would be entirely out of order.... but though several of the citizens of Massachusetts are now in prison for attempting to rescue a slave from her own clutches, not one of the speakers at that meeting expressed regret for it, not one even referred to it. It was only the disposition of some wild lands a thousand miles off which appeared to concern them. The inhabitants of Concord are not prepared to stand by one of their own bridges, but talk only of taking up a position on the highlands beyond the Yellowstone River. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 91)

Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts are not a hundred thousand politicians at the South, but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here, who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and are not prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 114-115)

Thoreau believed that the majority of citizens were not “men of principle.” Most were

more concerned with how their resources were being allocated by Congress and in

obeying the law than with how their neighbors were being unjustly treated:

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The majority of the men of the North, and of the South and East and West, are not men of principle. If they vote, they do not send men to Congress on errands of humanity; but while their brothers and sisters are being scourged and hung for loving liberty, while - - 1 might here insert all that slavery implies and is -- it is the mismanagement of wood and iron and stone and gold which concerns them. Do what you will, O Government, with my wife and children, my mother and brother, my father and sister, I will obey your commands to the letter. It will indeed grieve me if you hurt them, if you deliver them to overseers to be hunted by bounds or to be whipped to death; but, nevertheless, I will peaceably pursue my chosen calling on this fair earth, until perchance, one day, when I have put on mourning for them dead, I shall have persuaded you to relent. Such is the attitude, such are the words of Massachusetts. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 102)

Thoreau pointed out that while most waited for others to tend to injustices, their attention

was instead focused on free trade. Though some were, in opinion, opposed to slavery and

war, their inaction spoke loudly for the character. Their actions of regret, mild petition

and even voting led to little change:

There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of freedom to the question of free-trade, and quietly read the prices-current along with the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner, and, it may be, fall asleep over them both. What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot to-day? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance and Godspeed, to the right, as it goes by them. There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 115)

In addition to inaction and complacency was financial support. While many were

against slavery and the Mexican war, Thoreau saw their allegiance to the state through

tax payment and other means as proxy support of the government and its activities:

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See what gross inconsistency is tolerated. I have heard some of my townsmen say, ‘I should like to have them order me out to help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico~see if I would go’; and yet these very men have each, directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a substitute. The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by those whose own act and authority he disregards and sets at naught;... Thus, under the name of Order and Civil Government, we are all made at last to pay homage to and support our own meanness. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 117-118)

Thoreau believed that cooperation with and support for the government, or inactivity in

the face of justice, resulted from fear. Many citizens saw the government as a form of

protection, and feared losing their property or being harassed if they did not continue

their support:

When I converse with the freest of my neighbors, I perceive that, whatever they may say about the magnitude and seriousness of the question, and their regard for the public tranquillity, the long and the short of the matter is, that they cannot spare the protection of the existing government, and they dread the consequences to their property and families of disobedience to it. For my own part, I should not like to think that I ever rely on the protection of the State. But, if I deny the authority of the State when it presents its tax-bill, it will soon take and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children without end. This is hard. This makes it impossible for a man to live honestly, and at the same time comfortably in outward respects. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 124)

This complacency, concern for monetary issues, lack of principle, monetary support for

the government and inaction angered Thoreau. The citizen lived in fear of the

consequences of non-compliance with government laws. This was evidence to Thoreau

that individual liberty was not a reality. The character of complacency demonstrated a

lack of individual development and morality. Thoreau believed that this political climate

was not progress. American freedom was an illusion, and change was needed.

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Government Reform

Thoreau recognized that political change was difficult to initiate. The government

provided few avenues for reform or for critique of the political system. What ways there

were required much time before change took place. Many would wait for the majority

before taking any action.

Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedyis worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them? (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 119)

As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man's life will be gone It is not my business to be petitioning the Governor or the Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and if they should not hear my petition, what should I do then? But in this case the State has provided no way; its very Constitution is the evil. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 120)

Thoreau pointed out the cost of continued cooperation with the government. The

conscience became wounded, which to Thoreau was as damaging as blood flowing from

the body.20 Cooperation, Thoreau argued, was perhaps more violent than a bloody revolt:

20 Thoreau equated the wounding of the conscience to blood flowing from the body.

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were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.... When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned his office, then the revolution is accomplished. But even suppose blood should flow. Is there not a sort of blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man's real manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 122-123)

Thoreau believed that these human forces were not natural and could be altered. Change

was imperative due to obstacles the government created to individuality and morality.

These obstacles were built into the structure of the government and trampled on the

individual conscience. They included a focus on expediency, a small number of powerful,

unrepresentative authority figures, and complacency on the part of the citizens. These

obstacles resulted in a denial of humanity -- a “bleeding” of the conscience and injustice.

The next section will address how Thoreau’s attitudes about social change progressed,

including the type of action he was willing to take to realize change.

Progress

Thoreau’s discussion of progress and social change addresses several questions

from Mills’ second group of criteria. These include: Where does this particular society

stand in human history? How does it differ from other periods? What are the mechanics

by which it is changing? What is the place within and its meaning for the development of

humanity as a whole? and How does any particular feature we are examining affect, and

how is it affected by, the historical period in which it moves?

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Thoreau had clear ideas on how progress was defined in relation to the economic

and political systems, as well as scientific and technological advances. His writings allow

the reader to compare his definitions to the broader social ideas of progress. He believed

that technological advance, accumulation of goods, American freedom and science, all of

which were seen in society as evidence of social progress, were really illusions. Thoreau

was sympathetic to Darwin’s theory of evolution and he had been working on his own

theories of evolution before reading Darwin’s Origin o f Species. However, Thoreau was

not a social evolutionist. While he did attempt to characterize historical epochs of time,

he did not see social change as unilateral nor as categorical positive advancement.

Much of his work involved a search for the primitive lifestyle and means to bridge

the best of the primitive with the best of the civilized. He clearly laid out characteristics

of the “savage” and the “civilized.” In his exploration of the necessities of life, in

Walden, Thoreau attempted to lay bare many of the superfluities of life, and discover the

basics of living. This was also an attempt to demonstrate the illusion of “progress” that

many of his contemporaries valued in regards to economics, government and knowledge.

These issues not only addressed where his society stood in history, but also what these

changes meant for the development of humanity as a whole. There was much to be

learned from primitive cultures about simplicity and individuality. Thoreau’s ideas on

why and how progressive social change should occur are also relevant to this discussion

and will be explored herein.

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Thoreau, Evolution and Determinism

A number of authors have pointed to Thoreau’s evolutionary thinking and the

influence Darwin had on Thoreau’s experiments and writing (Oelschlaeger 1991;

Richardson 1986; Walls 1995; Wilson 1999). Thoreau was not only on the leading edge

of evolutionary thought, with his interests in the relation and networks among animals

and plant life, but also in his ideas on the relations between humans and nature

(Oelschaeger 1991). His reading list was comprehensive, and included classical

zoological writers from Aristotle and Pliny to modem naturalists, such as Darwin.

Thoreau’s interest in these writers led him to be skeptical of the arguments of the

permanent nature of species held by such thinkers as Louis Agassiz (Richardson 1986).

Walls (1995) has written extensively about Darwin’s influence on Thoreau. She

points out that Darwin’s ideas of the mutability of nature and his argument that all

organisms were related by descent confirmed many of the ideas that Thoreau already had

prior to reading Darwin’s work. Darwin built these arguments by tracing variabilities in

animals such as dogs and pigeons. Prior to the publication of Origin o f Species, Thoreau

had already been occupied with questions about speciation, patterns of distribution and

migration, habitat separation and co-evolution, as well as the relationships between seed

form, plant habitat, growth patterns and geographical distributions (Walls 1995). Soon

after reading Darwin’s Origin o f Species Thoreau was copying extracts of it and

expanding his research agenda (Walls 1995). Early on, Walls believes, Thoreau was not

interested in discovering a unifying law that governed the distribution of life, but in how

the distribution process worked. He understood that no one could address the law or the

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system until there was an understanding of what the components were and how they

interacted (Walls 1995). His writings demonstrate an interest in this process and

familiarity with evolutionary theory:

We find ourselves in a world that is already planted, but is also still being planted, as at first. We say of some plants that they grow in wet places and of others that they grow in desert places. The truth is that their seeds are scattered almost everywhere, but here only do they succeed.. . . The development theory [Darwin’s] implies a greater vital force in nature, because it is more flexible and accommodating, and equivalent to a sort of constant new creation. (Thoreau Journal X IV146-147)

It convinces me that Earth is still in her swaddling clothes, and stretches forth baby fingers on every side.. . . There is nothing inorganic. These foliaceous heaps lie along the bank like the slag of a furnace, showing that Nature is ‘in fhll blast’ within. The earth is not a mere fragment of dead history,. . . but living poetry like the leaves of a tree,. . . not a fossil earth, but a living earth;. . . You may melt your metals and cast them into the most beautiful molds you can; they will never excite me like the forms which this molten earth flows into. And not only it, but the institutions upon it are like clay in the hands of the potter. (Thoreau Walden 548-549)

Through such work Thoreau came to recognize that there were laws of nature “governing

growth, maturation, reproduction, decay, death and growth again” (Richardson 1986,

384). Thoreau was especially fascinated with the regenerative abilities of nature. Among

his interests was the means by which species immigrated to inland waters (Walls 1995):

“If you dig a pond anywhere in our fields you will soon have not only waterfowl, reptiles

and fishes in it, but also the usual water plants, as lilies and so on. You will no sooner

have got your pond dug than nature will begin to stock it” (Thoreau “Dispersion of

Seeds” 100). However, after the publication of Origin o f Species, his main interest

became how plants distributed themselves across the landscape. As he began to notice

how fields would change from one species of plant life to another, and by the direct

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influence of his readings o f Darwin, his primary research question became “how is the

seed transported from where it grows to where it is planted” (Walls 1995). His theory was

that wind, water and animals were the principal agents of delivery (Walls 1995). Thoreau

worked on a four hundred page manuscript titled “Dispersion of Seeds,” which was

incomplete at the time of his death, but was later published in 1993.

While Thoreau did hold strongly to evolutionary beliefs, he was not a social

evolutionist. He recognized social change as natural and imminent, and even saw a

dichotomy between savage and civilized humans. However, he did not see the change as

unilateral, deterministic nor as absolute positive advancement over previous social

arrangements. His writings comparing the “savage” to the “civilized,” as well as his

critique of the American economy and government, provide readers with insight into his

ideas on where he believed his society stood in human history. He was attempting to

reconcile the best aspects of “natural man” with the best advances of the “civilized.”

Thoreau began by exploring the necessities of life and then moved into unveiling the

illusions of modem “progress,” pointing out along the way that there was much to be

learned from the “savage.” This makes his work unique, as he was a Romantic who

believed in the theories of evolution, but did not believe in the idea of deterministic social

evolution.

What Are the Necessities o f Life?

In his exploration of the differences between the “civilized” and the “savage,”

Thoreau discussed housing, equality, outward luxuries, technology and the negative

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aspects of civilization. He not only called for new definitions of progress, but argued that

the boundaries between “civilized society” and “savage society” were not absolute

(Oelschlaeger 1991). His mission was to adopt the best of the primitive with the best of

the civilized. Thoreau made attempts in Walden and A Week on the Concord and

Merrimack Rivers to find the primitive mind — to “retrace our steps to see where we took

a false turn” and explore how archaic societies might serve as models for modem society

(Oelschlaeger 1991, 145). These topics frame his ideas about where modem society

stood in history and where it might progress from its current status.

In an effort to unveil the illusions of modem progress in Walden, Thoreau began

his discussion with an in-depth examination of the necessities of life:

By the words, necessary o f life, I mean whatever, of all that man obtains by his own exertions, has been from the first, or from long use has become, so important to human life that few, if any, whether from savageness, or poverty, or philosophy, ever attempt to do without it ----- The necessaries of life for man in this climate may, accurately enough, be distributed under the several heads of Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Fuel; for not till we have secured these are we prepared to entertain the true problems of life with freedom and prospect of success. (Thoreau Walden 267-268)

He concluded that the necessities were food, shelter, clothing and fire and he discussed

both clothing and shelter in detail in the chapter of Walden entitled “Economy.” In his

discussion of shelter, however, Thoreau specifically explored social ideas of “progress”

by comparing the dwellings of the “savage” to the dwelling of the “civilized”:

Consider first how slight a shelter is absolutely necessary. I have seen the Penobscot Indians, in this town, living in tents of this cotton cloth, while the snow was nearly a foot deep around them, and I thought that they would be glad to have it deeper to keep them out of the wind. (Thoreau Walden 283-284)

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Thoreau connected his comparison of the savage and the civilized housing to the

“illusions” of progress in his society. He pointed to an equality found in the “savage

state” which was not found in civilization, and argued that progress has provided “better

dwellings,” but not cheaper housing:

A comfortable house for a rude and hardy race, that lived mostly out of doors, was once made here almost entirely of such materials as Nature furnished ready to their hands. Gookin, who was the superintendent of the Indians subject to the Massachusetts Colony, writing in 1674, says, ‘The best of their houses are covered very neatly, tight and warm, with barks of trees, slipped from their bodies ar those seasons when the sap is up, and made into great flakes, with pressure of weighty timber, when they are green.... I have often lodged in their wigwams, and found them as warm as the best English houses.’. .. The Indians had advanced so far as to regulate the effect of wind by a mat suspended over the hole in the roof and moved by a string. Such a lodge was in the first instance constructed in a day or two at the most, and taken down and put up in a few hours; and every family owned on, or its apartment in one. In the savage state every family owns a shelter as good as the best, and sufficient for its coarser and simpler wants;... in modem civilized society not more than one half the families own a shelter. In the large towns and cities, where civilization especially prevails, the number of those who own their shelter is a very small fraction of the whole.... it is evident that the savage owns his shelter because it costs so little, while the civilized man hires his commonly because he cannot afford to own it; but, answers one, by merely paying this tax the poor man civilized man secures his about which is a place compared with the savage’s. An annual rent... entitles him to the benefit of the improvements of centuries ... If it is asserted that civilization is a real advance in the condition of man — and I think that it is, though only the wise improve their advantages — it must be shown that it has produced better dwellings without making them more costly; and the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. (Thoreau Walden 284-286)

The houses of the “savage” were more convenient, as warm as and cheaper than those of

the civilized man. The housing improvements o f modem society were aesthetic only, and

came with a monetary price. The idea of civilization, then, as pure progress over the

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savage was an illusion, according to Thoreau. In the savage state, everyone not only had

equal sheltering, but everyone also owned their own shelter. However, in the civilized

state, some had larger homes than others and many did not own their own dwellings.

The ways in which civilized society solved the problems of livelihood were also

problematic, and certainly not positive advancements. In the end, Thoreau believed,

solutions to the problem of livelihood produced little progress. Citizens were still poor,

despite being surrounded by luxuries:

It is true, the encumbrances sometimes outweigh the value of the farm, so that the farm itself becomes one great encumbrance ... The farmer is endeavoring to solve the problem of livelihood by a formula more complicated than the problem itself. To get his shoestrings he speculates in herds of cattle. With consummate skill he has set his trap with a hair springe to catch comfort and independence, and then, as he turned away, got his own leg caught in it. This is the reason he is poor; and for a similar reason we are all poor in respect to a thousand savage comforts, though surrounded by luxuries. (Thoreau Walden 287-288)

As with our colleges, so with a hundred ‘modem improvements’; there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive advance. The devil goes on exacting compound interest to the last for his early share and numerous succeeding investments in them. Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. (Thoreau Walden 306-307)

Advances were not always positive. In fact, while these solutions did produce “luxuries,”

Thoreau believed they actually hindered the development of humans, distracting them

from more important concerns. He pointed to other civilizations in history to prove his

point:

Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but positive hindrances to elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have ever lived

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a more simple and meagre life than the poor. The ancient philosophers, Chinese, Hindoo, Persian, and Greek, were a class than which none has been poorer in outward riches, none so rich inward.. . . What is the nature of the luxury which enervates and destroys nations? Are we sure that there is none of it in our own lives? (Thoreau Walden 269-270)

Other civilizations have risen to greatness without economic wealth and outward

luxuries. Yet, Thoreau argued that his society was not content with the outward

“progress” that had already been made. Humans continually coveted larger homes and

more possessions, as ideals kept changing:

What does he want next? Surely he does not want more warmth of the same kind, as more and richer food, larger and more splendid houses, finer and more abundant clothing and more numerous incessant and hotter fires, and the like. When he has obtained those things which are necessary to life, there is another alternative than to obtain the superfluities; and that is, to adventure on life now, his vacation from humbler toil having commenced. (Thoreau Walden 270-271)

Thoreau adamantly argued against equating these aspects of modernization with

“progress.” He rejected Adam Smith’s claim that “well-being can be equated with

consumption of material goods” and argued that “beyond the minimum necessary for

sustenance, material consumption becomes a parity of itself’ (Oelschlaeger 1991, 153).

His rejection of these ideals regarding civilization and the economy were evident: “...

there are those who style themselves statesmen and philosophers who are so blind as to

think that progress and civilization depend on precisely this kind of [economic]

interchange and activity — the activity of flies about a molasseshogshead” (Thoreau “Life

without Principle” 652).

Another way in which Thoreau believed that civilized society measured progress

was technological advance. He pointed out that there were more important aspects of

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progress to consider, arguing that different conceptualizations of “progress” needed to be

adopted:

I think that in the railroad car we are inclined to spend more on luxury than on safety and convenience, and it threatens without attaining these to become no better than a modem drawing-room, with its divans, and ottomans, and sun-shades, and a hundred other oriental things, which we are taking west with us, invented for the ladies of the harem and the effeminate natives of the Celestial Empire ... (Thoreau Walden 291-292)

To make a railroad round the world available to all mankind is equivalent to grading the whole surface of the planet. Men have an indistinct notion that if they keep up this activity of joint stocks and spades long enough all will at length ride somewhere, in next to no time, and for nothing; but though a small crowd rushes to the depot, and the conductor shouts, ‘All aboard!’ when the smoke is blown away and the vapor condensed, it will be perceived that a few are riding, but the rest are run over, — and it will be called, and will be, ‘A melancholy accident.’ No doubt they can ride at last who shall have earned their fare, that is, if they survive so long . . . This spending of the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part o f it, reminds me of an Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. (Thoreau Walden 308)

Before we can adorn our houses with beautiful objects the walls must be stripped, and our lives must be stripped, and beautiful housekeeping and beautiful living be laid for a foundation: now, a taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors, where there is no house and no housekeeper. (Thoreau Walden 293)

We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. Either is in such a predicament as the man who was earnest to be introduced to a distinguished deaf woman, but when he was presented, and one end of her ear trumpet was put into his hand, had nothing to say. As if the main object were to talk fast and not to talk sensibly. We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough. (Thoreau Walden 307)

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While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings. And if the civilized man’s pursuits are no worthier than the savage’s, if he is employed the greater part o f his life in obtaining gross necessaries and comforts merely, why should he have a better dwelling than the former? (Thoreau Walden 289)

Modem society defined progress in terms of the length that the railroad stretched, but

Thoreau pointed out that in this type of “progress” luxury was put above safety, and only

those who could afford the fare had access. He stressed looking at the progress of the

inside of an individual before adorning one’s life with exterior accessories. He argued (in

the passage above from page one-hundred fourty-four of Walden) that content was more

important than any technological advance which hastened the speed of communication.

While his society had made advances in means of transportation and communication, he

believed it had done little to improve the individual.

With progress narrowly defined in terms of technology and accumulation of

goods, citizens were blind to the new problems that emerged with civilization and

“progress,” especially in a capitalist society. Civilization did not perpetuate the equality

found in the primitive state. With civilization, stratification began to emerge. Even with

all the “progress” some individuals were degraded below the outward circumstances of

the savage. Thoreau pointed to the class of people whose labor allowed for “progress” to

occur, and specifically cited conditions in England and Ireland:

But how do the poor minority fare? Perhaps it will be found, that just in proportion as some have been placed in outward circumstances above the savage, others have been degraded below him. The luxury of one class is counterbalanced by the indigence of another. On the one side is the palace, on the other are the almshouse and ‘silent poor.’ The myriads who built the pyramids to be the tombs of the Pharaohs were fed on garlic, and it may be were not decently buried themselves. The mason

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who finishes the comice of the palace returns at night perchance to a hut not so good as a wigwam. It is a mistake to suppose that, in a country where the usual evidences of civilization exist, the condition of a very large body of the inhabitants may not be as degraded as that of savages. I refer to the degraded poor, not now to the degraded rich. To know this I should not need to look farther than to the shanties which everywhere border our railroads, that last improvement in civilization; where I see in my daily walks human beings living in sties, and all winter with an open door, for the sake of light, without any visible, often imaginable, wood pile, and the forms of both old and young are permanently contracted by the long habit of shrinking from cold and misery, and the development of all their limbs and faculties is checked. It certainly is fair to look at that class by whose labor the works which distinguish this generation are accomplished. Such too, to a greater or less extent, is the condition of the operatives of every denomination in England, which is the great workhouse of the world. Or I could refer you to Ireland, which is marked as one of the white or enlightened spots on the map. Contrast the physical condition of the Irish with that of the North American Indian, or the South Sea Islander, or any other savage race before it was degraded by contact with the civilized man. Yet I have no doubt that that people's rulers are as wise as the average of civilized rulers. Their condition only proves what squalidness may consist with civilization. I hardly need refer now to the laborers in our Southern States who produce the staple exports of this country, and are themselves a staple production of the South. But to confine myself to those who are said to be in moderate circumstances. (Thoreau Walden 289-290)

Thoreau demonstrated that “squalidness” can exist even in civilization. Just as some have

had an increase in their outward circumstances, the same amount had experienced a

decrease in outward circumstances, below that of the savage, according to Thoreau. One

class increased their standard of living by standing on the shoulders of another class. The

laborers who built the palaces had to eventually return to their wigwams. Thoreau

juxtaposed the railroad, which he called the last great improvement of civilization, with

the poverty o f the shanties that bordered the railroad. He also contrasted the conditions of

the North American Indian to that of some Irish laborers, suggesting that the American

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Indian may be better off, especially before the contact with the civilized which degraded

the “savage race.”

