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The Imaginative Tension in Henry David Thoreau's Political Thought

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The Imaginative Tension in Henry David Thoreau's Political Thought THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA Arcadian Exile: The Imaginative Tension in Henry David Thoreau’s Political Thought A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of Politics School of Arts and Sciences of the Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy © Copyright All Rights Reserved By Joshua James Bowman Washington, D.C. 2016 Arcadian Exile: The Imaginative Tension in Henry David Thoreau’s Political Thought Joshua James Bowman, Ph.D. Director: Claes G. Ryn, Ph.D. Henry David Thoreau‘s writings have achieved a unique status in the history of American literature. His ideas influenced the likes of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., and play a significant role in American environmentalism. Despite this influence his larger political vision is often used for purposes he knew nothing about or could not have anticipated. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze Thoreau’s work and legacy by elucidating a key tension within Thoreau's imagination. Instead of placing Thoreau in a pre-conceived category or worldview, the focus on imagination allows a more incisive reflection on moral and spiritual questions and makes possible a deeper investigation of Thoreau’s sense of reality. Drawing primarily on the work of Claes Ryn, imagination is here conceived as a form of consciousness that is creative and constitutive of our most basic sense of reality. The imagination both shapes and is shaped by will/desire and is capable of a broad and qualitatively diverse range of intuition which varies depending on one’s orientation of will. The criterion for determining the quality of the orientation of will and imagination is experiential reality of a certain kind. The moral and philosophical life constantly involves a struggle between an attunement or will to reality and a revolt against, or an evasion of, reality. The former characterizes the higher will and the corresponding moral imagination, while the revolt or evasion distinguishes the lower will and the idyllic imagination. Despite studies acknowledging the importance of imagination for Thoreau, no one has located the tension in Thoreau's work within his imagination, nor appreciated the importance of this tension for his political thought. To remedy this oversight, this study outlines a theory of imagination and applies it to an analysis of the moral-idyllic tension in Thoreau’s moral and political thought. Thoreau’s preference for an abstract, ahistorical “higher law,” his radical concept of autonomy, and his frustration with government and community foster an impractical political thought characteristic of the idyllic imagination. Nevertheless, Thoreau demonstrates a moral imagination in his emphasis on the inescapable relationship between the moral order of individuals and the order of political communities. This study further applies the theory of imagination to Thoreau’s view of nature and the non-human world and is considered alongside environmentalism’s considerable debt to his work. On the idyllic side is the Thoreau who longs for an escape from human community and social obligations by withdrawing to nature and by idealizing the non-human world as a perfect companion and as divine. On the moral side is the Thoreau that awakens his neighbors to the under-appreciated sanctity, beauty, mystery and value of the non-human world. Thoreau is much more complex than what other political theorists admit, but his overall vision ultimately creates significant problems with which environmentalists, in particular, still struggle. While Thoreau’s emphasis on freedom and the immaterial aspects of human and non- human nature are of considerable value to later readers, his abstract political morality, misanthropy and escapism must be resisted both for the sake of environmental well-being and human dignity. This dissertation by Joshua James Bowman fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral degree in Politics approved by Claes G. Ryn, Ph.D., as Director, and by David Walsh Ph.D., and Dennis J. Coyle, Ph.D., as Readers. ____________________________________________ Claes G. Ryn, Ph.D, Director. ____________________________________________ David J. Walsh, Ph.D, Reader ____________________________________________ Dennis J. Coyle, Ph.D, Reader ii Solo Deo Gloria To Melissa, Micah and in memory of Gary Anderson iii CONTENTS INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................1 1. IMAGINATION, MORALITY AND POLITICS...............................................23 2. THOREAU ON POLITICAL MORALITY AND HUMAN NATURE.............66 3. IMAGINATION IN FRIENDSHIP AND COMMUNITY.................................89 4. RESISTANCE AND RIGHT............................................................................109 5. ENVIRONMENTAL IMAGINATION AND POLITICAL THOUGHT.........138 6. THOREAU AND THE ARCADIAN LONGING............................................165 7. THOREAU, THE ARCADIAN EXILE............................................................198 8. INFINITE ARCADIA.......................................................................................217 CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................250 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................263 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A dissertation is always much more than an intellectual and creative enterprise. It requires a considerable sacrifice of time and energy on the part of the writer and the writers’ friends and family. Without these individuals this project would not have made it beyond the first sentence. I am deeply indebted to the inspiration, friendship and wisdom of more people than can be mentioned here. To my dissertation committee, Dennis Coyle, David Walsh and my esteemed director, Claes G. Ryn, I can never repay you for your generosity, wisdom and example. In and out of the classroom you exemplify what it means to be the kind of scholars and teachers whose impact will span generations. I am honored to be your student. Conversations and collaboration with a number of other scholars and friends have provided considerable encouragement and insight along the way. I must specifically thank Paul DeHart, Justin Garrison, Joseph Byrd, Michael Federici, Luke Sheahan, Philip DeMahy, Anne Thomas, Walter Luttrell, Matthew Grizzle, Micah Watson, Ben Clark, H. Lee Cheek, Joe Hartman, Michael Needham, Allen Kannapell, Steve Swindle, Peter Haworth, Dan Haworth and others too numerous to mention. I am grateful for the generous support of Annette Kirk and the Russell Kirk Center for providing me with a quiet place to write and edit in the Fall of 2015, and to The Van Horn Family Foundation as well as the Intercollegiate Studies Institute for providing critical fellowships and support throughout this study. v My family has been exceptionally supportive during my graduate career, and I would not be where I am today without the unfailing love and sacrifice of my mother and father. My mother’s constant encouragement and my father’s love of the outdoors and politics were pivotal in leading me towards a study of environmental political thought, the imagination and Thoreau. There are no adequate words to express the debt which I owe to my wife, Melissa. Whether offering her thoughts on the draft or caring for our son while I typed away, her sacrifice of time and energy is immeasurable. When this dissertation was only in the proposal stage I lost a member of my family who had long provided encouragement and always challenged me to think in new ways and ask new questions. Gary Anderson was a teacher of politics at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, Germany and died of lung cancer in 2012. He was my friend and cousin, and I am a better thinker and writer because of his investment in me. The individuals listed above were the embodiment of God’s grace throughout this project, and whatever is of value in the following pages is a product of their love and friendship. I alone am responsible for any shortcomings herein. vi INTRODUCTION Henry Thoreau has probably been more wildly misconstrued than any other person of comparable literary stature. – E.B. White, “The Individualist” – Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) has been analyzed at length by both admirers and critics, but he remains inadequately understood in the history of political thought. He is often employed as an inspiration for specific ideological or political persuasions by theorists who overlook many of his ideas. His writings and example are claimed as representative of an extraordinary diversity of perspectives – many of which contradict each other. He has been labeled an anarchist, abolitionist, democrat, liberal, republican, Marxist, misanthrope, prophet, mystic, socialist, humanist, hermit, escapist, romantic, transcendentalist, post-modernist, environmentalist, naturalist, as apolitical and more. The only non-controversial description his readers would agree upon is his unquestionable opposition to slavery and his love of nature. The presence of such complexity and tension has profound meaning for his political thought and legacy. If Thoreau's political thought is to be appreciated as comprehensively and accurately as possible, a correspondingly thorough and intricate framework is necessary. As this study will demonstrate, analyzing Thoreau’s thought through the framework of a theory of the imagination allows the tensions within his political
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