The passage suggests which one of the following about Thoreau?
nizhoniSeptember 21, 2019
Was the difference in Thoreau's philosophy and other transcendentalists around the concept of "higher law" instead of civil disobedience?
The passage says there there are two forms of civil disobedience- King's kind and Thoreau's kind. It also says, "Thoreau, like MOST OTHER transcendentalists, was primarily interested in the reform of the individual, whereas King was primarily interested in social reform." To me this indicates that Thoreau's philosophy was similar to other transcendentalists in that his version of civil disobedience did not advocate mass protest against unjust law, just individual protest. Later in the passage it states, "Most transcendentalists subscribed to the concept of "higher law" and included civil disobedience to unjust laws as part of their strategy. They often invoked the concept of higher law to justify their opposition to slavery and to advocate disobedience. In comparison to Thoreau who "encouraged others to adopt similar protest". What is the philosophical difference in "advocate disobedience" and "encourage others to adopt similar protest"? The rest of the passage does not indicate if these other transcendentalist's advocating opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law was similar to King's call for "mass protest." I can't pin point anything in the passage that indicates that the mass protest version of civil disobedience was indeed shared by transcendentalists who were not Thoreau.
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I can't see find any mention of "higher law" as it relates to Thoreau. The passage doesn't indicate if he also shared this philosophy and if it influenced his protest of the Mexican War. Is higher law the "element" his philosophy does not share with other transcendentalist?
SkylarSeptember 21, 2019
@nizhoni Happy to help. This is tricky, but you've done a great job of engaging with the passage and breaking down what it's saying.
Ultimately, we can determine that the correct answer is C "his philosophy does not contain all of the same elements as the philosophies of the other transcendentalists" by process of elimination, as none of the other answer choices are fully and directly supported by the passage. It is also important to note that C says "does not contain ALL of the same elements," so it does not completely rule out the idea of having any shared principles. This accounts for the shared focus Thoreau and other transcendentalists placed on reforming the individual, as you pointed out.
In line 17, the passage states that Thoreau's essay "was the only example of transcendentalist writing with which King was familiar, and in many other transcendentalist writings, including works by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller, King would have found ideas more nearly akin to his own." This sentence shows that Thoreau's ideas differ from "many other transcendentalist writings," which is exactly what answer choice C restates. In this case, it does not necessarily matter which elements Thoreau does or does not agree with, so I would caution you against getting too bogged down in determining these. The sentence that begins in line 17 is alone enough to confirm that Thoreau's philosophy is not identical to that of other transcendentalists.
Does this make sense? Please let me know if you'd like any further clarification.
nizhoniSeptember 22, 2019
Thank you Skylar! Your explanation helped a lot :-D
parikhnjNovember 18, 2020
is there more than one piece of evidence? I used the line that juxtaposed Thoreua and King' "Thoreou did not use his ideas to go against unjust laws", whereas in the succeding paragraph it discusses how Trancendlist fight against unjust laws