The Illusion o f American Freedom

Thoreau also believed that the political progress termed “American Liberty” was

an illusion. True freedom was yet to be known in the American democratic system,

though many celebrated as if none of the injustices that Thoreau wrote about actually

occurred:

Now-a-days, men wear a fool's-cap, and call it a liberty-cap. I do not know but there are some who, if they were tied to a whipping-post, and could but get one hand free, would use it to ring the bells and fire the cannons to celebrate their liberty. So some of my townsmen took the liberty to ring and fire. That was the extent of their freedom; and when the sound of the bells died away, their liberty died away also; when the powder was all expended, their liberty went off with the smoke. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 95)

While many saw the system of government as respectable and even appreciated aspects

of it, Thoreau believed that if the system was seen from a higher view, it was as he

described it and not worth thinking about at all:

I believe that the State will soon be able to take all my work of this sort out of my hands, and then I shall be no better a patriot than my fellow- countrymen. Seen from a lower point of view, the Constitution, with all its faults, is very good; the law and the courts are very respectable; even this State and this American government are, in many respects, very admirable and rare things, to be thankful for, such as a great many have described them; but seen from a point of view a little higher, they are what I have described them; seen from a higher still, and the highest, who shall say what they are, or that they are worth looking at or thinking of at all? (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 133)

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Furthermore, the law and the legal system was not an advancement, nor profitable to

humanity. Thoreau pointed out that the many judges and lawyers did not exist to serve

humanity, but to serve the worst of men:

The judges and lawyers — simply as such, I mean — and all men of expediency, try this case by a very low and incompetent standard. They consider, not whether the Fugitive Slave Law is right, but whether it is what they call constitutional. Is virtue constitutional, or vice? Is equity constitutional, or iniquity? In important moral and vital questions, like this, it is just as impertinent to ask whether a law is constitutional or not, as to ask whether it is profitable or not. They persist in being the servants of the worst of men, and not the servants of humanity. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 103)

The basis of a true democratic government was respect for the individual,

Thoreau argued. While many viewed the progress from monarchy to democracy as

progress which brought liberty, Thoreau pointed out that any political system that was not

based on absolute respect for the individual was not a true democracy. The American

system of Thoreau’s time, he pointed out, was not the last improvement possible.

The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual. Even the Chinese philosopher was wise enough to regard the individual as the basis of the empire. Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man? There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly. I please myself with imagining a State at least which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few were to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow-men. A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 136-

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137)

Learning from the "Savage ”

Thoreau did not have a unilateral view of social development. Just as he believed

that civilization brought some negatives, he also pointed out that there was much to be

learned from the “savage.” He was interested in combining the best of both the savage

and civilized worlds:

So, we are told, the New Hollander goes naked with impunity, while the European shivers in his clothes. Is it impossible to combine the hardiness of these savages with the intellectualness of the civilized man? (Thoreau Walden 268)

He must have spent half of his life before his wigwam will be earned. Nevertheless, this points to an important distinction between the civilized man and the savage; and, no doubt, they have designs on us for our benefit, in making the life of a civilized people an institution, in which the life of an individual is to a great extent absorbed, in order to preserve and perfect that of the race. But I wish to show at what a sacrifice this advantage is at present obtained, and to suggest that we may possible so live as to secure all the advantage without suffering any of the disadvantage. (Thoreau Walden 286-287)

Thoreau recognized the intellectualness of “civilized man,” but pointed out that in

civilization, the individual was absorbed. With advance came some sacrifice. There were

many elements of the “savage” life to be retained, such as simplicity and equality. He

pointed to his own experiment of adopting some of the ways of the “savage” to make his

case: “I am convinced, that if all men were to live as simply as I then did, thieving and

robbery would be unknown. These take place only in communities where some have got

more than is sufficient while others have not enough” (Thoreau Walden 421).

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Thoreau was impressed by the “savage’s” simplicity, ability to feel “at home” in

nature, and his independence. He suggested that the tradition of non-accumulation might

be imitated by civilized societies:

The customs of some savage nations might, perchance, be profitably imitated by us, for they at least go through the semblance of casting their slough annually; they have the idea of the thing, whether they have the reality or not. Would it not be well if we were to celebrate such a ‘busk,’ or ‘feast of first fruits,’ as Bartram describes to have been the custom of the Mucclasse Indians? ‘When a town celebrates the busk,’ says he, ‘having previously provided themselves with new clothes, new pots, pans, and other household utensils and furniture, they collect all their worn out clothes and other despicable things, sweep and cleanse their houses, squares, and the whole town of their filth, which with all the remaining grain and other old provisions they cast together into one common heap, and consume it with fire.’ (Thoreau Walden 322)

Primitive people, through living in simplicity, were able to be “sojourners in nature” and

to contemplate, while the civilized human had become a “tool.” Modem humans had

become fixed in one place:

The very simplicity and nakedness of man's life in the primitive ages imply this advantage, at least, that they left him still but a sojourner in nature. When he was refreshed with food and sleep, he contemplated his journey again. He dwelt, as it were, in a tent in this world, and was either threading the valleys, or crossing the plains, or climbing the mountain- tops. But lo! men have become the tools of their tools. The man who independently plucked the fruits when he was hungry is become a farmer; and he who stood under a tree for shelter, a housekeeper. We now no longer camp as for a night, but have settled down on earth and forgotten heaven. (Thoreau Walden 292)

However, Thoreau’s strongest argument for looking to the primitive for lessons goes

back to the destruction of nature by civilization and the benefits Thoreau believed that

nature provided individuals. He believed that society was in danger when wilderness was

destroyed: “In Wilderness is preservation of the world” (Thoreau “Walking” 609). Since

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freedom was to be found in nature, not in culture, nature had the ability to rejuvenate the

world (Oelschlaeger 1991). However, civilized society had not recognized this. The

savage, by living in nature, had allowed this rejuvenation. Thoreau looked to past

civilizations to prove that current ideas of cultural progress and the value of nature were

flawed:

The civilized nations -- Greece, Rome England -- have been sustained by the primitive forests which anciently rotted where they stand. They survive as long as the soil is not exhausted. Alas for human culture! Little is to be expected of a nation, when the vegetable mould is exhausted, and it is compelled to make manure of the bones of its fathers. (Thoreau “Walking” 614)

The civilized could leam a lot from the savage, about nature, simplicity, and

independence. Thoreau aimed to reverse many of the obstacles to individual liberty, in

his own life and the lives of his readers, by shifting examination and celebration from the

wonders of modem technology to the lessons of the past. These benefits of the past could

be yolked to allow for greater self-cultivation and development. Buell (1995b, 153) states

that such a shift in Walden caters to a bourgeois suburbanite anxiety, replacing the

“ascetic self-relation of capitalism” with a “recuperative ascetics.” The result was a better

ability to engage in the activity of self-cultivation that Thoreau called deliberateness:

The intensely pondered contemplation of characteristic images and events and gestures that take place on a magical resonance beyond their normal importance now that the conditions of life have been simplified and the protagonist freed to appreciate how much more matters than what normally seems to matter Pastoral otium intensively cultivated rather than productive work as typically defined becomes the touchstone for a productive life...... pastoral otium opened up for him the experience of place, of self as continuous with place. (Buell 1995b, 153-154)

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Buell argues that a part of this recuperation was “Pastorial otium.” This was Thoreau’s

rejection of conventional, capitalist work ethic, or replacing “busy do-gooding” with “self

contained being” (Buell 1995b, 153-154). Adopting more characteristics of the primitive

lifestyle would result in a more non-linear, non-conventional life (Buell 1995b).

Thoreau demonstrated that “progress,” as it was defined in his society, was an

illusion. The solution to solving the problem of livelihood and the luxuries that resulted

were hindrances to human development. Progress was defined narrowly, with a focus on

outward luxuries and technology. Civil society had brought little progress in terms of

equality. In fact, Thoreau believed that it had created additional inequalities. Several

lessons could be learned from more primitive societies, including a simplistic lifestyle,

the ability to feel at home in nature, and independence.

Methods o f Knowing

Thoreau also took issue with the emerging authority of the modem methods of

knowledge, science. He recognized and practiced many of the emerging possibilities of

science, including several of the border sciences, such as botany, zoology, entomology,

ornithology and meteorology (Duncan 2001), and actively read contemporary scientists

such as Alexander von Humboldt and Darwin. He was also acutely aware of Americans’

fascination with measurement and categorization:

It is remarkable how the American mind runs to statistics. Consider the number of meteorological observers and other annual phenomena. The Smithsonian Institution is truly a national institution. Every shopkeeper makes a record of the arrival of the first martin or bluebird to his box. Dodd, the broker, told me last spring that he knew when the first bluebird

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came to his box Beside so many entries in their day-books and ledgers, they record these things. (Thoreau Journal VI200)

Thoreau, himself, engaged in such measurement activities, even on a long-term scale.

Over a ten year period, he compiled data and charts on birds, leaves and fish to create a

concept of the archetypal year (Richardson 1986). Yet, his journal entries attest to the fact

that later in his life he became disenchanted with science and its possibilities.

In exploring how methods of knowing had progressed over time, Thoreau

compared primitive ways of observing and knowing, juxtaposing the ways of Indian

wisdom and of the poet to those of the modem scientist. He concluded that science as a

sole method of knowing limited humans with is conventional categorization and naming

methods. Science was dry, mechanical and unconcerned with humanity. There was much

more to be seen and experienced than modem science could provide.21

The Limitations o f Science

While Thoreau’s journals reflect his frustration with the limits of conventional

knowledge, his works did not suggest that science was useless. It is clear he appreciated

its ingenuity, preciseness and ability to chart nature:

However I can see that there are certain advantages to these hard & precise terms -- such as the lichenist uses for instance -- No one masters them so as to use them in writing without being far better informed than the rabble about it. (Thoreau Journal 4 368-69)

Why should just these sights and sounds accompany our life? Why should I hear the chattering of blackbirds — why smell the skunk each year? I would fain explore the mysterious relation between myself and these things. I would at least know what these things unavoidably are - -

21 Thoreau believed that any locality had a multitude of life within it to be explored. However, science, with its limited focus, missed out on much of what any place had to offer the individual.

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make a chart of our life -- know how its shores trend — that butterflies reappear and when — know why just this circle of creatures completes the world. Can I not by expectation affect the revolutions of nature — make a day to bring forth something new? (Thoreau Journal 4468)

How copious & precise the botanical language to describe the leaves, as well as other parts of a plant. Botany is worth studying if only for the precision of its terms -- to learn the value o f words & of system. It is wonderful how much pains has been taken to describe a flowers leaf compared for instance with the care that is taken in describing a psychological fact. Suppose as much ingenuity (perhaps it would be needless) in making a language to express the sentiments. We are armed with language adequate to describe each leaf in the field -- or at least to distinguish it from each other — but not to describe human character - with equally wonderful indistinctness & confusion we describe men -- The precision and copiousness of botanical language applied to the description of moral qualities! (Thoreau Journal 3381-384)

Thoreau saw value in systematically tracking the trends of nature. The third passage here

even suggests that Thoreau was seeking to apply the precise language of science to

describing human character and moral qualities, or a scientific study of society.

Thoreau believed the scientist’s view was constricted and unnaturally focused. In

fact, he argued that science had become too mechanical and dry, lacking wonder and

awe. In particular, the language and categorization used by scientists structured

observation in a way that Thoreau saw as constrictive. He was aware of the way in which

conventional language “enframed the human project” and he recognized that the mere

way in which humans talked about objects determined how they viewed the objects

(Oelschlaeger 1991,157). Understanding that language influenced human observation,

Thoreau believed that scientific nomenclature inhibited, rather than enhanced, the search

for knowledge and the communication of knowledge (Oelschlaeger 1991):

Our scientific names convey a very partial information only; they suggest certain thoughts only. It does not occur to me that there are other names

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for most of these objects, given by most people who stood between me and them, who had better senses than our race. How little I know of that arbor-vitae when I have learned only what science can tell me! It is but a word. It is not a tree o f life. But there are twenty words for the tree and its different parts which the Indian gave, which are not in our botanies, which imply a more practical and vital science.... No science does more than arrange what knowledge we have of any class of objects. But, generally speaking, how much more conversant was the Indian with any wild animal or plant than we are, and in his language is implied all that intimacy, as much as ours is expressed in our language... The Indian stood nearer to wild nature than w e.. . . we have but the most distant knowledge of them [wildlife] It was a new light when my guide gave me Indian names for things which I had only scientific ones before. In proportion as I understood the language, I saw them from a new point of view. (Thoreau Journal X293-95)

To Thoreau, language implied how conversant humans were with nature. He pointed out

that earlier people, such as the Indians, had a variety of words which suggested the

vitality of natural phenomena and that Indians had a more intimate relationship with

nature.

To the scientist, Thoreau argued, discovery was no more than the naming of an

object. Understanding did not extend beyond measuring, naming and categorizing.

Thoreau equated the modem scientific descriptions to mathematical formulas, which did

nothing to report all the “sensations” experienced when confronting natural phenomena:

Modem botanical descriptions approach ever nearer to the dryness of an algebraic formula, as if x+y were = to a love letter. It is the keen joy and discrimination of the child who has just seen a flower for the first time and comes running in with it to its friends. How much better to describe your object in fresh English words rather than these conventional Latinisms! He has really seen, and smelt, and tasted, and reports his sensations. (Thoreau Journal XIII29-30)

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This type of inquiry was vacant of perception and interest. The discovery, naming, and

categorization amounted to little significance. The contributions of science became little

more than numbers on a page or specimens in a bottle:

Though science may sometimes compare herself to a child picking up pebbles on the seashore, that is a rare mood with her; ordinarily her practical belief is that it is only a few pebbles which are not known, weighed and measured. A new species of fish signifies hardly more than a name. See what is contributed in the scientific reports. One counts the fin- rays, another measures the intestines, a third daguerreotypes a scale, etc., etc.; Otherwise there’s nothing to be said.. . . What is the amount of the discovery to me? It is not that I have got it in a bottle, that it has got a name in a book, but that I have a little fishy friend in a pond. How was it when the youth first discovered fishes? . . . Generally the boy loses some o f his perception and his interest in the fish; he degenerates into a fisherman or an ichthyologist. (Thoreau Journal XI 358-60)

Just as Thoreau believed the child’s perception and interest waned as he or she aged, over

time the human perception of natural phenomena had also “degenerated” due to science

and conventional language imposing their categories and structure. Science limited the

very way in humans were to experience nature.

The effect of such an objective approach was that science alienated humanity

from the subject matter. Humans had no more than mechanical knowledge of things.

Science diminished the subjective experience:

There is no such thing as pure objective observation . Your observation, to be interesting, i.e. to be significant, must be subjective. The sum of what the writer of whatever class has to report is simply some human experience, whether he be poet or philosopher or man of science. The man of most science is the man most alive, whose life is the greatest event ----- It matters not where or how far you travel, -- the farther commonly the worse, -- but how much alive you are. If it is possible to conceive of an event outside to humanity, it is not of the slightest significance, though it were the explosion of a planet.... I look over the report of the doings of a scientific association and am surprised that there is so little life to be

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reported; I am put off with the dry technical terms.(Thoreau Journal VI 236-38

Thoreau observed that there was “little life to be reported” and little human experience

accounted for in modem science. In its mechanical understanding of nature, science was

inhuman, unsympathetic to nature and did nothing to demonstrate the significance of

nature to humans. There was nothing new in mechanical observation, and the result was

certainly not a “true” description:

The inhumanity of science concerns me, as when I am tempted to kill a rare snake that I may ascertain its species. I feel that this is not the means of acquiring true knowledge. (Thoreau Journal V311) I

Science is inhuman. Things seen with a microscope begin to be insignificant. So described, they are as monstrous as if they should be magnified a thousand diameters. Suppose I should see and describe men and houses and trees and birds as if they were a thousand times larger than they are! With our praying instruments we disturb the balance and harmony of nature. (Thoreau Journal X II170-71)

The natural system may tell us the value of a plant in medicine of the arts or for food -- but neither it nor the Linnaean to any great extent tell us its chief value & significance to man — which in any measure accounts for its beauty. (Thoreau Journal 4306-7)

A scientific description is such as you would get if you should send out the scholars of the polytechnic school with all sorts of metres made and patented to take the measures for you of any natural object. In a sense you have got nothing new thus, for every object that we see mechanically is mechanically daguerreotyped on our eyes, but a true description growing out [sic] the perception and appreciation of it is itself a new fact, never to be daguerreotyped, indicating the highest quality of the plant, -- its relation to man, — of far more importance than any mere medicinal quality that it may possess, or be though to-day to possess. There is a certainly and permanence about this kind of observation, too, that does not belong to the other, for every flower and weed has its day in the medical pharmacopoeia, but the beauty of flowers is perennial in the taste of men. (Thoreau Journal X IV117-20)

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Not only was there an absence in these descriptions of nature’s relation to humans, but

Thoreau argued that science also omitted the human imagination from inquiry. Simply

knowing an object of nature mechanically, or by name is description, was not really

knowing it at all:

What sort of science is that which enriches the understanding but robs the imagination.. . . That is simply the way in which it speaks to the understanding and that is the account which the understanding gives it — but that is not the way it speaks to the Imagination & that is not the account which the Imagination gives it. Just as inadequate to a pure mechanic would be a poets account of a steam engine. If we knew all things thus mechanically merely should we know anything really? (Thoreau Journal 4221-3)

The measures, specimen collections and names were insignificant without a larger

understanding of nature’s personal and moral value to humans.

Finally, the conceit that came with increasing knowledge became just as inhibitive

as the strict categorization of science. Humans professed to know much more than they

did. Not only did language and current knowledge keep scientists from looking in

particular directions, but knowledge became an “ugliness”:

A man’s ignorance sometimes is not only useful, but beautiful, while his knowledge, so called, is oftentimes worse than useless beside being ugly. Which is the best man to deal with, he who knows nothing about a subject, and what is extremely rare, knows that he knows nothing, — or he who really knows something about it, but thinks that he knows all? (Thoreau “Walking” 623)

In its affirmations science was full of presumptions. Science might explain why a

physical phenomenon occurred, but it did not explore the moral “why”:

Science affirms too much. Science assumes to show why the lightening strikes a tree — but it does not show us the moral why, any better than our instincts did. It is full o f presumption. Why should trees be stuck? It is not

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enough to say because they are in the way. Science answers non scio — I am ignorant. All the phenomena of nature need to be seen from the point of view of wonder & awe -- like lightening -- & on the other hand the lightening itself needs to be regarded with serenity as the most familiar & innocent phenomena. (Thoreau Journal 5159-60)

Thoreau argued that many books did not even begin to explain what they claimed to, and

with such a limited view, they never would. Science alone would never breach the chasm

between ignorance and knowledge. It was an incomplete picture of the world:

Many a book has been written which does not necessarily suggest or imply the phenomenon or object to explain which it professes to have been written. But we may begin anywhere within nature. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as elementary knowledge. There is always a chasm between knowledge and ignorance which the steps of science can never pass. (Thoreau Journal 2 91)

A More Balanced Approach

Thoreau knew that science did not provide the complete picture, though many

believed that it did. There was much more to be seen, experienced and known. Thoreau

was interested in moving beyond conventional knowledge into these “atmospheres

unknown”:

My desire for knowledge is intermittent, but my desire to bathe my head in atmpospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant. The highest we can attain to is not knowledge, but sympathy with intelligence. I do not know that this higher knowledge amounts to anything more definite than a novel and grand surprise on a sudden revelation of the insufficiency of all that we call Knowledge before, - a discovery that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy. It is the light up o f the midst by the sun. Man cannot know in any higher sense than this. (Thoreau “Walking” 623)

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Thoreau wanted to see with an original view, forgetting all that was presumed when a

strictly scientific approach was taken. In order to get nearer to natural objects, Thoreau

echoed Berger’s advice that “nothing is what you have taken it be.”

