Bloomsbury Excursions with Thoreau: Philosophy, Poetry, Religion

Excursions with Thoreau is a major new exploration of Thoreaus writing and thought that is philosophical yet sensitive to the literary and religious. Edward F. Mooneys excursions through passages from Walden, Cape Cod, and his late essay Walking reveal Thoreau as a miraculous writer, artist, and religious adept. Of course Thoreau remains the familiar political activist and environmental philosopher, but in these fifteen excursions we discover new terrain. Among the notable themes that emerge are Thoreaus grappling with underlying affliction; his pursuit of wonder as ameliorating affliction; his use of the enigmatic image of a child of the mist; his exalting sympathy with intelligence over plain knowledge; and his preferring befitting reverienot argumentas the way to be carried to better, cleaner perceptions of reality. Mooneys aim is bring alive Thoreaus moments of reverie and insight, and to frame his philosophy as poetic and episodic rather than discursive and systematic. Review Henry David Thoreau brought to philosophical writing a personal voice and a situated, embodied sensibility. Edward Mooney proves himself a worthy heir to Thoreaus legacy by speaking to his readers as an extracurricular intellectual and spiritual companion. We follow along as Thoreauvian saunterers, adventuring through rich fields of reverie, with Mooney as our engaging and always insightful guide. Excursions with Thoreau is a powerful illustration of how philosophy can live up to its name as the love of wisdom, grounded in wonder and defined by transformative encounters. It sheds new light on the work of a great American philosopher of the nineteenth century, and will introduce readers to Mooneys distinctive mode of narrative reflection on human experience and its meaning. --Rick Anthony Furtak, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Colorado College, USAWithout wasting time on the tired question of whether or not Thoreau is a philosopher, Mooneys decisive arguments uncover for us the profundity and strangeness of the thinker's ideas. Mooney carefully and elegantly uncovers a Thoreau who is attentive to questions of life and loss that led him to formulate a complex ethics while rethinking the meaning of the communal. By bringing Thoreau into conversation with such thinkers as Marx and Kierkegaard, Mooney reveals challenges in Thoreaus writings that have still not been sufficiently addressed. Excursions with Thoreau is beautifully written and will be indispensable for future conversations about that writer. --Branka Arsic, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, USA About the Author Edward F. Mooney is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Syracuse University, USA. He is the author or editor of eight books, including Kierkegaard's Repetition and Philosophical Crumbs (Editor and Introduction, Oxford World Classics, 2009), On Soren Kierkegaard (Ashgate, 2007), Ethics, Love, and Faith in Kierkegaard: A Philosophical Engagement (Indiana University Press, 2008), Selves in Discord and Resolve: Kierkegaard's Moral-Religious Psychology from Either/Or to Sickness Unto Death (Routledge, 1996), and Knights of Faith and Resignation: Reading Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling (State University of New York Press, 1991).'