Today we will continue with Chapter 1 of Walden.  Here is the reading schedule:

 

10/28 page 100

10/29 page 125

11/4 page 144

11/11 page 228

11/22 Finish 

 

ESSAY QUESTION:

As describe in Walden what is Thoreau's assessment of American Culture (what is wrong with it)?  Using specific evidence from the text discuss and outline his argument.  Then respond to it.  Do you agree or disagree with his insights?  Discuss.

 
Transcendentalism was an intellectual movement that emphasized the dignity of the individual and advocated a simple, mindful life.

Key tenets of transcendentalism included:

1) A theory that "transcendent forms" of truth exist beyond reason and experience; every indvidula is capable of discovering this truth on his or her own, through intuition.

2) A conviction that people are inherently good and should follow their own beliefs, however controversial they may be

3) A belief that humankind, nature, and God are all interconnected
 
Chapter 1 - ECONOMY

DEFINITION (from dictionary.com)
- thrifty management; frugality in expenditure or consumption of money materials
- the management of the resources of a community
- the prosperity or earnings of a place

Questions:
What is real wealth?
What are the necessities of life?
Do luxuries corrupt?  Humans work their entire lives for luxuries.
What does it mean to be philanthropic?

Discuss Thoreau's house?

Quotes: "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."

Example - house that costs $800 and which takes ten to fifteen years to pay off

"But lo! men have become the tools of their tools."

"Those things for which the most money is demanded are never the things which the student most wants.  Tuition, for instance, is an important item in the term bill, while for the far more valuable education which he gets by associating with the most cultivated of his contemporaries no charge is made."

Transportation - "the swiftest traveller is he that goes afoot."  The fare of a train is almost a day's wages.

"This spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it."