It is only when we forget all learning that we begin to know. I do not go nearer by a hair’s breadth to any natural object so long as I presume that I have an introduction to it by some learned man. To conceive of it with a total apprehension I must for the thousandth time approach it as something totally strange. If you would make acquaintance with the ferns, you must forget your botany. You must get rid of what is commonly called knowledge of them. Not a single scientific term or distinction is the least to the purpose, for you would feign perceive something, and you must approach the subject totally unprejudiced. You must be aware that no thing is what you have taken it to b e .. . . you have got to be in a different state than the common. (Thoreau Journal X II371)

As it is important to consider Nature from the point of view of science, remembering the nomenclature and system of men, and so, if possible, go a step further in that direction, so it is equally important often to ignore or forget all that men presume that they know, and take an original and unprejudiced view of Nature, letting her make what impressions she will on you, as the first men, and all children and natural men still do. For our science, so called, is always more barren and mixed up with errors than our sympathies are. (Thoreau Journal X III168-169)

To proceed in this different direction, it was necessary to look at things without the sterile

categories that science imposed on natural phenomena. In the myriad of facts produced,

science become a harness:

What we call knowledge is often our positive ignorance; ignorance our negative knowledge. By long years of patient industry and reading of the newspapers, — for what are the libraries of science but files of newspapers? -- a man accumulates a myriad facts, lays them up in his memory, and then when in some spring of his life he saunters abroad into the great Fields of thought, he as it were goes to grass like a horse, and leaves all his harness behind in the stable. (Thoreau “Walking” 622-623)

To saunter into these great fields of thought Thoreau believed it was necessary to

look to the past. He did not believe that the newer modem scientists had made significant

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advances in their understanding of natural phenomena. He argued that the older

naturalists stood in awe of nature and were more open to what was to be seen than the

new scientists:

The ancients, one would say, with their gorgons, sphinxes, satyrs, manichora, etc., could imagine more than existed, while the modems cannot imagine so much as exists. (Thoreau Journal X III154-55)

The old naturalists were so sensitive and sympathetic to nature that they could be surprised by the ordinary events of life. It was an incessant miracle to them, and therefore gorgons and flying dragons were not incredible to them. The greatest and saddest defect is not credulity, but our habitual forgetfulness that our science is ignorance. (Thoreau Journal XIII 180-81)

Earlier writers, such as Pliny and Aristotle, provided life-like descriptions of nature

(Richardson 1986). Thoreau recognized and appreciated their ability to formulate lifelike

descriptions and to sympathize with the creatures they described (Richardson 1986). New

scientists did not delight in anything and excelled in measurement, rather than description

(Richardson 1986). The methods of the Indian, poet and philosopher needed to be

incorporated into a more holistic way of seeing the world.

Indian Wisdom

In “Natural History of Massachusetts” (1842) Thoreau defined the true scientist as

one who possessed a deeper and finer experience and an “Indian wisdom.” This Indian

wisdom, which Thoreau believed the poet was more apt to possess than the naturalist,

restored “organic qualities to a world of scientific quantities” and reintegrated “human

consciousness with the cognizable world” (Oelschlaeger 1991,139). Allowing nature to

make its impression on the individual, as the poet and the philosopher did, required

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approaching phenomena differently than the modem scientist or naturalist. These

differences resulted from the ways in which the poet and the scientist observed

phenomena:

It requires different intentions of the eye and of the mind to attend to different departments of knowledge! How differently the poet and the naturalist look at objects! A man sees only what concerns him. A botanist absorbed in the pursuit of grasses does not distinguish the grandest pasture oaks. He as it were tramples down oaks unwittingly in his walk. (Thoreau Journal X153) I

It is impossible for the same person to see things from the poet’s view and that of the man of science. I realize that men may be bom to a condition of mind at which others arrive in middle age by the decay of their poetic faculties. (Thoreau Journal 4356-357)

Thoreau attempted to balance the views of the poet and naturalist. He believed

that what the poet possessed over the naturalist was a more alive, conscious, subjective,

and significant experience. He also believed that Indian wisdom would allow him to

break free from the limits of conventional wisdom, which typically “named, categorized,

and discriminated in a conventional pattern” (Oelschlaeger 1991, 156)). The seeker of

Indian wisdom took a different direction, aiming to avoid imposing timeless names and

categories, instead searching for a more presocial meaning of natural objects by renewing

knowledge of the primitive, the savage, Indian, and archaic relation with natural objects

(Oelschlaeger 1991, 139).

Those who took this different approach — poets, philosophers and others who

possessed Indian wisdom -- brought sympathy, humanity, application, discovery,

experience and significance to the understanding o f nature, which the scientist was

lacking:

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He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something by behavior as well as by application. It is childish to rest in the discoveries of mere coincidences, or of partial and extraneous laws...... The poet uses the results of science and philosophy, and generalizes their widest deductions. (Thoreau A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers 361-366)

I love best the unscientific man’s knowledge there is much more humanity in it. It is connected with true sports. (Thoreau Journal IV 345)

It is often the unscientific man who discovers the new species -- It would be strange if it were not so. But we are accustomed properly to call that only scientific discovery which knows the relative value of a thing discovered — uncovers a fact to mankind. (Thoreau Journal 3 146-147)

By artificial system we leam the names of plants -- by the natural their relations to one another — but still it remains to leam their relations to man -- the poet does more for us in this department. (Thoreau Journal 4353)

This “unscientific man” was apt to discover more, including the significance of facts in

their relations to humans.

Language

Thoreau also looked at primitive language and ways of naming. By returning to

the knowledge of the primitive, Thoreau was aiming to “break free through the recovery

of words that speak granitic truth” by “grounding his language in nature” and emptying it

of “its conventional meaning” (Oelschlaeger 1991, 157). Thoreau believed that the

language of science drained natural phenomena of life, so he explored using Indian words

and earlier languages in his descriptions. He was interested in using nature as a symbol in

describing life and significant experiences in different ways than science had done:

He is the richest who has the most use for nature as raw material of tropes and symbols with which to describe his life. If these gates of golden willows affect me, they correspond to the beauty and promise of some experience on which I am entering. If I am overflowing with life, am rich

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in experience for which I lack expression, then nature will be my language full of poetry, — all nature will fable, and every natural phenomena be a myth. The man of science, who is not seeking for expression but for fact to be expressed merely, studies nature as a dead language. I pray for such inward experience as will make nature significant. (Thoreau Journal V 135)

Thoreau attempted to evoke some of the meaning that science had removed in its

descriptions by “emptying the mind of conventional wisdom” and “preparing it to receive

life through primary experiences” (Oelschlaeger 1991, 157).

While he did recognize the benefits of science, Thoreau believed it was an

incomplete way of seeing the world. Science was an unnaturally narrow and focused

view. Its dry, mechanical language influenced observation and inhibited a true

perspective of all that was to be seen. Thoreau believed that discovery should be more

than the naming and categorization that science offered. Scientific discovery alienated

human significance and imagination from the process of observation and inquiry. The

scientific approach presumed to know much more than Thoreau believed was possible

through scientific inquiry. He was more interested in moving beyond what was known,

and forgetting conventional wisdom in the process. Looking to the past, he strove for

Indian wisdom, a way of seeing that was more subjective, alive, significant and humane.

To ground his language in nature he explored using older languages, such as Indian

words, to evoke the meaning that science had removed from natural objects.

Social Change

In addition to his ideas on the illusions of progress, and how “progress” was

defined in relation to economic, technological, political and scientific development,

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Thoreau had clear ideas on how to affect the social change he was seeking. While

Thoreau is well known for his influence on Gandhi and King’s nonviolent cooperation

movements, his writings demonstrate a progression of his ideas on creating social change.

From some of his first earlier works, such as “The Service,” “Paradise (to be) Regained”

and “Reform and Reformers" (1844), to later works such as “Resistance to Civil

Government,” “Slavery in Massachusetts” and “A Plea for Captain John Browne,”

Thoreau shifted from pacifist to activist-reformer, and to a willingness to use force in

order to affect social change (Gougeon 1995).

Early on, particularly inWalden, Thoreau was adamant about his dislike of

reformers and philanthropic organizations:

As for doing good, that is one of the professions that is full. (Thoreau Walden 327)

A man is not a good man to me because he will feed me of I should be starving, or warm me of I should be freezing, or pull me out of a ditch if I should ever fall into one. I can find you a Newfoundland dog that will do as much. Philanthropy is not love of man in the broadest sense. (Thoreau Walden 328)

I never heard of a philanthropic meeting in which it was sincerely proposed to do any good to me of the like of me. (Thoreau Walden 329)

Philanthropy is almost the only virtue which is sufficiently appreciated by mankind. Nay, it is greatly overrated; and it is our selfishness which overrates it. (Thoreau Walden 330)

His goodness must not be a partial and transitory act, but a constant superfluity, which costs him nothing and of which he is unconscious. (Thoreau Walden 331)

I believe that what so saddens the reformer is not his sympathy with his fellows in distress, but, though he be the holiest son of God, is his private ail. (Thoreau Walden 332)

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He was highly skeptical of reformers’ intentions and their own moral characteristics.

Works such as Walden and “Paradise (to be) regained” demonstrate Thoreau’s belief that

only individual self-reform, self-development, and self-cultivation would lead to a better

society. Thoreau’s faith in self-reform as a catalyst for social change can be clearly seen

in his essay “Paradise (to be) regained,” a critique of J.A. Etzler’s essay, “The Paradise

within Reach of all Men, without Labor, by Powers of Nature, and Machinery, An

Address to all Intelligent Men” (1842). Etzlers’s essay suggested that within ten years

from the article’s publication cutting edge technology, such as new facilities for

transportation, aerial locomotion and the navigation of space, would provide for all

human needs. Within his critique of Etzler’s essay, Thoreau, again, discussed his ideas of

reform:

Alas! This is the crying sin of the age, this want of faith in the prevalence of a man. Nothing can be effected but by one man. He who wants help wants everything. True, this is the condition of our weakness, but it can never be the means of our recovery. We must first succeed alone, that we may enjoy our success together.. . . In this matter of reforming the world, we have little faith in corporations; not thus was it first formed. (Thoreau “Paradise (to be) Regained” 42)

Undoubtedly if we were to reform this outward life truly and thoroughly, we should find no duty of the inner omitted. It would be employment for our whole nature; and what we should do there-after would be as vain a question as to ask the bird what it will do when its nest is built and its brood reared. But a moral reform must take place first, and then the necessity of the other will be superseded, and we shall sail and plough by its force alone. (Thoreau “Paradise (to be) Regained” 45-46)

One says he will reform himself, and then nature and circumstances will be right. Let us not obstruct ourselves, for that is the greatest fiction. It is of little importance though a cloud obstruct the view of the astronomer compared with his own blindness. The other will reform nature and circumstances, and then man will be right. Talk no more vaguely, says he,

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of reforming the world — I will reform the globe itself. (Thoreau “Paradise (to be) Regained” 20)

Here Thoreau professed his faith in the individual succeeded alone in reform, which he

believed started with inner moral transformation. While Etzler argued that the worldly

changes would reform the individual, Thoreau believed he had the solution backwards

(Gougeon 1995).

As American society changed, Thoreau’s ideas on reform also changed. Texas’

petition for admission to the Union would have increased the South’s influence in

national politics (Gougeon 1995). With acceptance of Texas into the Union in 1845, war

with Mexico, who did not accept Texas’ succession, began. Thoreau’s shift in attitude

about reform can be seen in his written response (“Civil Disobedience”) to the

government activity during the time of the Mexican war. At this time, Thoreau realized

that something more than self-reform was needed to change social evil, and Thoreau’s

refusal to pay the poll tax was his demonstration that action from principle could be

revolutionary (Gougeon 1995).22

In “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau asked his readers why they should give in to

oppressive government forces, which he pointed out were both brute and human. Since

these forces were not natural, they could be resisted and altered:

Why expose yourself to this overwhelming brute force? You do not resist cold and hunger, the winds and the waves, thus obstinately; you quietly submit to a thousand similar necessities. You do not put your head into the fire. But just in proportion as I regard this as not wholly a brute force, but partly a human force, and consider that I have relations to those millions as to so many millions of men, and not o f mere brute or inanimate things, I

22 Until this time, Thoreau was under the impression that no action was necessary.

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see that appeal is possible, first and instantaneously, from them to the Maker o f them, and, secondly, from them to themselves. But, if I put my head deliberately into the fire . . . I have only myself to blam e.. . . And, above all, there is this difference between resisting this and a purely brute or natural force, that I can resist this with some effect; but I cannot expect, like Orpheus, to change the nature of the rocks and trees and beasts. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 132)

Arguing that the friction caused by the machine of government was organized

oppression, Thoreau called for a revolt, including breaking the law, if necessary. He

argued that acting on individual principle, which he defined as the perception and

performance of the right, would change things.23 For the first time, he specifically used

the words “rebel” and “revolutionize”:

But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 113-114)

If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth-certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 119-120)

How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoyit? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest

23 Gougeon (1995) states that Thoreau moved from passive ideas about reform, including passive resistance, to a philosophy of action.

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satisfied with knowing that you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again. Action from principle -- the perception and the performance of right — changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divides states and churches, it divides families; ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 118-119)

These sentiments were a marked change from his previous approach to reform.

Thoreau now pointed out that most individuals did not allow people to perpetrate

injustice against them. Therefore, they should not allow it to be perpetrated on such a

broad level. He believed that individual action from principle, such as his refusal to pay

the poll tax, would change relations drastically.

However, he also pointed out that political change was difficult to initiate. The

government offered few avenues for reform or for critique of the political system. What

ways there were required much time before change took place, and Thoreau believed that

most would wait for the majority before taking any action:

Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedyis worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them? (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 119)

As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man's life will be gone.... It is not my business to be petitioning the Governor or the Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and if

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they should not hear my petition, what should I do then? But in this case the State has provided no way; its very Constitution is the evil. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 120)

But the costs o f continued cooperation with the government were great, Thoreau argued.

The conscience became wounded, which was as damaging as blood flowing from the

body. Cooperation, Thoreau argued, was perhaps more violent than a bloody revolt:

Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.. . . When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned his office, then the revolution is accomplished. But even suppose blood should flow. Is there not a sort of blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man's real manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 122-123)

Thoreau called for non-cooperation with the American government as a means of

bringing about social change. Since these human forces were not natural, resistance could

alter them. Change was imperative, due to obstacles the government created to

individuality and morality. Since the government’s method of instituting change was

slow, immediate action from principle was necessary, not just individual self-reform.

The mood in “Slavery in Massachusetts” represents a dramatic shift from

Thoreau’s earlier writings (Gougeon 1995). New demands, realizations and rhetoric can

be seen in Thoreau’s work. The September 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, mandated return of

all slaves, even those who had established residence in union states. Thoreau was

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appalled at the use of military force to enforce this law, which protected the interests of

some and not others:

Recognizing the injustice, Thoreau came to the realization that he could not live

peaceably, nor enjoy nature in an environment where the individual was being trampled.

Even his relaxation in nature was tainted by the current social situation. When freedom

was threatened, self-cultivation was not possible (Gougeon 1995):

I have lived for the last month . . . with the sense of having suffered a vast and indefinite loss. At last it occurred to me that what I had lost was a country. I had never respected the government near to which I lived, but I had foolishly thought that I might manage to live here, minding my private affairs, and forget it. For my part, my old and worthiest pursuits have lost I cannot say how much of their attraction, and I feel that my investment in life here is worth many per cent less since Massachusetts last deliberately sent back an innocent man, Anthony Bums, to slavery. I dwelt before, perhaps, in the illusion that my life passed somewhere only between heaven and hell, but now I cannot persuade myself that I do not dwell wholly within hell. The site of that political organization called Massachusetts is to me morally covered with volcanic scoriae and cinders, such as Milton describes in the infernal regions. If there is any hell more unprincipled than our rulers, and we, the ruled, I feel curious to see it. Life itself being worth less, all things with it, which minister to it, are worth less. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 106-107)

I walk toward one of our ponds; but what signifies the beauty of nature when men are base? We walk to lakes to see our serenity reflected in them; when we are not serene, we go not to them. Who can be serene in a country where both the rulers and the ruled are without principle? The remembrance of my country spoils my walk. My thoughts are murder to the State, and involuntarily go plotting against her. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 108)

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In this essay, Thoreau not only called for the government o f Massachusetts to protect its

citizens, but also for individual citizens to follow the examples of those who had attacked

the Boston Courthouse in response to the Fugitive Slave Law (Gougeon 1995). He asked

citizens to withdraw their support to the state:

What should concern Massachusetts is not the Nebraska Bill, nor the Fugitive Slave Bill, but her own slaveholding and servility. Let the State dissolve her union with the slaveholder. She may wriggle and hesitate, and ask leave to read the Constitution once more; but she can find no respectable law or precedent which sanctions the continuance of such a union for an instant. Let each inhabitant of the State dissolve his union with her, as long as she delays to do her duty. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 104)

Thoreau even began using rhetoric that went beyond non-cooperation, to advocating

fighting against the government, if necessary: “We have used up all our inherited

freedom. If we would save our lives, we must fight for them” (Thoreau “Slavery in

Massachusetts” 108).

One of Thoreau’s final essays, “A Plea for Captain John Brown,” demonstrates

the end of a drastic shift in his ideas on social change, particularly as they relate to

reformers, social action and violence. In this essay Thoreau championed John Brown as a

model reformer and citizen, and even compared his actions to those of Christ:

He was firmer and higher principled than any that I have chanced to hear of as there. (Thoreau “A Plea for Captain John Brown” 113)

You who pretend to care for Christ crucified, consider what you are about to do to him who offered himself to be the savior of four millions of men...... Some eighteen hundred years ago Christ was crucified; this morning, perchance, Captain Brown was hung. These are the two ends of a chain which is not without its links. (Thoreau “A Plea for Captain John Brown” 136)

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I speak for the slave when I say, that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain John Brown to that Philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me. (Thoreau “A Plea for Captain John Brown” 133)

Captain Brown’s form of philanthropy did much in the way of liberation, which was

much appreciated by Thoreau. He portrayed Brown as the ideal citizen, due to his

willingness to take immediate action in the midst of unjust law:

When the time came, few men were found willing to lay down their lived in defense of what they knew to be wrong. They did not like that this should be their last act in this world. (Thoreau “A Plea for Captain John Brown” 117)

He was a superior man. He did not value his bodily life in comparison with ideal things. He did not recognize unjust human laws, but resisted them as he was bid.... In that sense he was the most American of us all. (Thoreau “A Plea for Captain John Brown” 125)

I hear many condemn these men because they were so few. When were the good and brave ever in the majority? Would you have had him wait till that time came? — till you and I came over him? The very fact that he had no rabble or troop of hirelings about him would alone distinguish him from ordinary heroes. His company was small indeed, because few could be found worthy to pass his muster. Each one who there laid down his life for the poor and oppressed, was a picked man, called out of many thousands, if not millions; apparently a man of principle, of rare courage and devoted humanity, ready to sacrifice his life at any moments for the benefits of his fellow man.... These alone were ready to step between the oppressed and the oppressor. (Thoreau “A Plea for Captain John Brown” 131-132)

Brown was ready to resist in any way possible, including taking a life or giving his own

for the cause. In recognizing and praising Brown for this, the reader can see Thoreau’s

most drastic change from his earlier attitudes on social reform; Thoreau now reluctantly

accepted violence in the face of injustice:

I do not wish to kill nor be killed, but I can foresee circumstances in which both these things would be by me unavoidable. We preserve the so-called

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‘peace’ of our community by deeds of petty violence every day. (Thoreau “A Plea for Captain John Brown” 133)

I think that for once the Sharp’s rifles and the revolvers were employed in a righteous cause. The tools were in the hands of one who could use them. The question is not about the weapon, but the spirit in which you use it. (Thoreau “A Plea for Captain John Brown” 133)

Thoreau’s attitudes on social reform can be traced from a focus on self-reform as a

mechanism for broader social change, to individual action from principle and non

cooperation, to a willingness to fight and use violence, if necessary, in order to achieve

social change. This shift marked an acknowledgement that the individual could not enjoy

and engage in self-cultivation in an environment where the individual conscience was

trampled.

Conclusion

This chapter began with an exploration of how Thoreau’s religious beliefs

effected his social critique. His focus on self-reliance, nature and a prophetic mission

were all covered within this discussion. Thoreau’s audience, which included readers of

travel writing, as well as abolitionist literature, was also described. The remainder of the

chapter addressed how Thoreau met Mills’ criteria of the sociological imagination.

Thoreau covered all three groups of questions discussed by Mills, including: What is the

structure of this society as a whole? What is the place of this society in history? and What

varieties of men and women live in this time period? In exploring Thoreau’s ideas on

how institutions effected the individual, his understanding of the impact of the economy

and American government were discussed. This included the economy’s effect on

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government’s trampling of individual liberty, due to its expediency, force and

understanding of law as morality. Finally, Thoreau’s ideas on where his society was

placed in history were covered through his definitions of progress. Thoreau’s thoughts on

progress as an illusion were explored through his writings about economic and

technological advances, American democracy, science and social reform.

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THOREAU AND BERGER’S MOTIFS

This chapter will address how Thoreau’s work corresponds with Berger’s criteria

of sociological consciousness. Burger’s criteria, which he called “motifs,” and the

corresponding research questions will be reviewed. The remainder of the chapter will

specifically address how Thoreau’s work relates to Berger’s motifs — the debunking,

relativization, unrespectability and cosmopolitan motifs. Thoreau’s prophetic mission, his

goals of revealing illusions of society, looking beyond commonly accepted goals of

society and exploring the multiple levels of meaning in human activity, and his suspicion

of authority will also be addressed in order to demonstrate his connections to Berger’s

debunking motif. Thoreau’s relevance to the cosmopolitan motif will be explained

through discussion of his intellectual interests, openness to other cultures, travels,

readings and his ability to "feel at home” anywhere. His possession of the

unrespectability motif will be demonstrated by describing the visitors he hosted while at

Walden Pond, his reaction to these visitors, his night in jail, and his recognition of two

segments of society. Finally, Thoreau’s understanding of relative cultural values and the

similarity of his mindset to the relativization motif will be explored by discussing his

recognition that the American economic system was producing many of the

contemporary social values, his awareness of the relationship between human observation

and the language system, and his effort to look at the value systems of other cultures. 166

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Berger’s Motifs and Sociological Consciousness

In An Invitation to Sociology, Berger (1963) presents the sociological perspective

as a “’form of consciousness’ organized around four motifs (or themes)” (Kessel 2002,

3). With this consciousness comes a perspective that things are not always what they

seem, an openness to viewing the many layers of social reality, and the ability to look at a

situation from competing interpretations. Berger (1963) suggests that four motifs are

necessary to gain this consciousness. These include the debunking, unrespectability,

relativization, and cosmopolitan motifs.

