Thoreau as Liberation Thinker

In lieu of an abstract, here is the article\u27s first paragraph: Henry David Thoreau’s claim to be “a mystic, a transcendentalist, and a natural philosopher” took an unexpected turn for me. Spending much time with A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (my dissertation addresses the idea of religion found between its covers), I encountered a “liberation thinker” resisting the limitations of American culture while honoring the natural world and indigenous peoples. Thoreau’s epigraph reveals how he wants the muse of his dead brother to inspire him, but the book also discloses how he wants the muse of indigenous peoples to inspirit and improve American culture. Impressively, he esteems nature as more than a symbol pointing to a distant divinity as he experiences its inherent sacredness. Natural creation is at once our house and being; we are immersed in and part of its continuous regenerative processes, which suggests familial bonds of sacredness uniting humans and nonhumans. Thoreau offers an alternative to social structures and outlooks that devalue human and nonhuman existence

On Money, Politics & Corruption: Scholar, Activist Lawrence Lessig to visit RWU on Feb. 23

Public invited to free President’s Distinguished Speakers Series event featuring acclaimed free thinker and visionary

Ron Coffey: The Thinker\u27s Thinker

Tribute to Ron Coffe

Ron Coffey: The Thinker\u27s Thinker

Tribute to Ron Coffe

The Thinker

October\u27s edition of The Thinke

Reflective Knowledge: Confucius and Virtue Epistemology

Most of sScholars have typically regarded Confucius as an ethical thinker broadly construed and not as an epistemological thinker. This paper seeks to overturn that view and, in doing so, has three basic goals. The first goal is to make the case that Confucian thought of the Analects is of epistemological significance. Goal two is to locate the significance of the Confucian thought within epistemology while accounting for the past overlooking of this significance. The third goal is to show that the Confucian thought is not only of epistemological significance, but that it can make a contribution to progressing contemporary epistemology

Natural thinker

Photos by Jill Mott.Thirty years after he laid the foundation for environmental ethics, Holmes Rolston continues to wrestle with one of the West's most contentious issues, bridging the human and the natural world. So revolutionary has Rolston's work been that this spring he won an invitation to Scotland to present the prestigious Gifford Lectures, an 110-year old lecture series that has featured some of the world's most creative and influential philosophers and scholars