Henry David Thoreau · Philosophy

Solitude, Nature, and the Wild

Thoreau’s conviction that nature is not scenery but a source of moral and spiritual life, that solitude is nourishing rather than lonely, and that the wild - in the world and in ourselves - is what keeps life and civilization from going stale. ‘In Wildness is the preservation of the world.’

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Thoreau found solitude in nature more companionable than society, treated the natural world as a source of spiritual health and moral truth, and claimed in his essay Walking that ‘in Wildness is the preservation of the world.’ Explain why he valued solitude and the wild, and what he though…

Leads to Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

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