The debunking motif, or “unmasking tendency,” allows individuals to see beyond

the facades of social structures, unmasking the “pretentions and propaganda by which

men cloak their action with each other” (Berger 1963, 38). Methodologically, debunking

is done by looking beyond commonly accepted goals of human action, having awareness

that human events have different levels of meaning, and by having a measure of

suspicion about the way human events are interpreted by authorities. Berger’s

unrespectability motif suggests that any society can be divided into two sectors, the

respectable sector (middle class), and the unrespectable sector (everyone else). The

respectable class is considered “normal,” while the unrespectable class is labeled

“deviant.” Berger (1963) argues that language is often the means of distinguishing

between these two sectors. Those who possess this motif have an awareness of world and

realities other than middle and upper class standards, and they view social reality from all

perspectives.

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The relativization motif allows an individual to recognize that the values within a

culture are not absolutes, and that ideas change when situations change. Such a

perspective is based upon insight into and interest in other groups and cultures.

Individuals who possess this motif realize that social location is relative to many factors

and that meaning systems of societies provide a particular and, often, “total’'

interpretation of reality. The foundation for the aforementioned three motives is provided

by the cosmopolitan motif, which provides individuals with an openness to the world and

other ways of thinking, allowing them to be “at home where there are other men that

think” (Berger 1963, 53). This motif creates individuals who have a “taste for other

lands,” are “inwardly open to the measureless richness of human possibilities,” and are

“eager for new horizons and new worlds of human meaning” (Berger 1963, 53). Berger

states that evidence of possession of the cosmopolitan motif is when a person can

transcend the expectations of a society and live as citizen of the world, feeling at one with

the world.

Using Berger’s motifs to ground exploration of Thoreau’s work in sociology, two

major questions were devised. The first and its subquestions include: What kind of

debunking did Thoreau engage in? What evidence is there to prove that Thoreau’s

debunking was evaluative, or that he injected moral concern into his analysis? Did he

look beyond commonly accepted goals of human action? Did he explore different levels

of meaning and how they were hidden from the human consciousness of everyday life?

Did he have a measure of suspicion about the way human events were interpreted by

authorities? The second question and its sub-questions include: Did Thoreau employ an

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unrespectability, relativization and/or cosmopolitan motif(s)? Did he look at social reality

from a number of perspectives? Which ones and how? Did he look at other cultures? Did

he explore ways in which meaning systems of societies provided a “total interpretation of

reality?” Did he have an “openness to the world and other ways of acting” or a “taste for

other lands?” and Was he “inwardly open to the measureless richness of human

possibilities” or “eager for new horizons and new worlds o f meaning?”

In order to prove that Thoreau possessed the sociological consciousness that

Berger describes, evidence that Thoreau possessed these “motifs” must be presented. The

remainder of this chapter will demonstrate that Thoreau did possess each of Berger’s

motifs — the debunking, relativization, respectability and cosmopolitan motifs. For this

chapter it is not important to demonstrate that Thoreau asked particular questions, like C.

Wright Mills, but that Thoreau had a particular mindset and methodology. Therefore, this

chapter will focus more on demonstrating that Thoreau possessed a particular type of

consciousness and went about observing society based on this consciousness.

The Prophet, Illusions and Debunking

As was detailed at the beginning of chapter four, Thoreau used an evaluative

framework, based in Transcendentalism, which was the driving logic behind his critique

of society and the illusions it produced. Moral analysis used in Thoreau’s debunking was

based on his transcendental values. Therefore, any aspect of society that was deemed

beneficial, but interfered with important Transcendentaiist goals of individual freedom

and self-development, was an illusion. Individual happiness was to be found not in

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accumulation of goods or money, but in self-realization and knowledge of the self. It is

clear, then, why he criticized institutions that championed material accumulation and

interfered with self-reliance (capitalist ethos) or that devalued the individual (American

government). He possessed an unwillingness to give in to the expectations of society

(Rice 1999), pointing out that the common goals of society were ultimately empty.

Thoreau’s prophetic mission, reviewed at the beginning of chapter four,

corresponds to his explorations of the illusions of society and meets the criteria of

Berger’s first motif, “debunking” these illusions. Thoreau was interested in awakening

the reader, allowing the reader to see clearly beyond commonly accepted goals, such as

work, consumption and scientific knowledge of objects. He also explored how human

events and behavior have different levels of meaning, examining such topics as the

fetishism of clothing, or the attribution of particular values to people based on their social

behavior. As demonstrated in his works on government, Thoreau also had a strong

suspicion of authority, and he questioned the motives and authority of lawmakers and

judges. Before moving specifically into Berger’s criteria, however, it is necessary to

address Thoreau’s main concept in addressing the illusions of society — awakening.

Awakening as Debunking

Thoreau’s attempt to see beyond the ordinary, with an altered perspective, was

centered on “being awake.” By unveiling the sight of the reader, and allowing the reader

to see with “new eyes” the illusions and self emptiness created by modem life, Thoreau

was hoping to wake the reader’s dissatisfaction (Hyde 2002). By exploring several

passages from Walden, it is possible to better understand Thoreau’s ideas of awakening

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and how they specifically relate to Berger’s debunking motif. Thoreau argued that

because most lived their lives in perpetual slumber, a reawakening was necessary:

The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. (Thoreau Walden 343)

We must leam to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by infinite expectations of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. (Thoreau Walden 343)

No method nor discipline can supersede the necessity of being forever on the alert. What is a course of history or philosophy, or poetry, no matter how well selected, or the best society, or the most admirable routine of life, compared with the discipline of looking always at what is to be seen? Will you be a reader, a student merely, or a seer? Read your fate, see what is before you, and walk on into futurity. (Thoreau Walden 363)

It is clear from Thoreau’s writing that he believed he had transcended this “slumber,”

and that he possessed an elevated consciousness which allowed him to see through the

illusions of society: ‘The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my

soul to be bad, and if I repent anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior -I

hear an irresistible voice that invites me away from all that” (Thoreau Walden 266).

Thoreau recognized the exhilaration of this awakening, and, like Berger, he understood

that in deception humans confirmed their daily routine. Thoreau wanted to point out that

while illusions were often accepted as the “soundest truth,” they were in reality petty

concerns. He argued that there were more important things that demanded human’s

attention:

Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not

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allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be tike a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.. . . When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only the great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence,- that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of reality. This is always exhilarating and sublime. By closing the eyes and slumbering, and consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life o f routine and habit everywhere, which is still built on purely illusory foundations.24 (Thoreau Walden 348-349)

The italicized part of this passage is strikingly similar to Berger’s description of the

methodology of debunking:

The sociological frame of reference, with its built in procedure of looking for levels of reality other than those given in the official interpretations of society, carries with it a logical imperative to unmask the pretentions and the propaganda by which men cloak their actions with each other.25 (Berger 1963, 38)

Both Thoreau and Berger (1963) pointed out that humans condone and cloak their

activities with deception. However, there are additional similarities between Thoreau’s

“awakening” and Berger’s “debunking.” In the passage above, Thoreau continues by

addressing Berger’s (1963) first great rule of sociology, and one of the rules of Thoreau’s

“seeing” -- things are not what they seem:

I perceive that we inhabitants o f New England live this mean life that we do because our vision does not penetrate the surface o f things. We think that that is which appears to be. If a man should walk through this town and see only the reality, where, think you, would the “Mill-dam” go to? If he should give us an account of the realities he beheld there, we should not recognize the place in his description. Look at a meeting house, or a courthouse, or a jail, or a shop, or a dwelling-house, and say what that thing really is before a true gaze, and they would all go to pieces in your account of them. Men esteem truth remote, in the outskirts of the system,

24 Italics mine.

25 Italics mine.

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behind the farthest star, before Adam and after the last of man.26 (Thoreau Walden 349)

Thoreau argued that the vision of most does not even begin to penetrate the surface of

reality. The awakening and new sight for which Thoreau strove is described by Berger

(1963, 62) as a new form of consciousness and he equated it to Satori, “the experience of

illumination sought in Zen Buddhism ... described as ‘seeing things with new eyes.’”

Thoreau gave an example of such an awakening when he discussed John Farmer,

a character in Walden, who began the transformation of consciousness of which Thoreau

wrote:

John Farmer sat at his door one September evening, after a hard day’s work, his mind still running on his labor more or less. Having bathed, he sat down to recreate his intellectual man. It was a rather cool evening, and some of his neighbors were apprehending a frost. He had not attended to the train of his thoughts long when he heard some one playing on a flute, and that sound harmonized with his mood. Still he thought of his work; but the burden of his thought was, that though this kept running in his head, and he found himself planning and contriving it against his will, yet it concerned him very little. It was no more than the scurf of his skin, which was constantly shuffled off. But the notes of the flute came home to his ears out o f a different sphere from that he worked in, and suggested work for certain faculties which slumbered in him. They gently did away with the street, and the village, and the state in which he lived. A voice said to him—Why do you stay here and live this mean moiling life, when a glorious existence is possible for you? Those same stars twinkle over other fields than these.—But how to come out of this condition and actually migrate thither? All that he could think of was to practise some new austerity, to let his mind descend into his body and redeem it, and treat himself with ever increasing respect. (Thoreau Walden 468-469)

To Thoreau, the awakening John Farmer experienced was similar to music leading the

individual away from the illusions of mainstream society, as new faculties are aroused

26 Italics mine.

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and the possibility of a better existence is recognized. This was the effect Thoreau was

hoping to have on the reader. Such an awakening allowed to reader to view society “with

new sight,” objectively, and to stand apart from the individual bias or influence of

institutions, such as the economic system:

With thinking we may be beside ourselves in a sane sense. By a conscious effort of the mind we can stand aloof from actions and their consequences; and all good things, good and bad, go by us like a torrent.... I only know myself as a human entity; the scene, so to speak, of thoughts and affections; and am sensible of a certain doubleness by which I can stand as remote from myself as another. However intense my experience, I am conscious of the presence and criticism of a part of me, which, as it were, is not a part of me, but spectator, sharing no experience, but taking note of it; and that is no more I than it is you. (Thoreau Walden 385-386)

This perspective is equivalent to Mills (1959) idea of “thinking oneself away,” and to

Berger’s (1963) debunking motif, with the net effect of being able to see through the

illusions of society, hold a clearer picture of social realities and behold the influences

society exacted on the individual, devoid of any bias. With an understanding of how

Thoreau’s goal of “awakening” the reader corresponds to Berger’s debunking motif, the

discussion will now move on to explore how Thoreau’s style of “debunking” fits

Berger’s specific criteria of sociological consciousness.

Looking Beyond Commonly Accepted Goals

Thoreau’s work meets Berger’s first criteria of debunking, which is exploring and

attempting to look beyond a number of commonly accepted goals in society. Thoreau

focused on economic goals, such as work and consumption, goals of modem progress,

such as technological and scientific advancement, and political goals, such as democratic

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freedom. He sought to expose these goals, commonly portrayed as ideal and preferable

ways o f living, as illusions and, ultimately, empty o f meaning. All of the topics that

Thoreau was interested in debunking have already been discussed in chapter four.

Therefore, Thoreau’s approach to debunking these topics will be re-examined here, with

reference to previous passages of this document.

Chapter four explored how Thoreau took issue with the economic goals that

resulted from the ways in which American society “solved the problems of daily living.”

He argued that the goals of American capitalism, such as hard work and increasing

consumption, were not goals that would advance humans. These goals hindered human

development, distracted individuals from more important things, and destroyed the

natural environment.27 In “debunking” the goals of modem American capitalism,

Thoreau rejected Adam Smith’s claim that well-being could be equated with

consumption of material goods. Thoreau’s society was not content with moderate

material possessions, instead continually coveting larger homes and more possessions. He

also pointed out that the capitalist workplace was an arena of humiliation and servility,

rather than freedom, which instilled anxiety, desperation, and an interest in superfluous

activities.28 All of these unnecessary goals and preoccupations blinded citizens to

problems of civilization, such as the working conditions and the emergence of

stratification. Thoreau pointed out that one class increased their standard of living on the

backs of another, and some were even degraded below the outward circumstances of the

27 See page thirty-four of this document.

28 See page eighteen of this document.

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savage. Despite being surrounded by luxuries, people were still poor, which provied that

“squalidness may consist with civilization” (Thoreau Walden 289-290). The economic

goals of his society, then, were illusions that were not only a hindrance, but would never

provide the freedom they promised.

Thoreau also saw beyond the goals of the American political system. He believed

that American democracy was an illusion, not true freedom. While it appeared that a

democratic system aimed for “rule by the citizens,” Thoreau argued that because the

American political system required the citizen to acquiesce the individual will to the

government, personal liberty was trampled upon. The expediency of the system,

including the so-called “rule by majority,” not only canceled out the will of many, but did

nothing to ensure that the morally correct decision would prevail. Likewise, while the

political system aimed for clear legal codes, as well as democratically elected and

representative officials, this was not occurring. Law became revered as morality, though

it was far from it. Elected officials were not representative of the public and they often

abused their power and the legal system for personal gain. When the individual would not

acquiesce, the government would use physical force to ensure compliance. Those viewed

by Thoreau to be the most dedicated citizens, who were willing to stand up for the

oppressed and for justice, such as John Brown, were branded as traitors. Those who were

willing to be used by the government or who perpetrated the abuse, were labeled heroes

and true citizens. Using these examples, Thoreau demonstrated that American

democracy was not a “goal” other countries should be striving toward, but a system that

Americans should be striving to correct.

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Thoreau also attempted to debunk two emerging “goals” of society used to

measure “progress” — technological advances and methods of attaining knowledge. He

wanted to awaken the reader to the possibility that there was more to progress than just

technological advancement, arguing that outward technological advance alone was a poor

measure of human development. For example, in terms of transportation, luxury was

often put above safety and only those who could afford a ticket could have access to the

means of transportation. Likewise, while humans were able to send communication

across the globe, the possibility was meaningless without meaningful content; but,

Thoreau pointed out, humans were not concerned with developing this important aspect

of communication. A development of the individual was as much a part of the goals of

progress; yet, this most important goal was being ignored.

Thoreau also challenged commonly accepted methods and goals of knowing and

understanding, including science and the act of reading. He argued that science was

unnaturally focused, mechanical and dry.29 It lacked the wonderment and awe of his daily

goals, seeing and experiencing. In other words, scientific understanding did not extend

beyond measuring and categorizing. Thoreau attempted to “debunk” science, arguing that

the language and categorization of science were too restrictive, and that it imposed its

categories and structure on all natural phenomena. This resulted in an understanding that

made no mention of nature’s relation to humans. Thoreau believed the goal of gaining

this type of knowledge amounted to little significance. By omitting the human

imagination from inquiry, humans were alienated from the subject matter. This type of

79 See page seventy-three of this document.

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understanding objectified natural phenomena. Newer scientists who were pre-occupied

with categorization and measurement had not made significant advancements, and the

conceit they carried under the false belief they were making real “progress” only operated

to keep them slumbering. These goals amounted to limited understanding.

Thoreau addressed another activity through which it was assumed that the

intellect and understanding was developed — reading. He argued that reading had become

an illusion, and that it had evolved into a passive activity that created a dullness of sight

in the reader, rather than an activity that presented an intellectual challenge to the reader:

To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written. (Thoreau Walden 353)

Most men have learned to read to serve a paltry convenience, as they have learned to cipher in order to keep accounts and not be cheated in trade; but of reading as a noble intellectual exercise they know little or nothing; yet this only is reading, in a high sense, not that which lulls us as a luxury and suffers the nobler faculties to sleep the while, but what we have to stand on tiptoe to read and devote our most alert and wakeful hours to. (Thoraeu Walden 356-357)

There are those who, like cormorants and ostriches, can digest all sorts of this [mediocre literature], even after the fullest dinner of meats and vegetables, for they suffer nothing to be wasted. If others are the machines to provide this provender, they are the machines to read it.. . . ’The Skip of the Tip-Toe-Hop, a Romance of the Middle Ages, by the celebrated author of ‘Tittle-Tol-Tan,’to appear in monthly parts’. .. All this they read with saucer eyes, and erect and primitive curiosity... just as some little four-year old bencher his two-cent gift covered edition of Cinderella, -- without any improvement, that I can see, in the pronunciation, or accent, or emphasis, or any more skill in extracting or inserting the moral. The result is a dullness of sight, a stagnation of the vital circulations, and a general deliquium and sloughing off of all the intellectual faculties. This sort of gingerbread is baked daily and more sedulously than pure wheat or

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rye-and-Indian in almost every oven, and finds a surer market. (Thoreau Walden 357-358)

Thoreau argued that most knew nothing of reading as a noble exercise because to be

awake the reader must “stand on tiptoe” and read deliberately. He equated modem

literature to “gingerbread” that was baked daily on a mass scale, since this type of

literature found a “surer market.” It dulled the senses o f the reader, created no

improvement in skills, and actually stagnated the reader’s intellectual development.

While Thoreau had little faith in the newer books that were being mass marketed,

he did recognize that there were books that addressed the human “condition” and had the

potential to awaken the reader. Thoreau, once again, looked to the past for lessons on

“seeing” and debunking views of the present:

It is not all books that are as dull as their readers. There are probably words addressed to our condition exactly, which, if we could really hear and understand, would be more salutary than the morning or the spring to our lives, and possibly put a new aspect on the face of things for us. How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us, perchance, which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered. These same questions that disturb and puzzle and confound us have in their turn occurred to all the wise men; not one has been omitted; and each has answered them, according to his ability, by his words and his life.... but Zoroaster, thousands of years ago, traveled the same road and had the same experience; but he, being wise, knew it to be universal, and treated his neighbors accordingly,... That is the uncommon school we want.... If it is necessary, omit one bridge over the river, go round a little there, and throw one arch at least over the darker gulf of ignorance which surrounds us. (Thoreau Walden 360-362)

Thoreau argued that books could “put a new aspect on the face of things” and create a

“new era” in our lives, throwing an “arch” over the “gulf of ignorance that surrounds us.”

This “uncommon school” was quite different from the “gingerbread” literature that was

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being produced, and ultimately led the reader to consider the most important questions,

rather than the superfluous content that much of the modem literature contained. The use

of modem literature as a means of learning was a goal Thoreau was skeptical of. He

believed that goals of understanding and knowledge could only be accomplished with

deliberateness, openness to new types of knowledge, and the omission of constrictive

learning frameworks (modem science), as well as superfluous concerns and content

(modem literature). His willingness to question the goals of American society, then,

reached to knowledge systems, politics and methods of “getting a living.”

Multiple Levels o f Meaning

Thoreau also recognized that human activities and events had multiple levels of

meaning, which is Berger’s second criteria for debunking. For example, Thoreau argued

that most saw the market as natural and good, and they blindly believed it was the only

way. As a result, they failed to think critically about its meanings and effects. Thoreau,

however, argued that the market was more than a means of “getting a living.” By

exploring ways in which the market structured the daily life of the individual, he pointed

out to the reader the hidden meaning and consequences of market activities. He also

discussed how material items and people were given varying social value, and the

ensuing stratification, as a way of exploring the meaning behind human activity.

To further explore hidden meanings, Thoreau focused on how the capitalist ethos

attributed different values to objects and individuals.30 Outward personal attributes or

30 See page twenty-six of this document.

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activities were used to determine inner characteristics. In the capitalist workplace the

value of people was often determined by the utility of their physical body. Material

goods, in type and number, were used to symbolize class and status. For example, by

exploring the meaning of clothing, beyond keeping the body warm, Thoreau recognized

the “fetishism of fashion,” and how need for clothing had evolved into something

altogether different. Clothing was chosen not to cover nakedness, nor to retain heat, but

with regard for the opinions of others. What to wear becomes a crisis as consumer

behavior became driven by a need and meaning other than utility — fashion. The result of

social relations being driven by these values was stratification. Those with less desirable

clothes, or less “industrious” occupations, were deemed less desirable, inefficient or lazy.

Meaning was attached to objects and people, which became symbolic of interior qualities.

Suspicion o f Authority

Thoreau’s writings on government demonstrate that he possessed a suspicion of

authority figures, which is Berger’s third criteria for debunking. Thoreau questioned the

morality and motives of authority figures, as well as the means by which they gained

their positions. He also disapproved of the process by which these figures were selected,

since choices were limited and figures were not selected from the population at-large. To

Thoreau, administration of justice by these authorities was mere accident. He even

preferred to trust the opinion of the masses rather than the judgment of one leader.

Because these leaders drew their livelihood from the current political system, Thoreau

pointed out that they would do little to change it, and were unable to objectively evaluate

the political system from the outside. While authority figures claimed to act in the interest

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of all, they often imposed their wills on the individual. Thoreau also believed that

authority figures used the government as a tool to further their economic and political

agendas, such as hunting down slaves for slaveholders. All of these leadership traits,

motives, agendas, and lack of objectivity, led Thoreau to hold a deep suspicion of

political authority figures.

