Thoreau Discussion Questions 1. What is Throeau’s main premise? How does he esablish his ethos? 2. What criticism does Throeau have of the church? (Include quotes) 3. Why does Throeau feel we should have only one meal a day? 4. How does Thoreau feel about the railroad? What attack on Capitalism is implied in this discussion? 5. Why does Thoreau criticize the news? 6. How does he feel about the post-office? How would Thoreau feel about texting? 7. Would Schopenhauer agree or disagree with Thoreau’s experiment to live in the woods? How does Thoreau conceive time? What does it mean that “time is but the river I go fishing in?” What does Thoreau mean that he “knows not the first letter of the alaphabet”?

Transcendentalism Transcendentalism is a term associated with a group of new ideas in literature that emerged in New England in the early-to-middle 19th century. The movement developed in the 1830s and 40s as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard and the doctrine of the Unitarian church taught at Harvard Divinity School Among transcendentalists' core beliefs was the belief in an ideal spiritual state that "transcends" the physical and empirical and is realized only through the individual's intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions.