Thoreau envisions the best kind of government as on that does not govern. He
supports laissez-faire (free enterprise, free trade, noninterfering)
. ANALYZE what claim does Thoreau make about obligation as a citzen?
Who said that the best government was the one that governed least?
An aphorism often erroneously attributed to Thomas Jefferson, “That government is best which governs least…”, was actually found in Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience.
Which of the following essayists wrote that government is best that governs least?
Thoreau believed that “That government is best that governs least,” (222) but his harsh feelings stemmed from his dislike of the government and its motivations at that time.
Who said that the best government was one that governed least quizlet?
Terms in this set (55)
Thomas Jefferson
held that “the government that governs least governs best”.
What did Thoreau believe?
Thoreau’s attitude toward reform involved his
transcendental
efforts to live a spiritually meaningful life in nature. As a transcendentalist, Thoreau believed that reality existed only in the spiritual world, and the solution to people’s problems was the free development of emotions (“Transcendentalism”).
What three things does Thoreau say that the government does not do?
Thoreau says that government does not, in fact, achieve that with which we credit it:
it does not keep the country free, settle the West, or educate
.
What does Thoreau say is the first step in obtaining 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.” … It is more important develop a respect for the right, rather than … a respect for law, for people’s obligations are to do what is right.
Who is Henry David Thoreau and what did he do?
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher Henry David Thoreau is renowned for having lived the doctrines of Transcendentalism as recorded in his masterwork, Walden (1854). He was also
an advocate of civil liberties
, as evidenced in the essay “Civil Disobedience” (1849).
Does Thoreau believe in God?
However, despite disliking organized religion, Thoreau himself was a deeply religious person.
He believed that God was all around people
. … He did not need to look to a priest to speak to God. Thoreau thought that there is more God within any person than there is in these artificial ideas created by the Church.
What does Henry David Thoreau say about civil disobedience?
Thoreau argued that
the government must end its unjust actions to earn the right to collect taxes from its citizens
. As long as the government commits unjust actions, he continued, conscientious individuals must choose whether to pay their taxes or to refuse to pay them and defy the government.
Who does Thoreau say he will cheerfully obey?
The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit to,—for I will cheerfully obey
those who know and can do better than I
, and in many things even those who neither know nor can do so well,—is still an impure one: to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed.
Who is considered the mentor of Thoreau?
Henry David Thoreau began writing nature poetry in the 1840s, with
poet Ralph Waldo Emerson
as a mentor and friend.
What is the purpose of Henry David Thoreau’s resistance to civil government?
Thoreau’s Civil
Disobedience espouses the need to prioritize one’s conscience over the dictates of laws
. It criticizes American social institutions and policies, most prominently slavery and the Mexican-American War.
What was Henry David Thoreau’s role in the transcendentalist movement?
Thoreau made many contributions to transcendentalism, including
writing many essays and poems
for the transcendentalist literary journal The Dial and Walden; or, Life in the Woods, a book that describes his experiences living in a small cabin on Walden Pond for two years where Thoreau wanted to demonstrate that a man …
How did Thoreau meet Emerson?
Some sources say Thoreau first met Emerson in February of 1835 at Harvard where
Emerson was giving a lecture
, but the two were not close friends yet. In the fall of 1837, Thoreau became more casually acquainted with Emerson, whose book, Nature, Thoreau had read at Harvard and greatly admired.
Was Thoreau married?
Thoreau never married
and was childless. In 1840, he proposed to eighteen-year old Ellen Sewall, but she refused him, on the advice of her father. He strove to portray himself as an ascetic puritan. However, his sexuality has long been the subject of speculation, including by his contemporaries.
Was Henry David Thoreau mentally ill?
Thoreau and
Schizoid Personality Disorder
: His Life-Long Struggle Between Shunning and Craving Meaningful Social Connection/Relationship. … Clearly, Thoreau could be highly discrepant in his thoughts and behaviors, and perplexing to comprehend…even to those to whom he was the closest.
Was Thoreau a nihilist?
They are quiet in their desperation because, despite all of the material and political blessings, they do not feel that their lives are meaningful, or natural. But
Thoreau is no nihilist
, because he believes there is a solution to this desperation.
What are 3 ideas Henry David Thoreau values?
Transcendentalist Values. Transcendentalists believed in numerous values, however they can all be condensed into three basic, essential values:
individualism, idealism, and the divinity of nature
.
Was Thoreau a humanist?
Thoreau has been called America’s greatest prose stylist, naturalist, pioneer ecologist, conservationist, visionary, and
humanist
(The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia 2).
Is Thoreau religious?
She insists that Thoreau
was a Christian believer
, but she emphasizes his way of life as a Christian practice. Thoreau’s path was an ascetic one, designed especially to retrain his attention, opening his sensorium up to objects and others. Even writing was not as lonesome as it might appear.
Who is famous for civil disobedience?
Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, Rosa Parks
, and other activists in the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, used civil disobedience techniques. Among the most notable civil disobedience events in the U.S. occurred when Parks refused to move on the bus when a white man tried to take her seat.
What does Henry Thoreau criticize in Resistance to Civil Government?
In “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau not only calls for resistance to immoral and unjust government actions, he also criticizes
the foundations of representative democracy — majority rule, voting, and representation
.
What is the main idea of resistance to civil government?
In his essay, “Resistance to Civil Government,” often times dubbed, “Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
argues against abiding to one’s State, in protest to the unjust laws within its government
.
Who is Thoreau referring to when he says it can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it?
To be strictly just, [
the government
] must have the sanction and consent of the governed. It can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it. Thoreau is saying that the government gets its power from the people: if the people don’t give it rights over them, it has no power.
What does Thoreau suggest is worse than disobeying an unjust law?
He disagreed with other American people who believed
the majority should change the law first
because it is a worse thing to disobey the law than to do what an unjust law says to do. Thoreau wrote that breaking the unjust laws is better: “Break the law. … However, Thoreau did not think people should be criminals.
Was Henry David Thoreau an abolitionist?
Thoreau was an
ardent and outspoken abolitionist
, serving as a conductor on the underground railroad to help escaped slaves make their way to Canada. He wrote strongly-worded attacks on the Fugitive Slave Law (“Slavery in Massachusetts”) and on the execution of John Brown.
Who wrote on Walden Pond?
Walden, in full Walden; or, Life in the Woods, series of 18 essays by
Henry David Thoreau
, published in 1854. An important contribution to New England Transcendentalism, the book was a record of Thoreau’s experiment in simple living on the northern shore of Walden Pond in eastern Massachusetts (1845–47).
What does Thoreau consider the most effective way of expressing his displeasure with the government?
Thoreau considers
civil disobedience
one of the most effective ways of expressing his displeasure with the government. Civil disobedience, as the name suggests, is the active disregard and breaking of a government rule when a private citizen believes it is unnecessary or even against society’s best interests.
Did Thoreau drop out of Harvard?
Like countless students before and since, Henry David Thoreau, Class of 1837, had his problems with Harvard. … In 1840,
he dismissed the unearned master’s degree that Harvard offered him
, as it did then to all alumni three years after graduation.