The Cosmopolitan, Relativization and Unrespectability Motifs

While all of Berger’s motifs require a more keen sense of awareness, his second,

third and fourth motives relate closely to “seeing” other cultures, classes, and idea

systems without preconceptions or prejudice. The unrespectability motifs facilitates

views of other classes, deviance from the norm, other ways o f behaving, and social

positions not typically taken into account by mainstream values. The relativization motif

opens one to other truths and meaning systems, and the realization that location and time

effects values and social development. The cosmopolitan motif, upon which all other

motifs are built, allows one to transcend physical location, to feel at home wherever there

are others that think, to possess a more open view of human life, and to realize that

nothing human is alien to the individual (Berger 1963). These three motifs are centered

around seeing the “normal” and the deviant, other meaning systems, the relativity of

social norms, and the spectrum of human possibilities. This section will explore

Thoreau’s possession of these three motifs, including a discussion of some of his methods

that demonstrate he possessed the type of consciousness Berger was writing about in An

Invitation to Sociology.

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The Cosmopolitan M otif

Although it is the last motif Berger addresses, all other motifs are built upon the

cosmopolitan motif. This motif involves an openness to the world, and to other ways of

thinking and acting. The individual who possesses this motif is not just “passionately

attached to his own city,” but also “roams through the whole wide world in his

intellectual voyages” (Berger 1963, 52). The cosmopolitan mind is “at home wherever

there are other men that think,” has a taste for other lands, and the measureless richness

of human possibilities, and is eager for new horizons and new worlds of human meaning

(Berger 1963, 52).

This motif can be detected in Thoreau’s mindset and methodology. In his readings

and travels, Thoreau was open to the intellectual voyage of learning about other ways of

living and behaving, was comfortable and at home outside of his own society, and was

anxious to shrug off the confinement and provincialism of 19th century America. He

looked to a number o f different cultures, read a number of sacred Indian and Asian texts,

and conducted in-depth studies of the culture of the Native American Indian. Through

these activities and his writings a mindset and methodology that is consistent with

Berger’s criteria for the cosmopolitan motif can be observed.

Thoreau’s interest in other cultures was fostered by his readings. Richardson

(1986) has written a comprehensive intellectual biography of Thoreau, using a number of

sources, including college records and Thoreau’s vast personal journals. Richardson

(1986) created not only an intellectual timeline, but also an in-depth exploration of

Thoreau’s expansive reading list, his activities season by season, and often the

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relationship between the two. Richardson’s book, entitled Henry Thoreau: A life o f the

Mind (1986), provides evidence that Thoreau possessed the cosmopolitan motif.

Richardson discusses Thoreau’s affinity for other cultures and lands, including Canada,

India and sacred Indian texts, and Native Americans.

Richardson (1986) notes that at early as college Thoreau was immersing himself

in other cultures. While at Harvard, Thoreau took eight terms of Greek and Latin, as well

as two terms of Spanish (Richardson 1986, 13). He also read a number of texts about

other lands and societies, including Francis Hall’s Travel’s in Canada, Ross Cox’s

Adventures on the Columbia River, Washington Irving’s The Conquest o f Granada,

Charles Cochrane’s Travels in Columbia, William Bullock’s Travels in Mexico, Charles

Mill’s History o f the Crusades, John Barrow’s A Voyage to Cochinchina (Vietnam), and

David Crantz’s Greenland (Richardson 1986,13). This led to a particular interest in the

voyages, exploration and discovery of all the coasts of North America and in the

confrontation of European discoverers with the natives of the “new world” (Richardson

1986, 222).

Richardson (1986) also argues that these early interests also led to a life-long

fascination and scholarly interest in Native Americans. At the time of his death Thoreau

had amassed over eleven notebooks, totaling over 2800 pages of extracts and

commentary from books about the American Indian (Richardson 1986, 301). Richardson

(1986) points out that Thoreau avoided more popular works. Instead, he focused on over

270 sources, including The Jesuit Relations, a document that focused on habits, customs,

manners, language, clothing, behavior, beliefs and history of American Indians

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(Richardson 1986, 282). He argues that Thoreau took from documents such as The Jesuit

Relations and Heman Melville’s Typee a recognition that cultural differences were not

only relative, but that outside observers often gave accounts of native cultures which

portrayed them as backward and uncivilized (Richardson 1986, 282). Aside from his

compendium of secondary information on Indians, Thoreau was able to observe Indians

on a few occasions, taking simple notes on observations, such as cooking methods or

constructing animal traps (Richardson 1986).

Over the course of his lifetime Thoreau also read a large number of Eastern

works, including Sir William Jones’ translation of The Laws o f Menu, Zendavesta,

Hindustan, Hugh Murray’s History o f the Saracens, Philosophy o f the Ancient Hindoos,

Mahabarata, Vishnu Purana, Sama Veda, and four Upanishads. Richardson (1986) states

that Thoreau was deeply moved by The Laws o f Menu and the Vishna Purana, and that

these works corroborated with his ideas of awakening, individual freedom and liberation.

Richardson (1986, 81) also adds that Thoreau readings of The Laws o f Menu

demonstrated that a Bible-centered Judeo-Christian worldview was “neither the only nor

the best account of things.” Richardson’s record of Thoreau’s intellectual journey

demonstrates a fascination with a number of other cultures and openness to “other ways

of thinking,” as well as a “taste for other lands,” which are characteristics of Berger’s

cosmopolitan motif.

Such interests led Thoreau to believe that American society was extremely

provincial. Rather than focus solely on American culture, allow publishing companies to

select what individuals read, and remain devoted exclusively to trade and commerce as

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consumers, individuals should look to all learned societies for inspiration and cultural

enrichment:

If we live in the Nineteenth Century, why should we not enjoy the advantages that the Nineteenth Century offers? Why should our life be in any respect provincial? If we will read newspapers, why not skip the gossip of Boston and take the best newspaper in the world at once?—not be sucking the pap of ‘neutral family’ papers, or browsing ‘Olive Branches’ here in New England. Let the reports of all the learned societies come to us, and we will see if they know anything. Why should we leave it to Harper & Brothers and Redding & Co. to select our reading? As the nobleman of cultivated taste surrounds himself with whatever conduces to his culture — genius — learning — wit — books — paintings — statuary — music — philosophical instruments, and the like;.. . (Thoreau Walden 362)

With respect to a true culture and manhood, we are essentially provincial still, not metropolitan—mere Jonathans. We are provincial, because we do not find at home our standards, because we do not worship truth, but the reflection of truth, because we are warped and narrowed by an exclusive devotion to trade and commerce and manufacturing and agriculture and the like, which are but means, and not the end. (Thoreau “Life without Principle” 650)

A distaste for this provincialism led Thoreau to explore a number of other cultural

lifestyles and to experiment with them, transcending the expectations of his own society

and location. The entire Walden experiment is a tribute to the alternative lifestyles he

valued in other societies, with their simplicity and self-reliance, rather than a capitalistic

clock-measured day:

I realized what the Orientals mean by contemplation and the forsaking of works. For the most part, I minded not how the hours went. The day advanced as if to light some work o f mine; it was morning, and lo, now it is evening, and nothing memorable is accomplished. Instead of singing like the birds, I silently smiled at my incessant good fortune My days were not days of the week, bearing the stamp of any heathen deity, nor were they minced into hours and fretted by die ticking of a clock; for I lived like the Puri Indians, of whom it is said that ‘for yesterday, today, and tomorrow they have only one word, and they express the variety of

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meaning by pointing backward for yesterday forward for tomorrow, and overhead for the passing day.’ This was sheer idleness to my fellow- townsmen, no doubt;. . . I had this advantage, at least, in my mode of life, over those who were obliged to look abroad for amusement, to society and the theatre, that my life itself was become my amusement and never ceased to be novel. (Thoreau Walden 364)

Thoreau was able to live at Walden free of social expectations and goals, such as

accumulating a number of consumer goods, engaging in well-paying and respectable

employment, or owning and maintaining a sizable house.

The experiment at Walden, itself, along with his travels and readings,

demonstrates that Thoreau was eager for new horizons o f human possibility. He was open

to worlds unknown, particularly in regards to knowledge. Yet, he believed that the

lifestyle of the capitalist workplace confined most from exploring these worlds. In the

daily American life he saw a confinement that kept most from exploring these

possibilities:

My desire fo r knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant. The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence. I do not know that this higher knowledge amounts to anything more definite than a novel and grand surprise on a sudden revelation of the insufficiency of all that we called Knowledge before—a discovery that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy Man cannot know in any higher sense than this, any more than he can look serenely and with impunity in the face of the sun:... ‘You will not perceive that as perceiving a particular thing,’ say the Chaldean Oracles. (Thoreau “Walking” 623)

I, who cannot stay in my chamber for a single day without acquiring some rust, and when sometimes I have stolen forth for a walk at the eleventh hour of four o’clock in the afternoon, too late to redeem the day,. . . have felt as if I had committed some sin to be atoned for, I confess that I am astonished at the power of endurance—to say nothing of the moral insensibility of my neighbors who confine themselves to shops

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and offices the whole day for weeks and months, aye and years almost together ----- How womankind, who are confined to the house still more than men, stand it I do not know; but I have ground to suspect that most of them do not stand it at all. (Thoreau “Walking” 595-596)

However, Thoreau was free to explore these worlds and through this exploration, which

involved reading and traveling, he gained a mindset similar to Berger’s cosmopolitan

characteristics of “feeling at home” no matter what the location. We can see this by

comparing Berger’s criteria with Thoreau’s works: “His mind, if not his body and

emotions, is at home wherever there are other men that think” (Berger 1963, 52).

With respect to his physical location, we see a similar sentiment at work within Thoreau.

His writings demonstrate a kindred feeling of at-home-ness in all of the world:

I was so distinctly made aware of the presence of something kindred to me, even in scenes which we are accustomed to call wild and dreary, and also that the nearest of blood to me and humanest was not a person nor a villager, that I thought no place could ever be strange to me again. (Thoreau Walden 383)

I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks, who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering; which word is beautifully derived ‘from idle people who roved about the country, in the middle ages, and asked charity, under pretence of going a la sainte terre ’--to the holy land, till the children exclaimed, ‘There goes a Sainte-Terrer’, a Saunterer, a Holy-lander.. . . Some, however, would derive the word from sans terre, without land or a home, which, therefore, in the good sense, will mean, having no particular home, but equally at home everywhere. For this is the secret of successful sauntering. He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all, but the Saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea. But I prefer the first, which indeed is the most probable derivation. For every walk is a sort of crusade.. . . (Thoreau “Walking” 592-593)

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This ability to “feel at home” anywhere allowed Thoreau to break free from the

expectations of his society, and to engage in an experiment in living, such as he did at

Walden Pond. His willingness to explore unknown worlds through his walks, travels,

readings and lifestyle, and an openness to other possibilities than were found in his

society, demonstrate that he possessed Berger’s cosmopolitan motif.

The Relativization Motif

Thoreau was able to build upon his interest in other cultures the ability to

recognize and explore different value systems. This can be equated to Berger’s second

motif — relativization. This motif points to the fact that values are not absolutes; they can

be radically relativized. The relativization perspective is gained when one examines the

process of social development, and by taking a look at other groups or cultures. This

allows one to recognize that ideas and values may change as social conditions change.

This motif also allows individuals to recognize that meaning systems of some cultures

provide a total interpretation o f reality and ways to prevent questions from being asked

that might threaten allegiance to the system (Berger 1963; Kessel 2002).

The relativization motif corresponds to several of Mills’ questions covered in

chapter four, including: How does society differ from other varieties of social order?

Where does this particular society stand in human history? and How does any particular

feature we are examining affect, and how is it affected by, the historical period in which

it moves? Mills’ questions and Berger’s motifs are based on an awareness that values are

changing and relative to different factors. Thoreau’s examination of the ways in which

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modem American capitalism, the emerging American political system and the American

ideas of progress were producing unique values and structuring individual life have

already been discussed. Therefore, building a case that Thoreau possessed the

consciousness of the relativization motif will not be difficult. It will require proving that

he examined the process of development, took a look at values and ideas of other groups

and cultures, explored how meaning systems provide a total interpretation of reality and

stifle questions that threaten allegiance to the system, and believed that ideas were

relative to specific social locations.

Thoreau recognized the relative values of his country that were being produced by

its economic system. The expanding capitalist economy was changing life on a number of

levels, altering the workplace, work time, social value of individuals, and structuring

physical space.31 Time had become a commodity and a form of capital. Other new values

and definitions of individuals and goods were emerging. The market and the ways his

society were “getting a living” were affecting all aspects of life.

The new political system also had problems and values that were relative to its

structure. The utilitarian aspect of this system required individuals to acquiesce to its will,

putting their duty as citizens above their duty to the individual conscience. Social value

was placed on people willing to fight for this government, and the label of “traitor” was

placed on those willing to revolt against the government in order to fight for individual

rights. There were a number of mechanisms within the structure that disempowered the

individual, including its expediency, the value of law as a symbol of morality, and the use

3t See page sixteen of this document.

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of physical force.32 This democratic system was uniquely situated to allow the individual

true freedom, yet it perpetuated the existence of widespread injustice, such as slavery.

Thoreau also recognized how human observation was relative to its specific

language system, and that his society, in particular, was becoming more fascinated with

the languages of science and measurement.33 He realized that the way humans talked

about things determined how they saw objects (Oelschlaeger 1991, 157). In his society,

Thoreau pointed out that scientific language and nomenclature inhibited observation and

the search for knowledge. This conventional language imposed unnatural structure and

categories on natural phenomena. He looked to other cultures of the past to explore

relative differences in approaches to “seeing” and language systems, as well as values

and ways of living.34

Thoreau looked to a number of different groups to prove that values and

definitions were different depending on a number of social and historical factors. He

made numerous comparisons between the “civilized” and the “savage.” For example, in

exploring the effect on language on observation, he recognized that the Indians had a

variety of words to express the vitality of nature, and he used some of this primitive

language to break free from conventional language, recovering the true meaning of

phenomena. In exploring relative economics and solving the problem of “getting a

living,” he recognized that other societies had risen to greatness without outward luxury,

32 See page forty-one of this document.

33 See page fifty-seven of this document.

34 See page sixty of this document.

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while pointing out that his society was not content with its material consumption. Instead,

his society had a narrow definition of progress, which was centered on consumption of

goods and technology. Thoreau recognized that these values were relative, and looked to

the more primitive to show that there were other ways to live. He made comparisons

between the economic conditions of the Europeans with the Indians in an effort to prove

that many in countries such as Ireland and England had been denigrated below the level

of the “savage” due to the modem economy. Thoreau made it clear that there was much

to be learned from the “savage” and other cultures. While the life of the “savage” had a

great deal of simplicity, and the savage possessed a greater ability to feel at home in

nature, as well as independence, modem folks had become tools, fixed in one place, and

dependent on one another due to division of labor.

Thoreau was also attuned to how meaning systems, such as capitalist ethos, the

American political system and science, provided a “total interpretation of reality.” For

example, all activities and phenomena within capitalism, including nature, time, physical

space, one’s choice of clothing, and the way individuals decorated their homes, became

subject to the inherent values of capitalism and modernism, such as cost-benefit analysis,

fetishism of fashion, and commodification. Within the political and legal systems, law

became relativized as morality. Likewise, science used a particular system of inquiry

through which it structured, categorized and labeled all phenomena and observation.

Thoreau took issue with the language of science and the ways in which it structured all

observation.

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These systems of meaning also had ways of countering deviance, or threats to the

allegiance o f the system, and Thoreau recognized this, as well. Within the economy and

the political system, the act of labeling held significant power over individuals, since the

opinion of others was such a valued entity. Thoreau pointed out that many would rather

have a broken leg than face the consequences o f being seen with a rip in their pants.

Those who did not dress fashionably, or who did not buy into the capitalist work ethic,

such as Thoreau, were labeled a number of terms, including “lazy.” Likewise, within the

government, those whose activities countered the objectives and demands of the

government were labeled traitors, even if their actions were morally correct. When

labeling did not work, physical force was used. Even the threat of force was enough to

subdue people into serving the state’s interest.

Thoreau explored how values were being produced in his own country by the

economic and political systems. He gave special attention to how the capitalist ethos

provided a total interpretation of reality and how economic and political institutions had

coercive means of bringing deviants back into line with the mainstream. He also explored

values, meaning systems and other cultural ways of living, and used development as a

way of observing how values change across time and physical location. These concerns

provide strong evidence that Thoreau possessed the relativization motif.

The Unrespectability Motif

The final motif to be explored, Berger’s unrespectability motif, involves a

fascination with the “unrespectable” segment of society, or an awareness of those who

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are different than the middle and upper class segments of society, which are deemed

“worthy,” “standard,” or “proper.” Berger (1963) argues that language is often the

clearest way to differentiate between the two segments of the society — the respectable

and unrespectable segments. In Thoreau’s work, the reader can find his appreciation for

visitors he received at Walden and individuals he met on his travels who fell outside of

the respectable class. He often pointed out that while society ignored these individuals,

there was much to be learned from their experience and those individuals were of value.

Thoreau also had a fascination for places or localities that were outside the respectable

sector, such as jail or the frontier mill laboring camps, which he visited on several

occasions. These experiences will now be discussed.

Thoreau pointed out that a number of visitors came to see him during his stay at

Walden Pond. These visitors came from all walks of life, including women, children,

railroad workers, farmers, the “old and infirm,” a slave, the poor, and a woodchopper.

Thoreau explained in his chapter of Walden entitled “Visitors”:

I had some guests from those not reckoned commonly among the town's poor, but who should be; who are among the world's poor, at any rate;... who earnestly wish to be helped,... Men of almost every degree of wit called on me in the migrating season. Some who had more wits than they knew what to do with; runaway slaves with plantation manners, who listened from time to time, like the fox in the fable, as if they heard the hounds a-baying on their track One real runaway slave, among the rest, whom I helped to forward toward the north star. Men of one idea,... men of a thousand ideas, and unkempt heads.. . . men of ideas instead of legs, a sort of intellectual centipede that made you crawl all over. (Thoreau Walden 402)

I could not but notice some of the peculiarities of my visitors. Girls and boys and young women generally seemed glad to be in the woods.... Men of business, even farmers, thought only of solitude and employment, and of the great distance at which I dwelt from something or other, and

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though they said that they loved a ramble in the woods occasionally, it was obvious that they did not. Restless committed men, whose time was all taken up in getting a living or keeping it; ministers who spoke of God as if they enjoyed a monopoly of the subject, who could not bear all kinds of opinions; doctors, lawyers, uneasy housekeepers who pried into my cupboard and bed when I was out— . . . young men who had ceased to be young, and had concluded that it was safest to follow the beaten track of the professions —all these generally said that it was not possible to do so much good in my position.... The old and infirm and the timid, of whatever age or sex,... Finally, there were the self-styled reformers, the greatest bores of all, who thought that I was forever singing,... I had more cheering visitors than the last. Children come a- berrying, railroad men taking a Sunday morning walk in clean shirts, fishermen and hunters, poets and philosophers; in short, all honest pilgrims, who came out to the woods for freedom's sake, and really left the village behind, I was ready to greet with — ‘Welcome, Englishmen! welcome, Englishmen!’ for I had had communication with that race. (Thoreau Walden 403-404)

Visitors came from both the respectable and unrespectable segments of society. Those

who had accepted the “beaten path” of the capitalist professions and those who were

devalued by society, including the slave and the “half-wits.” Thoreau made a habit of

noting their peculiarities.

It was in the lesser-valued visitors and acquaintances that Thoreau found interest

and value. Many of these “unrespectable” visitors he found to be wiser than those who

were expected to lead the town:

Many a traveller came out of his way to see me and the inside of my house, and, as an excuse for calling, asked for a glass of water.. . . Far off as I lived, I was not exempted from the annual visitation which occurs, methinks, about the first of April, when everybody is on the move; and I had my share of good luck, though there were some curious specimens among my visitors. Half-witted men from the almshouse and elsewhere came to see me; but I endeavored to make them exercise all the wit they had, and make their confessions to me; in such cases making wit the theme of our conversation;... Indeed, I found some of them to be wiser than the so-called overseers of the poor and selectmen of the town, and thought it was time that the tables were turned. With respect to wit, I learned that

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there was not much difference between the half and the whole. (Thoreau Walden 400-401)

We can see examples of this in Thoreau’s discussions of an elderly woman, a Canadian

woodchopper and a pauper. In the “elderly dame,” whom Thoreau described as invisible

to society, he saw a genius, who gardened, had a sharp memory, and possessed extensive

knowledge of fables:

An elderly dame, too, dwells in my neighborhood, invisible to most persons, in whose odorous herb garden I love to stroll sometimes, gathering simples and listening to her fables; for she has a genius of unequalled fertility, and her memory runs back farther than mythology, and she can tell me the original of every fable, and on what fact every one is founded, for the incidents occurred when she was young. A ruddy and lusty old dame, who delights in all weathers and seasons, and is likely to outlive all her children yet. (Thoreau Walden 388-389)

Thoreau saw in the elderly dame quite the opposite of what society saw. Likewise, a

simple-minded pauper, who society had used for menial tasks, paid a visit to Thoreau:

One day, in particular, an inoffensive, simple-minded pauper, whom with others I had often seen used as fencing stuff, standing or sitting on a bushel in the fields to keep cattle and himself from straying, visited me, and expressed a wish to live as I did. He told me, with the utmost simplicity and truth, quite superior, or rather inferior, to anything that is called humility, that he was ‘deficient in intellect.’ These were his words . .. ‘I have always been so,’ said he, ‘from my childhood; I never had much mind; I was not like other children; I am weak in the head. It was the Lord's will, I suppose.’ And there he was to prove the truth of his words. He was a metaphysical puzzle to me. I have rarely met a fellowman on such promising ground—it was so simple and sincere and so true all that he said. And, true enough, in proportion as he appeared to humble himself was he exalted It seemed that from such a basis of truth and frankness as the poor weak-headed pauper had laid, our intercourse might go forward to something better than the intercourse of sages. (Thoreau Walden 401-402)

Thoreau’s appreciation for the pauper’s simplicity, sincerity, humility and truth led him

to believe that their exchange might surpass any that has existed before.

