Thoreau's Living Ethics
Subtitle: Walden and the Pursuit of Virtue
By: Philip Cafaro
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Athens
Language: eng
Format: Computer file; Internet resource
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 978082032610
Subjects: Thoreau, Henry David, -- 1817-1862 -- Ethics; Thoreau, Henry David, -- 1817-1862.; Virtues; Virtues in literature
Description: *Thoreau's Living Ethics* is the first full account of Henry Thoreau's ethical philosophy. Focused on *Walden* but ranging widely across his writings, the study situates Thoreau within a long tradition of ethical thinking in the West, from the ancients to the romantics and on to the present day. Philip Cafaro shows Thoreau grappling with important ethical questions that agitated his own society and discusses his value for those seeking to understand contemporary ethical issues.

Cafaro's particular interest is in Thoreau's treatment of virtue ethics, the branch of ethics centered on personal and social flourishing. Ranging across the central elements of Thoreau's philosophy -life, virtue, economy, solitude and society, nature, and politics- Cafaro shows Thoreau developing a comprehensive virtue ethics, less based in ancient philosophy than many recent efforts and more grounded in modern life and experience. He presents Thoreau's evolutionary experimental ethics as superior to the more static foundational efforts of current virtue ethicists.

Another main focus is Thoreau's environmental ethics. The book shows Thoreau not only anticipating recent arguments for wild nature's intrinsic value, but also demonstrating how a personal connection to nature furthers self-development, moral character, knowledge, and creativity. Thoreau's life and writings, argues Cafaro, present a positive, life-affirming environmental ethics, combining respect and restraint with an appreciation for human possibilities of flourishing within nature.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-263) and index
Table of contents: label: Preface; label: Acknowledgments; label: The Challenge; label: First Responses; label: Life; label: Awakening. Self-Culture. Our Chief End. The Good Life. Higher Goals. Pleasure and Intellect; label: Virtue; label: Recovering the Ancient Concept of Virtue. Recovering the Pursuit of Virtue. Recovering Full Human Virtue. Romantic Virtue. Virtue and Duty. Resolution; label: Economy; label: First Things First. Economy as Method and Metaphor. The Train to Fitchburg. The Bean Field; label: Solitude and Society; label: The Virtues of Solitude. Neighbors. Friendship. Emerson and Thoreau; label: Nature; label: Fishy Virtue. Higher Laws. The Bean Field. The Ponds. Challenges. Conservation; label: Politics; label: Anti-slavery. Citizenship. Heroism. Anti-mammonism. Patriotism; label: Foundations; label: Thoreau's Naturalism. Thoreau's Idealism. Thoreau's Experimentalism. Philosophical Foundations; label: Death; label: A Note to the Reader; label: Notes; label: Bibliography; label: Index