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However, the penultimate example of Thoreau’s interest and recognition of value

in “unrespectability,” can be found in his discussion of the Canadian woodchopper. At

times, Thoreau admitted that even he was not sure whether to view the Canadian as a

backwoods primitive, or a genius. He pointed out that the woodchopper was free from the

vice and social disease that had come over most citizens:

Who should come to my lodge this morning but a true Homeric or Paphlagonian man-he had so suitable and poetic a name that I am sorry 1 cannot print it here—a Canadian, a woodchopper and post-maker, who can hole fifty posts in a day, who made his last supper on a woodchuck which his dog caught. He, too, has heard of Homer, and, ‘if it were not for books,’ would ‘not know what to do rainy days,’ though perhaps he has not read one wholly through for many rainy seasons. (Thoreau Walden 394)

A more simple and natural man it would be hard to find. Vice and disease, which cast such a sombre moral hue over the world, seemed to have hardly any existence for him. He was about twenty-eight years old, and had left Canada and his father's house a dozen years before to work in the States, and earn money to buy a farm with at last, perhaps in his native country. He was cast in the coarsest mould; a stout but sluggish body, yet graceftilly carried, with a thick sunburnt neck, dark bushy hair, and dull sleepy blue eyes, which were occasionally lit up with expression. He wore a flat gray cloth cap, a dingy wool-colored greatcoat, and cowhide boots. (Thoreau Walden 395)

In appearance, the woodchopper certainly did not possess the “respectable”

characteristics of 19th century America, with his “sluggish” body, “sleepy” eyes and

“dingy” clothes. Yet, he appealed to Thoreau with his simplicity and contentment. The

Canadian was also untouched by the many of ways in which society had molded others.

For example, he was willing to engage in leisure activities, and had been instructed only

in “an innocent and effectual” way. He was unsophisticated, so the intellectual man of

society was slumbering in him:

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He interested me because he was so quiet and solitary and so happy withal; a well of good humor and contentment which overflowed at his eyes.... Sometimes I saw him at his work in the woods, felling trees, and he would greet me with a laugh of inexpressible satisfaction, and a salutation in Canadian French, though he spoke English as well. When I approached him he would suspend his work, and with half-suppressed mirth lie along the trunk of a pine which he had felled,. . . Such an exuberance of animal spirits had he that he sometimes tumbled down and rolled on the ground with laughter at anything which made him think and tickled him .. . . In him the animal man chiefly was developed. In physical endurance and contentment he was cousin to the pine and the rock But the intellectual and what is called spiritual man in him were slumbering as in an infant. He had been instructed only in that innocent and ineffectual way in which the Catholic priests teach the aborigines, by which the pupil is never educated to the degree of consciousness, but only to the degree of trust and reverence, and a child is not made a man, but kept a child. When Nature made him, she gave him a strong body and contentment for his portion, and propped him on every side with reverence and reliance, that he might live out his threescore years and ten a child. He was so genuine and unsophisticated ... (Thoreau Walden 396-397)

Because the woodchopper had not been formed and shaped by the ways of capitalist

society, he was less reliant on society, not only for goods, but also for opinions and ways

of thinking. Thoreau was particularly impressed by the woodchopper’s ability to think for

himself:

He would not play any part. Men paid him wages for work, and so helped to feed and clothe him; but he never exchanged opinions with them. He was so simply and naturally humble— ... that humility was no distinct quality in him,... It would have suggested many things to a philosopher to have dealings with him. To a stranger he appeared to know nothing of things in general; yet I sometimes saw in him a man whom I had not seen before, and I did not know whether he was as wise as Shakespeare or as simply ignorant as a child, whether to suspect him o f a fine poetic consciousness or o f stupidity. A townsman told me that when he met him sauntering through the village in his small close-fitting cap, and whistling to himself, he reminded him of a prince in disguise. (Thoreau Walden 397-398)

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His only books were an almanac and an arithmetic, in which last he was considerably expert.... I loved to sound him on the various reforms o f the day, and he never failed to look at them in the most simple and practical light. He had never heard of such things before. Could he do without factories? I asked. He had worn the home-made Vermont gray, he said, and that was good. Could he dispense with tea and coffee? Did this country afford any beverage beside water? He had soaked hemlock leaves in water and drank it, and thought that was better than water in warm weather. When I asked him if he could do without money, he showed the convenience of money in such a way as to suggest and coincide with the most philosophical accounts of the origin of this institution, and the very derivation of the word pecunia. If an ox were his property, and he wished to get needles and thread at the store, he thought it would be inconvenient and impossible soon to go on mortgaging some portion of the creature each time to that amount. He could defend many institutions better than any philosopher, because, in describing them as they concerned him, he gave the true reason for their prevalence, and speculation had not suggested to him any other. (Thoreau Walden 398-399)

To most, the woodchopper appeared to know nothing, but to Thoreau he was a prince in

disguise. While the more civilized parts in him slumbered, a humility and genuineness

flowered. He was able to defend some social institutions, but could do without many of

them. Though his thinking was more primitive, to Thoreau it was more promising

because of the woodchopper’s originality and ability to think for himself:

There was a certain positive originality, however slight, to be detected in him, and I occasionally observed that he was thinking for himself and expressing his own opinion, a phenomenon so rare that I would any day walk ten miles to observe it, and it amounted to the re origination of many of the institutions of society.. . . Yet his thinking was so primitive and immersed in his animal life, that, though more promising than a merely learned man's, it rarely ripened to anything which can be reported. He suggested that there might be men of genius in the lowest grades of life, however permanently humble and illiterate, who take their own view always, or do not pretend to see at all; who are as bottomless even as Walden Pond was thought to be, though they may be dark and muddy. (Thoreau Walden 400)

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These promising traits suggested that there might be other “men of genius” to be

found in the “lower grades o f life.” Though they may have looked “dark and muddy,”

they were in fact, “bottomless.” Thoreau’s ability to “see” these individuals when society

did not is evidence of his interest in noticing other populations than just the middle class.

One of Thoreau’s most transforming experiences of the “unrespectable” class

came during his night in jail for not paying the poll tax. His account of this experience

demonstrates his interest in observing the structure, activities, and people of the jail from

a neutral position. In fact, Thoreau’s openness to take on a vantage pointed outside of the

respectable class is quite evident from the following passage. He described the

experiences as “new and rare,” and “like traveling into a far country.” He also points out

that a change had come over his eyes after that night, and that many in his society were

not even aware that such a place existed in their town:

The night in prison was novel and interesting enough. The prisoners in their shirt-sleeves were enjoying a chat and the evening air in the doorway, when I entered my roommate was introduced to me by the jailer as ‘a first-rate fellow and a clever man.’ When the door was locked, he showed me where to hang my hat, and how he managed matters there. The rooms were white-washed once a month; and this one, at least, was the whitest, most simply furnished, and probably the neatest apartment in town. He naturally wanted to know where I came from, and what brought me there; and, when I told him, I asked him in my turn how he came there, presuming him to be an honest man, of course; and, as the world goes, I believe he was.... He occupied one window and I the other; and I saw that if one stayed there long enough, his principal business would be to look out the window. I had soon read all the tracts that were left there, and examined where former prisoners had broken out,... and heard the history of various occupants of the room; for I found that even here there was a history and a gossip which never circulated beyond the walls of the jail. Probably this is the only house in the town where verses are composed,... but not published ----- I pumped my fellow-prisoner as dry as I could,. . .

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It was like traveling into a far country, such as I had never expected to behold, to lie there for one night. It seemed to me that I never had heard the town-clock strike before, nor the evening sounds of the village; for we slept with the windows open,. . . It was to see my native village in the light of the middle ages,. . . I was an involuntary spectator and auditor of whatever was done and said in the kitchen of the adjacent village-inn, — a wholly new and rare experience to me. It was a closer view of my native town. I was fairly inside of it. I never had seen its institutions before. This is one of its peculiar institutions;... I began to comprehend what its inhabitants were all about.. . . When I came out of prison- . . . a change had to my eyes come over the scene, — the town and State, and country, — greater than any that mere time could effect. I saw yet more distinctly the State in which I lived. I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends;... that they did not greatly propose to do right;... for I believe that many of them are not aware that they have such an institution as the jail in their village. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 127-130)

He made an effort to get as much information from his fellow-prisoner as he could. He

became an “involuntary spectator,” taking in the activity of the night in the village and

learning an informal history through the writings of former prisoners. Thoreau saw this

experience as a “closer view” of his town than he had previously possessed. This new

vantage point changed Thoreau’s view, allowing him to see more clearly the state in

which he lived.

Thoreau explored other “unrespectable” lands, as well as those who dwelled

there. He spent time traveling in the Maine woods, especially near the lumber camps that

were perched along the rivers. The land, itself, was wild and undeveloped, as Thoreau

explained in The Maine Woods:

It is difficult to conceive of a region uninhabited by man. We habitually presume his presence and influence everywhere. And yet we have not seen pure Nature, unless we have seen her thus vast and drear, and inhuman,... Nature was here something savage and awful, though beautiful. (Thoreau The Maine Woods 70)

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Thus a man shall lead his life away here on the edge of wilderness, . . . in a new world, far in the dark of a continent,. . . He lives a thousand years deep into time, an age not yet described by poets. Can you well go further back in history than this? (Thoreau The Maine Woods 78-79)

What is most striking about the Maine wilderness is,... It is even more grim and wild than you anticipated,. . . The aspect of the country indeed is universally stem and savage. (Thoreau The Maine Woods 80)

While the republic has already acquired a history world-wide, America is still unsettled and unexplored.... There stands the city of Bangor,... already overflowing with the luxuries and refinement of Europe, and sending its vessels to Spain, to England, and to the West Indies for its groceries, -- and yet only a few axe-men have gone ‘up river’ into the howling wilderness which feeds it. (Thoreau The Maine Woods 82-83)

This land, just “up the river,” was primitive, savage and wild. It was far back in time

from the luxuries and social graces of Thoreau’s society. Certainly, it was not the

geographical region of the “respectable.” This “inhuman” land was, for the most part,

untouched and unsettled.

The inhabitants of this land were even more fascinating to Thoreau. He spent time

at the logging camps, experiencing life in the wild, while learning about the work and

leisure of the loggers. He described the campsites, food, literature, and working

conditions in The Maine Woods'.

These camps were about 20 feet long by fifteen wide, built of logs — hemlock, cedar, spruce or yellow birch- one kind alone, or all together, with the bark on;... usually the scenery about them is drear and savage enough; and the logger’s camp is as completely in the woods as a fungus at the foot of a pine in the swamp; no outlook but to the sky overhead;... the logger’s fare consists of tea, molasses, flour, pork, -- sometimes beef, -- and beans. (Thoreau The Maine Woods 19-20)

There were piping hot wheaten-cakes, the flour having been brought up from the river in batteaux,... and ham, eggs, and potatoes, and milk and cheese, the produce o f the farm; and also shad and salmon, tea sweetened

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with molasses,. . . Such, we found, was the prevailing fare, ordinary and extraordinary, along this river. (Thoreau The Maine Woods 23)

We filed into the rude loggers’ camp at this place,. . . On the well flattened and somewhat faded beds . . . lay an odd leaf of the Bible, some genealogical chapter out of the Old Testament;... and we found Emerson’s Address on the West India Emancipation which had been left here formerly by one of our company ... and an odd number of the Westminster Review,... This was the readable, or reading matter, in a lumberer’s camp in the Maine woods,. . . These things were well thumbed and soiled. (Thoreau The Maine Woods 34)

Other than the food and reading material, Thoreau recognized that the loggers had few

amenities. The scenery was savage, the lifestyle was isolated and the work was

dangerous. Thoreau described the lengths to which the loggers went to drive the logs

down the river:

It was easy to see that driving logs must be an exciting as well as arduous and dangerous business.... They have quite an alphabet of their own, which only the practised can read. One of my companions read off from his memorandum book some marks of his own logs, among which there were crosses, belts, crow’s feet, girdles...and various other devices.... The boys along the shore leam to walk on floating logs as city boys walk on sidewalks. Sometimes the logs are thrown up on rocks . . . or they jam together at rapids or falls, and accumulate in vast piles, which the driver must start at the risk of his life. Such is the lumber business, which depends on many accidents,... (Thoreau The Maine Woods 42-43)

I will describe particularly how we got over some of these portages and rapids, in order that the reader may get an idea of the boatman’s life. At Ambejijis Falls, for instance, there was the roughest path imaginable cut through the woods; at first up the hill at an angle of nearly forty-five degrees, over rocks and logs without end Our two men at length took the batteau upon their shoulders, and, while two of us steadied it, to prevent it from rocking and wearing their into their shoulders, on which they placed their hats folded, walked bravely over the remaining distance, with two or three pauses With this crushing weight they must climb and stumble along over fallen trees and slippery rocks of all sizes,. . . (Thoreau The Maine Woods 47-48)

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The bowman springs from side to side with wonderful suppleness and dexterity, scanning the rapids and the rocks with a thousand eyes;. .. To add to the danger the poles are liable at any time to be caught between the rocks and wrenched out of their hands, leaving them at the mercy of the rapids-... The bowman must quickly choose his course; there is no time to deliberate. (Thoreau The Maine Woods 49-50)

Like the woodchopper, Thoreau seemed to be charmed by the lifestyle of the loggers,

which required a love of nature, physical toughness, learning the ways of the river, as

well as the logger’s “alphabet.” He saw the loggers had advanced minds, even though

they lived outside “civilization”:

If I were to look for a narrow, uninformed, and countrified mind, as opposed to the intelligence and refinement which are thought to emanate from the cities, it would be among the rusty settlements of an old-settled country,... in the towns about Boston ... and not in the backwoods of Maine. (Thoreau The Maine Woods 22-23)

While he was certainly turned off by the marketing of nature, Thoreau admired the logger

as a rugged individualist who lived in nature, and not amongst the more “respectable”

segments of society.

Such experiences led Thoreau to recognize two clear segments of society that

were drastically different. These were the city, whose opinions were formed more by

others and the capitalist system, and the country, whose opinions were unprejudiced and

independent. Thoreau did not clearly possess Berger’s idea of differentiating between the

segments based on language, but he did seem to be nearing this notion. While he did not

mention the use of particular language, he did argue that the country segment had few

organs through which to express themselves:

It is evident that there are, in the Commonwealth, at least, two parties, becoming more and more distinct — the party of the city, and the party of the country. I know that the country is mean enough, but I am

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glad to believe that there is a slight difference in her favor. But as yet, she has few, if any organs, through which to express herself. The editorials which she reads, like the news, come from the sea-board. Let us, the inhabitants of the country, cultivate self-respect. Let us not send to the city for aught more essential than out broadcloths and groceries, or, if we read the opinions of the city, let us entertain opinions of our own. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 99)

He called for the country to only send to the city to receive essentials, not opinions.

While Thoreau recognized that the country opinion carried less weight in society, or in

Berger’s terms, was “unrespectable,” Thoreau also believed the country view was the

truest and most “respectable” view. He also believed that the opinion of the country was

the most unprejudiced by civilization and the most respectable:

I am more convinced that, with reference to any public question, it is more important to know what the country thinks of it than what the city thinks. The city does not think much. On any moral question, I would rather have the opinion of Boxboro than of Boston and New York put together. When the former speaks, I feel as if somebody had spoken, as if humanity was yet, and a reasonable being had asserted its rights, - as if some unprejudiced men among the country’s hills had at length turned their attention to the subject, and by a few sensible words redeemed the reputation of the race. When in some obscure country town, the farmers come together to a special town meeting, to express their opinion on some subject which is vexing the land, that, I think, is the true Congress, and the most respectable one that is ever assembled in the United States. (Thoreau “Slavery in Massachusetts” 98-99)

Thoreau recognized visitors from several segments of society, including the

elderly dame, the pauper and the woodchopper. He was also open to visiting non

standard locations of society, such as the jail. Thoreau was also coming to recognize two

large segments of society that were different in thought and in how they were valued by

society. The ability to see these other segments of society, and to acknowledge their

value, demonstrates Thoreau’s possession of Berger’s unrespectability motif.

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Thoreau’s Religious Ideals and Berger’s Motifs

It is fitting to close this chapter in the same manner that chapter four began — with

an exploration of how Thoreau’s religious ideals influenced his methodologies of

exploring society. There are a number of parallels between Transcendental objectives and

Berger’s motifs. Transcendentalists were skeptical of authority figures, had a concern for

common humans from all walks of life, and were open to new ways of behaving,

understanding and experiencing. These ideals can be connected to Berger’s debunking,

unrespectability, relativization and cosmopolitan motifs.

Romanticism, which heavily influenced Transcendentalism, championed the self

over the authority of society, and argued that humans were controlled by society and

alienated from their true selves (Rice 1999). This led to an anti-institutional orientation

(Rice 1999), which was further developed by Transcendentalists. Transcendentalism,

itself, was a reaction to the rigidity of the institutional church. It was an outgrowth of

Unitarianism, which was, in turn, a reaction against the determinism of Calvinist thought

(Frederick 1998). Unitarians rejected Calvinist determinism, holding more to the free

will of the individual. Transcendentalist skepticism of the organized church led to

arguments that religious dogma was not infallible, that scripture and church interpretation

of scripture should be questioned (Frederick 1998), and that traditional religion was

doing nothing to encourage questioning minds or reform of the status quo (Rueben 2002).

Transcendentalists embraced the new biblical criticism from Germany, and even turned

to scriptures of non-westem cultures (Lewis 2002). They argued that the individual did

not need authorities nor institutions to experience God (Brickman 2002). This skepticism

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was applied to all institutions that attempted to control the individual, and has parallel

characteristics to Berger’s debunking motif. At the heart of Transcendental ideology was

the same type of skepticism of authority, particularly political and religious authority,

which Berger was referring to in An Invitation to Sociology.

Transcendental ideology also parallels Berger’s cosmopolitan and relativization

motifs. Transcendentalists were interested in embracing, knowing and becoming one with

the world (Rueben 2002), characteristics which relate to Berger’s cosmopolitan

objectives of feeling at home in all the world. With these objectives in mind, education,

exploration and experience played a large part in Transcendental activities. These

activities included reading non-Westem literature, attempting to break away from non-

traditional educational methods, and deconstructing conventional language (Brickman

2002; Lewis 2002). Because Transcendentalists wanted to break free from traditional

cultural forms of communication and expression, their attempts to take in unknown

experiences often involved looking to other cultures for new ideas, languages and ways

of living (Hampson 1997). They believed knowledge and cultural forms were temporary

social constructions, and by understanding this fact individuals could be freed from being

imprisoned by culture (Brickman 2002). Such an understanding of the temporality of

cultural norms bears striking resemblance to Berger’s relativization motif.

Finally, Transcendental thought also can be correlated to Berger’s

unrespectability motif Due to the heavy influence of Romanticism, Transcendentalists

were concerned with finding the voice of the common human, and they had a particular

interest in folk movements and human commonality (Hampson 1997). Because they

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believed that all humans, regardless of race, gender or class, could experience God

directly, any institution that prevented equality was in need of reform (Lewis 2002).

Many Transcendentalists were involved in social reform movements, including abolition,

women’s rights and Indian welfare. This concern for the voice of all humans parallels

Berger’s unrespectability motif, which aimed to explore those outside of mainstream

society.

Conclusion

This chapter addressed how Thoreau’s work corresponds to Berger’s criteria of

sociological consciousness. The relation of Berger’s debunking motif to Thoreau’s ideas

of awakening was discussed by demonstrating Thoreau’s interest in revealing illusions of

American goals of economy, his exploration of multiple levels of meaning and his

suspicion of authority. Thoreau’s possession of Berger’s cosmopolitan motif was

explored by demonstrating Thoreau’s openness to other ways of thinking, reviewing his

travels and readings, discussing his distaste for provincialism and by portraying his time

at Walden as evidence that he felt free from social expectations. Thoreau’s relevance to

the relativization motif was discussed by reviewing his ideas on how American values

were being produced by the economic structure, his recognition of how language framed

human observation, his ability to look at the values of other cultures, and his

demonstration of how American capitalism provided a total interpretation of reality.

Finally, the unrespectability motif was addressed by exploring his interest in

“invisible individuals,” his time in jail, his interest in the lifestyle of the loggers and his

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recognition of two divergent segments in society. The discussion in this chapter

demonstrates that Thoreau possessed all four of Berger’s motifs of sociological

consciousness. The next chapter will discuss the implications of being able to provide

evidence that a figure, who has been considered a more “literary” author, possessed

sociological consciousness.

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IMPLICATIONS

This chapter will review the implications of the findings discussed in chapters

four and five. The theoretical significance of these findings, including new approaches to

the canon, will be discussed. The primary focus of this chapter will be on moving beyond

a fetishism of methods, which Mills (1959) and Berger (1963) discussed in their books as

an emerging negative tendency in sociology. Their arguments for the need to adopt a less

technocratic approach to sociology, while approaching sociology more as a “craft,” will

be reviewed. Thoreau will be presented as a prototype methodologist who meets all of the

criteria Mills and Berger laid out in the latter parts of their books, as they called for a

resistance to abstracted empiricism. Evidence will be presented to support the argument

that sociology can glean from Thoreau’s work a more “humanistic” methodology that is

more in line with the perspective of an artist than a bureaucratic researcher. Thoreau’s

ability to integrate empiricism with a more humanistic approach, and his focus on

perspective and sensory experience, will be highlighted.

Dogmatic Theory and Sociology

This paper began by exploring and critiquing the dogmatic approach to the

sociological canon. In particular, the discussion involved the need to scrutinize the

criteria and processes by which theorists are “canonized.” Evidence linking a more 210

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“literary” figure, such as Thoreau, to a sociological consciousness certainly boosts the

argument for relaxing this historically dogmatic approach to theory. There is no argument

here for including Thoreau in the canon. However, there is an argument for scrutinizing

the criteria and for reading more obscure thinkers whose works may not merit a place in

the sociological canon, but whose ideas can make a legitimate contribution to sociology.

The conclusions of chapters four and five present a compelling argument for sociologists

to expand their reading lists, or risk intellectual stagnation and staleness (Ritzer and

Goodman 2002). There are numerous thinkers outside of traditional sociological reading

lists who explored “issues of immediate and everyday life,” but who are unexplored from

a sociological perspective (Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley 1998). The evidence

presented in chapters four and five presents a compelling argument that new approaches

to the canon are needed, as is an openness to allowing other figures to dialogue with or

influence sociology, even if they are not added to the canon. For Thoreau, there are a

number of potential areas where his work can make contributions within sociology. Here,

I will discuss how he might influence ideas about methods within sociology.

Fetishism of Methods

Even in the mid-twentieth century, both Mills (1959) and Berger (1963)

recognized an emerging tendency within the field of sociology. This tendency was an

overwhelming emphasis on empirical studies and a more technical approach to

sociological research. Both Mills and Berger saw the trend as obstructive to the

possibilities and future of sociology. This section will review Mills’ and Berger’s

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individual views of these tendencies, the ramifications of the trends and their proposed

solutions to the problem.

Mills and Abstracted Empiricism

Mills termed the tendency toward empirical studies “abstracted empiricism,” and

believed that it “seized upon one juncture in the process of work” and “allowed it to

dominate the mind” (Mills 1959, 50). He believed that empirical facts often became

unrelated to the milieu and that the sociologist had emerged as a specialist in technique

(Mills 1959, 23-24). One of the most prominent characteristics of abstracted empiricism

was the administrative structure that it had adopted. It had selected, employed and trained

a particular type of mind, creating new types of sociologists. These included the

“intellectual workmen,” such as the “intellectual administrator” and the “research

technician,” who now competed with “the more usual kinds of professors and scholars”

(Mills 1959, 55). This movement made social science more bureaucratic than was

necessary.

The implications of such a trend were alarming to Mills. He believed that the

legacy of sociology was in danger: “The danger is that amongst such sociological

abundance, other social scientists will become so impatient, and sociologists will be in

such a hurry for ‘research,’ that they will lose hold of a truly valuable legacy” (Mills

1959,24). Abstracted empiricism “scattered one’s attention” and “cultivated method for

its own sake” (Mills 1959,24). Mills believed this approach possessed an arbitrary

epistemology, which functioned to inhibit methodology and to impose restraint on the

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possibilities of sociology:

This model of research is largely an epistemological construction; within the social sciences, its most decisive result has been a sort of methodological inhibition. By this I mean that the kinds of problems that will be taken up and the way in which they are formulated are quite severely limited by the Scientific Method. Methodology, in short, seems to determine the problems. (Mills 1959, 57)

Those in the grip of methodological inhibition often refuse to say anything about modem society unless it has been through the fine little mill of The Statistical Ritual. (Mills 1959, 71)

By embracing the scientific method so strongly, and by aligning themselves with

administrative structure and bureaucratic interests, sociologists had shifted their interest

from the public to the private realm (Mills 1959,102). Mills saw this as a tragic move

that severely limited the autonomy of the social researcher, and hindered the public

responsibility of sociology. Additionally, Mills believed that this structure expropriated

the imagination of the sociologist:

Much of the propaganda force of bureaucratic social science is due to its philosophical claims to Scientific Method; much of its power to recruit is due to the relative ease of training individuals and setting them to work in a career with a future In some of the founders, empirical techniques serve an imagination which, it is true, has often been curiously suppressed, but which one often feels to be there. When you talk with one of the founders, you are always dealing with a mind. But once a young man has spent three or four years at this sort of thing, you cannot really talk to him about the problems of studying modem society. His position, his ambition, and his very self-esteem, are based in large part upon this one perspective, this one vocabulary, this one set of techniques. In truth, he does not know anything else. (Mills 1959,105-06)

Mills argued that if the trends of abstracted empiricism were not counterbalanced, the

future of sociology was certainly grim.

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Berger s View o f Empiricism

Berger also wrote about the “image of the sociologist as a gatherer of statistics”

(Berger 1963, 8). Like Mills, Berger recognized that American sociology had “turned

away from theory to an intensive preoccupation with narrowly circumscribed empirical

studies” (Berger 1963, 9). He saw that many of the studies were irrelevant to social

concern:

At the same time, it is quite true that some sociologists, especially in America, have become so preoccupied with methodological questions that they have ceased to be interested in society at all. As a result, they have found nothing of significance about any aspect of social life, since science as in love a concentration on technique is quite likely to lead to impotence. (Berger 1963, 13)

This resulted in a “preoccupation with technical skills” and a “total insensitivity to the

uses of language” (Berger 1963, 12). Again, like Mills, Berger placed this trend of

technical specialization within the larger context of the power system, in which

sociologist had to navigate the competitive career ladder. Because of the emphasis on

climbing the structural ladder, sociologists were increasingly focused on the individual

benefits of research and publishing, rather than the social benefits of sound social

research. Berger also recognized the danger that an intense fetishism of methods

presented to the future of sociology:

Sociology will be especially well advised not to fixate itself in an attitude of humorless scientism that is blind and deaf to the buffoonery of the social spectacle. If sociology does that, it may find that it has acquired a foolproof methodology, only to lose the world of phenomena that it originally set out to explore-... (Berger 1963, 165)

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Resisting Empiricism

Mills and Berger had their own ideas about how to resist empiricism. These

prescriptions have striking relevance to Thoreau’s work and lifestyle, as well as a more

“literary” and artistic approach to sociology. Mills (1959) believed that for individuals

who felt that they were part of the classic tradition, social science was a craft. In The

Sociological Imagination, he detailed how to go about that craft. The scholar needed to

“design a way of living that will encourage habits of good workmanship” (Mills 1959,

196). Mills argued that this began with not splitting work from one’s life. He

recommended keeping a journal, in which one could record “fringe thoughts and by

products of everyday life” (Mills 1959,196). He believed this was indispensable to

originality. Mills (1959, 197) also suggested that sociologists should develop self-

reflective habits, which would “keep your inner world awake.” Writing was a large part

of this process. Mills (1959, 197) advised the sociologist to build a habit of writing in

order to develop “the powers of expression.” This power includes the ability to take good

notes, so that individuals may “translate our experiences,” giving them form (Mills 1959,

199). Mills (1959,199) even referred to such journaling or note taking as a “curious sort

o f‘literary’ journal.” He saw it as imperative to intellectual production.

Like Thoreau, Mills (1959, 212) argued that “training often incapacitates us.”

This is due to imposing fixed categories, such as language and methods, on social

phenomena. He stated that a “release of imagination” was needed (Mills 1959, 215). The

sociological imagination, Mills argued, allows this release, and includes the ability to

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shift from one perspective to another. This not only separates the sociologist from the

research technician, but also requires a “playfulness of mind" that the technician lacks

(Mills 1959,211). To think from multiple viewpoints, Mills recommended writing with

dialogue, or deliberately inverting one’s sense o f proportion. He warned that one might

be considered “a literary man” or a “journalist” by engaging in such techniques, but such

a change was necessary. For example, many social scientists, according to Mills (1959,

217), wrote in a “turgid polysyllabic prose,” which was not necessary. To make his point,

he added a footnote to page 217 in The Sociological Imagination that reads:

By Edmund Wilson, widely regarded as ‘the best critic in the English-speaking world,’ who writes: ‘As for my experience with articles by experts in anthropology and sociology, it has lead me to conclude that the requirement in my ideal university, of having the papers in every department passed by a professor of English might result in revolutionizing these subjects- if indeed the second of them survived at all.’ A Piece o f My Mind, New York, Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1956, p. 164 (Mills 1959,217)

Mills warned that to overcome the academic prose, one needed to overcome the

academic pose. He argued that much of the writing in social science was not a voice, but

was impersonal and “prose manufactured by a machine” (Mills 1959, 221). In other

words, there was nothing humanistic about the writing or the methods. Mills closed this

section of his work by highlighting that the opposite road is needed:

Always keep your eyes open to the image of man-the generic notion of his human nature-which by your work you are assuming and implying;... Keep your eyes open to the varieties of individuality,... Use what you see and what you imagine, as the clues to your study of the human variety. (Mills 1959,225)

Berger also provided methods for contesting the empirical movement within

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sociology. He argued that sociology is in an “apostolic succession from the Cartesian

quest for ‘clear and distinct perception”’ (Berger 1963, 167). However, in order to gain

such a perception, a more humanistic approach is needed. He suggested, even with the

title of his book, An Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective, that sociology

needs to align itself more with an attempt to understand the human condition. The

humanistic values necessary to acquire this perception include a focus on the

commonplace, an understanding of the art of listening quietly, and the ability to evaluate

one’s own findings without prejudice (Berger 1963). Like Mills, Berger argued for

sociology to look to other disciplines, including the humanities:

In addition to these human values that are inherent in the scientific enterprise of sociology itself, the discipline has other traits that assign it to the immediate vicinity of the humanities, if they do not, indeed, indicate that it belongs fully with them sociology is vitally concerned with what is, after all, the principal subject matter of the humanities- the human condition itself.... Such an understanding of the humanistic place of sociology implies an openness of mind and a catholicity of vision.... Openness to the humanistic scope of sociology further implies an ongoing communication with other disciplines that are vitally concerned with exploring the human condition. (Berger 1963, 167-168)

These prophetic warnings to burgeoning sociologists were put forth by Mills and Berger

over forty years ago. Yet, these tendencies have not been resisted. The bureaucratic

research structure has multiplied, gaining power, as it continues to drive research

questions, as well as methods of data collection and analysis.

Thoreau as an Archetype

Neither Mills nor Berger argued for the end of empiricism, but they did believe

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that a more balanced, humanistic approach was needed. Thoreau’s work meets much of

the additional criteria listed in the aforementioned section: journaling, self-reflective

habits, a focus on writing, developing “powers of expression,” “release of imagination,”

shifting from one perspective to another, a “playfullness of mind,” adopting a more

“literary approach,” overcoming the academic pose, adopting a more humanistic

approach, an attempt to understand the human condition, an understanding of the art of

listening quietly, and work that relates to the humanities. Thoreau conceived of his

inquiry as a craft. This approach is certainly one area where sociology can glean new

perspectives from him as a particular type of thinker, observer and writer.

Thoreau’s Integrative Approach

First, sociology can extract from Thoreau’s work an example of integration. His

methods were a union of empiricism and more “transcendental” ways of seeing, the latter

of which brought Thoreau closer to the humanistic approach Mills and Berger demanded.

As a prototype thinker, Thoreau was able to find the middle ground between the

subjective and objective. Peter Blakemore (2000) has reviewed several studies on

Thoreau’s ability to achieve the best of both worlds:

One of the most illuminating studies o f Thoreau’s practice in the Journals is H. Daniel Peck’s Thoreau’s Morning Work Here Peck explains that with the Journal’s repeated ‘description of phenomena,’ Thoreau was able to develop a ‘middle level of response’ between the Emersonian all- encompassing eye and an ‘evolving scientific naturalism.’ According to Peck, Thoreau’s method gave his observations ‘an almost empirical status lying halfway between subjective and objective reality.’ Through this continuous record, Thoreau was able to find ‘the meeting place of the perceiver and the perceived.’ (Blakemore 2000,116)

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In other words, there are a number o f important traits that many sociologists lack

according to Mills and Berger. Thoreau was able to integrate these traits into his work:

The intellectual faculties, the imagination, the functions of the sense, have their respective requisitions on the sympathy of the corresponding powers in other human beings. The poet is represented as uniting these requisitions, and attaching them to a single image. He seeks in vain for a prototype of his conception. (Woods 1950, 1338).

Some argue that Thoreau was the last major American writer to believe he could be a

scientist and a “man of letters” simultaneously on the same project (Hildebidle 1983).

This is an integration that seems to match the type o f mind Mills and Berger wrote about.

Thoreau’s reasoning for attempting to integrate these approaches stems from two

factors: his recognition, like Mills and Berger, of the shortfalls of science, and his

transcendental and anthropocentric approach to inquiry. Thoreau believed the scientist

was in danger of losing his or her ‘views as wide as heaven’s cope’ by focusing ‘down to

the field o f a microscope’ (Thoreau Journal 77/380). Science was too mechanical and

dry, and its language imposed unnecessary categories on human observation. This

method did not take scientists beyond a superficial understanding. What was more

frustrating to Thoreau was that measurement and naming had no human relevance and

diminished the subjective experience. Such mechanical knowledge had little relevance to

the human condition about which Thoreau was intensely concerned.

Thoreau’s anthropocentric approach to studying phenomena was certainly more in

line with Mills and Berger’s humanistic ideals than the scientific methods that were being

employed by sociology. Thoreau condemned the sterile approach of science that divorced

the subject from the experience and from relevance. While science extracted the human

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imagination from inquiry, Thoreau’s transcendental approach to exploring phenomena

was directly linked to human relevance:

I think the man of science makes this mistake, and the mass of mankind along with him: that you should cooly give your chief attention to the phenomenon which excites you as something independent [of] you, and not as it is related to you. The important thing is its effect on me. (Thoreau Journal X164-165)

What is nature unless there is an eventful human life passing within her. (Thoreau Journal IV 472)

There is no such thing as pure objective observation. Your observation, to be interesting, i.e. to be significant, must be subjective. The sum of what the writer of whatever class has to report is simply some human experience, whether he be poet or philosopher or man of science. The man of most science is the man most alive, whose life is the greatest event.. . . It matters not where or how far you travel, - the farther commonly the worse, — but how much alive you are. If it is possible to conceive of an event outside to humanity, it is not of the slightest significance, though it were the explosion of a planet I look over the report of the doings of a scientific association and am surprised that there is so little life to be reported; I am put off with the dry technical terms. (Thoreau Journal VI 236-238)

Clearly, a subjective view and a relevance to human experience were central to Thoreau’s

approach to inquiry.

The Perspective o f the Poet

With this anthropocentric view, Thoreau was aiming to take a wider view by

functioning outside of the boundaries of science:

I fear chiefly lest my expression may not beextra-vagant enough, may not wander far enough beyond the narrow limits of my daily experience, so as to be adequate to the truth of which I have been convinced ____ I desire to speak somewhere without bounds; like a man in a waking moment, to men in their waking moments.” (Thoreau Walden 563)

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The attack he launched on a strict scientific understanding of phenomena consisted of seeing in ways that the scientist did not, including inverting his perspective, ‘sauntering’ and relying more heavily on sensory experience. Thoreau saw himself as both a scientist (a natural historian) and a poet, yet he recognized how differently these two vocations viewed the world: ‘How differently the poet and the naturalist look at objects.’ (Thoreau “Autumn Tints” 286).

It is important to explore how Thoreau’s perspective corresponds with Mills’ and

Berger’s ideas on resisting empiricism. Thoreau’s work has several characteristics that

align him with the humanities, and specifically to the “literary artist.” Thoreau kept an in-

depth journal of his observations, readings and ideas. His journals included scientific

recordings, poetry, reflection and responses to books he had read. Along with his deep

transcendental value of self-cultivation, his journal allowed for the intense self-reflective

habits that Mills demanded of the sociologist. This self-reflection can be seen throughout

Thoreau’s work. His self-reflection was linked to the most dominant literary craft

Thoreau engaged in, the power of expression through writing. Thoreau’s ability to go

beyond the empirical viewpoint to give form in his writing to phenomena originated in

his ability to gain perspective, and his emphasis on wakefulness and “seeing.” His

perspective was often gained through a focus on sensory experience and “sauntering.”

These are characteristics that are more common to the “literary” artist than the

sociologist.

Hyde (2002, xvii) argues that Thoreau not only wanted to “see the world with

new eyes,” but that in his work, there was a line where description ended and “seeing”

began. Hyde (2002, xxi) also believes Thoreau had a “genius for perspective” and “for

getting himself into situations where common things could be seen from uncommon

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angles.” For example, Thoreau assumed the fish-eye view in A Week on the Concord and

Merrimack Rivers. He assumed the vantage point of prisoner and documented this

experience in Civil Disobedience. He experimented in a number of ways to get outside

the ordinary view, such as his prolonged experiment at Walden Pond (Hyde 2002). His

refusal to pay the poll tax and to live under social expectations allowed him to “step

outside the frame” (Hyde 2002, xxiv). He was adept at inverting his vision to see things

in a new way (McSweeney 1998). Thoreau stated that for anyone to see the “least fact or

phenomenon, however familiar” in a new way, all they needed to do was observe it “from

a point a hair’s breadth aside from our habitual path or routine” (Thoreau Journal VIII

44).

His approach, which was often on the outside of society, gave Thoreau a different

viewpoint than most. Consider his critique of politicians, who stood so far within the

political institution, they were unable to objectively view it:

Statesmen and legislators, standing so completely within the institution, never distinctly and nakedly behold it. They speak of moving society, but have no resting place without it Webster never goes behind government, and so cannot speak with authority about it. (Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” 133-134)

Views like this are the exact ones that Mills and Berger championed when critiquing

modem social researchers for standing so far inside the grips of bureaucratic and

administrative research that they could not view research from the proper position.

Thoreau’s interest in “seeing the whole world new” (“Huckleberries” 254) and

“schooling of the eye and hand” (“Autumnal Tints” 287) was based often in sensory

experience and in the language of the senses (McSweeney 1998). He believed that a

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higher state of consciousness was possible only through sensory experience. Thoreau

relied heavily on sight and sound, so some of his most well known passages include

exquisite descriptions of visual and aural phenomena. Since he was wary of becoming too

focused on the narrow concerns of science, he devised an alternative method of seeing,

which he termed “sauntering.” Most o f his perceptual strategies emerge from this

method. Peter Blakemore (2000) describes this alternative way of seeing:

As usual, he solved the problem by walking. Thoreau finally realized that his practice of recording impressions from walks in his journal led toward a different way of seeing Thoreau decided he would practice a different kind of observation; he would develop a method of local travel, and bring to his work something objective scientific travelers could not-... (Blakemore 2000, 115)

Thoreau described sauntering as “walking so gently as to hear the finest sounds-

the faculties being in repose -- your mind must not perspire” (Thoreau Journal III 329).

One must be able to abandon social goals and expectations to be able to truly saunter.

This was a “self conscious expedition in which Thoreau tried to examine and understand

natural phenomena and their patterns o f interaction, to test and refine his capabilities as

an observer” (Robinson 2000, 83). It involved living deliberately, observing intently and

the art of listening. One only needs to read a sample of Thoreau’s work to realize how

important sauntering and the sensory experience was to his work:

This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore. I go and come with a strange liberty in Nature, a part of herself. As I walk along the stony shore of the pond in my shirt sleeves, though it is cool as well as cloudy and windy, and I see nothing special to attract me, all the elements are unusually congenial to me. The bullfrogs trump to usher in the night and the note of the whippoorwill is borne on the rippling wind from over the water. Sympathy with the fluttering alder and poplar leaves almost takes away my breath;

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yet like the lake, my serenity is rippled, not ruffled. (Thoreau Walden 380)

This passage demonstrates a focus on the craft of observing, the art of listening, reflection

and communicating the truth of the experience through human language.

Thoreau can provide a prototype for resisting empiricism. His focus on integrating

science with a transcendental and anthropocentric way of seeing the world corresponded

to the calls by Mills and Berger for more humanistic methods in sociology. Sociology can

leam from Thoreau’s “genius” for perspective, particularly his focus on sensory

perception, his “playfulness of mind,” as Mills called it, and his view of inquiry as a craft.

All of these characteristics will promote resistance to abstracted empiricism.

Conclusion

This chapter began by discussing the implications of the findings of chapters four

and five for the canons o f sociology and on incorporating peripheral thinkers into

sociology. The warnings of Mills and Berger about the trend of abstracted empiricism

were reviewed. Thoreau was presented a model to resist this trend, and as a prototype

methodologist who integrated empiricism with the more humanistic approach that Mills

and Berger demanded. Thoreau’s more “literary” approach to perspective, including his

focus on sensory perception and his ability to give natural phenomena written form, were

presented as ideals that could help sociologists to resist abstracted empiricism. The

subsequent, and final chapter, will summarize the major findings of this project, as well

as identify additional areas of inquiry which need to be addressed based on the strong

evidence that has been found to support the arguments herein.

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CONCLUSION

This paper began with a discussion of the process of “canonization” within

sociology. The social construction of this canon and its historical omissions were

discussed. Arguments for scrutinizing the canonical criteria, such as the risk of

intellectual stagnation, were presented. Henry David Thoreau was introduced as a test

case for applying accepted criteria (the work of Mills and Berger) of sociological

consciousness, in order to bolster the argument for a re-examination of canonical

flexibility and an expansion of sociological reading lists. Though a number of other

fields, such as economics, philosophy and environmental studies have used Thoreau’s

work, there has been no systematic exploration of his relevance to sociology. Two

hypotheses were presented: Thoreau possessed what C. Wright Mills called the

sociological imagination; and Thoreau engaged in a particular type of sociological

analysis that corresponds to Berger’s motifs. Broad implications discussed included

looking at additional figures from other fields, such as more “literary” authors, and the

need for additional deconstruction of canonical criteria. This expansion could encourage

new theoretical directions and ideas in sociological debate and dialogue. Specific

implications discussed included extracting sociologically relevant material from

Thoreau’s work and comparing him with other sociological thinkers.

225

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Chapter two, the literature review, began by examining Thoreau’s intellectual

lineage. A link was drawn between Thoreau’s ideas and those of Kant, Smith and

Rousseau. Thoreauvian thinking was also traced to Romanticism and Transcendentalism.

A review of the coverage of Thoreau’s work by multiple disciplines was also conducted.

This included an explanation of the ways in which the fields of literature, science, natural

history, philosophy, political science, economics, social reform and environmental

studies have used Thoreau’s ideas. The discussion ended with an exploration of

canonization within sociology, including the recent attempts by a number of sociologists

to re-open the canon. The main conclusion drawn from the literature review was the

existence of a disparity in sociological consideration of Thoreau.

Chapter three addressed the methodology used in this project. The theories used

to formulate the research questions, Mills’ sociological imagination and Berger’s motifs,

were reviewed and connected to the specific research questions. A case was made for

using latent content analysis to test the research questions. This included a review of the

weaknesses and strengths of this qualitative methodology. Sampling methods, as well as

coding categories and guidelines for this project were explained. The chapter concluded

with a description of strategies for ensuring reliability and validity.

Chapter four addressed research question number one: did Thoreau possess a

sociological imagination? Discussion began by exploring how Thoreau’s religious beliefs

influenced his critique of society. This was followed by a review o f Thoreau’s mission as

a thinker and a writer, including his dissatisfaction with society, his prophetic mission,

and his Transcendental emphasis on life’s basic necessities, self reliance and nature.

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Thoreau’s audience, which included readers of travel writing as well as abolitionist

literature, was also described. The remainder of the chapter addressed how Thoreau met

Mills’ criteria of the sociological imagination. He covered all three groups of questions

discussed by Mills, including: What is the structure of this society as a whole? What is

the place of this society in history? and What varieties of men and women live in this

time period? To explore Thoreau’s ideas on how institutions effected the individual, his

understanding of the impact of the economy on everyday life, social values and human

relations with nature was discussed. His ideas about the American government’s

encroachment on the individual, through its expediency, force and understanding of law

as morality, were also reviewed. Finally, Thoreau’s ideas on where his society was placed

in history were covered through his definitions of progress. His thoughts on progress as

an illusion were explored through his writings about economic and technological

advances, American democracy, science and social reform.

Chapter five addressed how Thoreau’s work corresponds with Berger’s criteria of

the sociological consciousness. Berger’s criteria, which he termed “motifs,” and the

research questions that corresponded to Berger’s criteria, were reviewed. Thoreau’s

connections to Berger’s debunking motif were demonstrated by reviewing Thoreau’s

prophetic mission, his desire to reveal the illusions of society, his ability to look beyond

commonly accepted goals of society and explore the multiple meanings in human

activity, and his suspicion of authority figures. Thoreau’s possession of the cosmopolitan

motif was demonstrated through discussion of his intellectual interests, travels and

readings, openness to other cultures, distaste for provincialism, and his ability to feel at

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home anywhere. Thoreau’s possession of the relativization motif was evidenced by

discussing his recognition that the American economic system was producing many of

the contemporary social values, his understanding of the relationship between human

observation and the language system, and his effort to look at the value systems of other

cultures. Finally, his possession of the unrespectability motif was demonstrated by

describing his reaction to the visitors he received while at Walden Pond, his night in jail,

and his recognition of two emergent segments of society.

Chapter six reviewed the implications of the findings discussed in chapters four

and five. Theoretical significance, including new approaches to the cannon, was

discussed. The primary focus was on moving beyond a fetishism of methods, which Mills

(1959) and Berger (1963) presented as a negative tendency within sociology. Their

concept of abstract empiricism and the ways they suggested to resist this tendency were

reviewed. Thoreau was presented as an archetype methodologist who possessed many of

the characteristics Mills and Berger promoted. Evidence was provided to support the

argument that sociology can glean a more humanistic methodology from Thoreau’s work.

His ability to integrate empiricism with a more humanistic approach, as well as his foci of

perception and sensory experience, and his more “literary” characteristics, were

highlighted.

Thoreau’s Challenge to Sociology

Why is Thoreau interesting, sociologically? He challenges us to rethink the

boundaries of the discipline, the criteria we use for the canon, and the weight that we

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attribute to qualitative versus quantitative research. Though a number of theorists have

issued such challenges, including Mills (1959) and Berger (1963), sociology has not

systematically addressed these issues head-on. This is due to a number of explicit and

implicit reasons, which will be addressed herein. The implications of Thoreau’s

interdisciplinary work and his more qualitative approach for the field of sociology will

also be discussed.

Legitimacy: Carving Out an Exclusive Niche

Why has sociology avoided Mills’ (1959) and Berger’s (1963) challenge to

explore interdisciplinary connections, particularly in regards to exploring alternative

thinkers? Though the discipline uses non-sociologists as “founders” of sociological

thought, no present effort is made to look at other non-sociologists and to consider the

contributions they might make to the field. This paradox is most likely due to the

historical effort made to legitimate sociology in academia and other public realms as

exclusive territory. In fact, going back at this point in time to look at thinkers outside the

discipline may be seen by many as counterproductive, or not moving forward, because

this inquiry would involve expanding into older territory and would require an

acknowledgement that we need to draw on disciplines outside of sociology. This would

directly challenge the desire to remain engaged in an exclusive realm. Sociology’s claim

as the “queen of all sciences” demonstrates the discipline’s own sense of self-importance

in relation to other disciplines. This maybe why sociology has remained “dubiously”

silent about thinkers such as Thoreau, despite the challenge such thinkers present to the

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field.

The historical trend has been for sociology to become increasingly more isolated

and distinct from other fields. This has not only resulted in disciplinary isolation, but

also a more quantitative approach to exploring social phenomena. Lengermann and

Niebrugge-Brantley (1998) have explored this process, arguing that in an effort to

legitimate itself, sociology conformed to broader academic criteria, including a subject

matter that was distinct from other disciplines, as well as the development of a canon.

This attempt at legitimacy also resulted in the expansion of statistical sociology and

technical expertise (Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley 1998). This shift not only

altered the foci of inquiry, but it also changed the contents of the canon, and marginalized

certain types of thinkers within sociology.

This shift also brought with it a new obsession with objectivity, validity, rules and

reliability. If particular methods did not conform to the rules, they were seen as inferior

methods of knowing. Both Mills (1959) and Berger (1963) explored this trend of the

domination of empiricism and technical methods within sociology. Sociology found its

authority in offering technical expertise in assessing policies (Lengermann and

Niebrugge-Brantley 1998); as a result, efforts to generalize, determine frequencies, make

comparisons, and conduct other large-scale demographic quantitative data analysis have

played a large part in sociology’s ability to gain and retain a place in academia. In other

words, sociology gained a good deal of its legitimacy in the public arena through proving

its utility in assessing policy issues using statistical data. Logically, then, quantitative

methods have held greater authority within sociology than qualitative methods.

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Voices o f Reason

Berger (1963) has explored the need within sociology to look to other disciplines,

pointing out that sociology is one discipline among many that look at social phenomena.

He argues that sociologists should learn from natural scientists a “sense of play” (Berger

1963, 164) in regard to their discipline, and like natural scientists, sociology should

develop a maturity, including an effacement of self, and realize that their methods are

limited in scope. Sociology, Berger believes, is one game among many and is “hardly the

last word on human life” (1963, 164). Sociology should not only tolerate, but also take an

interest in other epistemologies (Berger 1963). Berger (1963) closes his chapter on

sociology as a humanistic discipline by arguing that attaining a greater measure of

awareness requires a certain amount of risk; avoiding this risk simply results in technical

training. Part of the risk involved in gaining a greater awareness, then, includes engaging

in interdisciplinary research.

Both Mills (1959) and Berger (1963) suggested fields with which sociology

should immediately explore partnerships. Their criteria of sociological consciousness

include an understanding of history as very important component in looking at society,

and an understanding that values, including those surrounding valid methods of knowing,

are relative to time and space. Therefore, Berger (1963) specifically argues for a focus on

increasing historical literacy. Additionally, both theorists make a call for partnering with

the humanities in an attempt to make sociology more humanistic, and as a result, more in

touch with the human condition. It is clear that Mills (1959) and Berger (1963) raised

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poignant questions about the nature of interdisciplinary inquiry within sociology, as well

as well as the need to re-examine the value attributed to quantitative research. However,

Thoreau’s work also reinforces the need to address these questions.

Thoreau s Importance to Sociology

Thoreau is important sociologically because he challenges us to reconsider the

boundaries of the discipline and the need for interdisciplinary inquiry. His work speaks to

the human condition without remaining simply a technical body of work. Recognizing

the limitations of science, he incorporated other, more humanistic methods, to describe

human life. He was, at once, a natural historian, a well-trained measurer of natural

phenomena, a quasi-anthropologist, a social philosopher and analyst, and a writer with a

more literary style. There is no doubt that his experience in all these disciplines provided

him with a more well-rounded and valid perception of reality. In other words, Thoreau’s

example seems to prove that an epistemology of specialization, whether it be through one

particular discipline or a particular research method, is an incomplete way of viewing the

social world.

Thoreau’s importance to sociology can also be found in his example of a more

qualitative approach to exploring social phenomena. Recognizing how scientific methods

and language framed human observation, he often attempted to explore the more

qualitative experience by functioning outside the boundaries of strict scientific inquiry.

He spent time being physically present to his visitors in an effort to gauge their

experiences and develop a more authentic view o f their lives. He traveled to locations,

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such as the lumber mills and the jail cell, to experience in-person, the daily life of

individuals who lived in those places. He made attempts to engage in sensory experience

and to describe these experiences in detailed written form, yet, not in technical terms.

Such representations have stood the test of time and have not only spoken to the human

condition, but have reached a wider population than any strictly sociological document

has even done.

The success of Thoreau’s work in characterizing the human condition challenges

us to revisit the quantitative-qualitative dichotomy and the balance of power between

these two methods within sociology. Just as expanding the canon will breathe new life

into sociological dialogue, a reconsideration of the methodological power structure

within sociology would have several implications. First, there is more to sociology than

broad generalizations and its utility for policy research. A re-examination of social

phenomena from more qualitative methods may lead to new topics and questions.

Second, quantitative methods are increasingly misunderstood by the general public, and

abused to mislead them. A re-examination of qualitative methods and an increased use of

qualitative data in the public realm may lead to a more authentic representation of social

reality to public citizens. Qualitative research may bring a picture of society and an

understanding o f social phenomena to the wider public in a non-technical language, in

much the same way that writers such as Thoreau have done.

Future Research

The implications of these findings on future research are varied. First, canonical

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criteria must be further deconstructed, which could include a systematic analysis of

sociological theory texts and readers to determine which theorists are included. Criteria

used for inclusion, whether inherent or blatant, should also be examined. Second, a re

examination of the reading lists for students and scholars of sociology beyond texts and

readers is needed. It is important to question if sociologists are staying within the

boundaries of traditional sociological reading lists and their reasons for their preferences.

Third, it seems that within undergraduate curriculum, there is a large focus, particularly

in the introductory texts, to Mills’ and Berger’s first chapters, but not to the subsequent

chapters. This is troubling. Inquiry into why this omission occurs is necessary. Complete

coverage of these books in undergraduate and graduate curriculum might function to

relax a rigid focus towards both theory and methodology. Fourth, further inquiry into

how more humanistic approaches can be adopted by sociology or even incorporated into

sociological curriculum is pertinent. Finally, similar testing, such as this project, needs to

be conducted on a number of other thinkers. Due to intellectual proximity, Ralph Waldo

Emerson is a logical candidate. His focus on the relationship between self and society,

trade and commerce, and social reform could be relevant to sociological thought. William

Ellery Channing is another figure whose work may be appropriate to explore. His topics

included culture, social change, inequality and national literature.

Implications for further research related to Thoreavian thinking are also plentiful.

Thoreau’s ideas on development, including his comparison of the “savage” with the

“civilized,” need to be explored further to determine what contributions he might make to

sociological theories of development. Thoreau’s ideas on the environment, the human

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relation to nature, and whether nature and civilization can co-exist are relevant to

sociology, and such connections need to be further explored. Making such connections to

specialized areas within sociology would also allow sociology to determine where

Thoreau stands in the evolution of social thought. There was some discussion in chapter

six of how Thoreau linked empiricism with a more humanistic approach, but additional

inquiry into how he linked positivism and Romanticism is needed. Finally, it is necessary

to investigate in more detail what specific sociological innovations Thoreau has to offer,

as well as what non-sociological innovations he can demonstrate for sociologists, such as

his integrative methodological approach discussed in chapter six. One way of conducting

such an investigation would be to compare Thoreau’s account of society, especially his

unique insider view of the United States at a time when the social and physical landscape

was rapidly changing, to the ideas of other sociological thinkers.

Potential connections between Thoreau and other Social Theorists

While there has been exploration into the influence of Kant, Smith and Rousseau

on Thoreau’s thinking, there has been little inquiry into how Thoreau’s work compares to

other theorists used within sociology. However, there are immediate connections and

comparisons which can be made between Thoreau’s work and the works of other thinkers

used within sociology, such as Charles Montesquieu, Harriet Martineau, Alexis de

Toqueville, Gaetano Mosca, Vilfredo Pareto, Antonio Gramsci, Karl Marx, Emile

Durkheim, Max Weber, and Thorstein Veblen. Comparing and contrasting the works of

these theorists with Thoreau’s ideas would allow us to determine where Thoreau fits

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within the evolution of sociological thought, which schools of thought his work best

relates to, and what innovations he might offer sociology.

There are several thinkers within the early development of sociological thought

whose work could be compared and contrasted to Thoreau’s. For example, Like Thoreau,

Montesquieu recognized that ideas were specific to a particular time and place, and was

one of the first cultural relativists. However, unlike Thoreau, Montesquieu believed that

individual freedom was not a natural right, the natural state of society was irrelevant, and

people never existed without society. Other earlier theorists whose work could be

contrasted to Thoreau’s include Mosca, Pareto, and Gramsci. They believed that the

individual should be subordinated to the good of the collective. They also argued that the

good of collectivity depended on elite, capable leaders who functioned within a

hierarchical structure. This directly contrasts with Thoreau Transcendental ideals of

valuing the individual above collective interests.

Perhaps one of the most fruitful comparisons would be Marxian and Thoreauvian

views on the economy. It is clear that Thoreau was writing before Marx’ work was

published, yet their works remain strikingly similar. Like Thoreau, Marx recognized the

unnaturalness of the stratification that resulted from private property. Thoreau and Marx

both wrote about the alienation that workers experienced, including alienation from their

own potential as humans and from their fellow human beings. Both also recognized that

capitalism resulted in fetishism of commodities, and both argued that the act of equating

the good life with accumulation blinded individuals to the negative implications of

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capitalism.

Like Thoreau, a number of theorists explored rationalization, the effects of

modernity on the individual, and how other societies took different approaches to solving

the problems of daily living. Thoreau’s work needs to be compared to these thinkers. For

example, Georg Simmel explored the relationship between the individual and society,

arguing that aspects of modem society impeded self-actualization, individuality and

autonomy. He also focused on money and modem spirit of rationality. This correlates to

Thoreau’s ideas about the effect of the economy on the Transcendental-self. Durkheim,

like Thoreau, looked at elementary forms of knowledge in non-Westem societies.

Likewise, Weber explored how the “iron cage” of modernity trapped the individual, and

also conducted comparative studies of Western and traditional societies. Veblen’s

exploration of conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption address issues that

Thoreau discussed, namely how capitalist ethos within his society produces certain values

and behaviors. Both Veblen and Thoreau recognized the concept of “trained incapacity,”

which describes individuals who have been socialized through their training to look after

their own interests, and as a result, are unable to see the broader picture (Ritzer 2000a).

Several theorists came to the United States to explore how the economy and

democracy were functioning. Toqueville believed that democracy was working in the

United States and that public service by citizens went on voluntarily. He argued that

individual freedom was preserved by a centralized state. Martineau saw the cities as more

democratic than the rural areas. Thoreau insider view, however, differed from these

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theorists. He argued that American democracy was an illusion, and that the rural life

possessed more freedom, given its distance from the effects of capitalism.

Thoreau’s ideas about the state of nature, the relation between the individual and

society, modernity, and the effects of rationalization and the economy on society,

correlate to a number of thinkers within sociology. A logical next step after

demonstrating Thoreau’s possession of a sociological consciousness is an in-depth

comparison to the thinkers mentioned above, who are used within sociology.

Conclusion

Berger continues to critique sociology for not fulfilling its potential. Other

theorists have mounted similar arguments specifically related to sociological theory

(Ritzer and Goodman 2002). These sociologists recognize that austere and dogmatic

theory and methods will suffocate sociology, and that more dynamic and creative

thinking is needed. Inspiration is within arms reach. The fields needs only turn to

Thoreau’s well-known explanation of his stay at Walden Pond to find a mantra for

sociological inquiry:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not leam what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a comer, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved too mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by its experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it,... (Thoreau

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Walden 343-344)

In order to “front the essential facts of life” and “shave close,” providing a true account

of life, “mean or sublime,” sociology needs to become more self-reflective and

understand that as a field of study “living deliberately” means being open to self-critique

and to non-traditional ways of thinking, which for sociology, includes looking to other

disciplines and other methodological approaches to more fully understand and describe

social phenomena.

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Appendix A:

Coding Categories and Definitions

I. Social structure A. Components and features 1. Varieties of men and women - Character, behavior, characteristics of individuals who live in a particular society at a given time. 2. Democracy - a form of government in which citizens elect politicians who promise to represent the interests of the citizens (Marshall 1998, 147). 3. Work - the supply of physical, mental, and emotional effort to produce goods and services for own consumption, or for consumption by others (Marshall 1998). 4. Leisure - Non-paid time spent doing activities which are enjoyable to an individual; does not involve social responsibilities attached to one’s social role (Marshall 1998, 364). 5. Government - The organization, machinery or agency through which a political unit exercises authority and performs functions and which is usually classified according to the distribution of power within it; political institutions, laws, and customs through which the functioning of government is carried out; people that constitute the governing authority of a political unit or organization (Merriam-Webster On-line 2002). 6. Commerce - The exchange or buying and selling of commodities on a large scale involving transportation from place to place. 7. Economics - Analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. 8. Slavery - The state being forced into service, in which an individual does not have the status of personhood (Marshall 1998). 9. Fashion - A distinctive or peculiar and often habitual manner or way; mode of action or operation; prevailing customs, usage or style; social standing or prominence especially as signalized by dress and conduct (Merriam-Webster Online 2002). 10. Popular opinion - A view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter (Merriam-Webster On-line 2002) 11. Progress - improvement in lifestyle or living conditions 240

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12. Religion - a set of beliefs, symbols and practices which is based on the idea of the sacred and which unites believers into a socio-religious community. (Marshall 1998). 13. Education - Development of knowledge; the action or progress of educating or of being educated; the field of study that deals mainly with methods of teaching and learning in schools 14. Science - A department of systematized knowledge as an object of study; knowledge system or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of the general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method; a system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and natural science (Merriam-Webster On-line). 15. Knowledge - understanding gained by experience or through studying. 16. Values - deeply held attitudes and beliefs of a society.

II. Other varieties of social order - Comments on other societies that contain different structural components and systems (such as Indian Societies)

in. Social Change A. Mechanics - Means by which change takes place (such as technology, war, reform) B. Effect on development of humanity C. Meaning of components for social change - How components of social structure create or affect social change D. Human history - The progression of time and development of human society over time E. Individual reform - Personal reform, such as change in beliefs, actions or in individual perceptions of society. F. Group reform - Strategic, large scale movement aimed at social change.

IV. Nature of humanity A. Meaning for human nature of features of society examined - How human nature is altered by society B. Outside of society - Human characteristics and behavior that naturally occur outside of social structure C. Revealed in conduct and character of human - Characteristics of natural human behavior that are present by observing humans

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Appendix B: Analytic Memo

Theme: ______

Text origin:______

Page number(s): ______

Theme specific questions (taken from research questions):

1. ______

2. ______

3 .______

Notes:______

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