“Civil
Disobedience”
Henry David Thoreau
What does it mean to be a good
citizen?
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Vote in elections?
Conform to majority opinion?
Participate in protest marches?
Obey laws?
Other ideas?
Always, usually, sometimes, or never?
Three ways to serve the state?
• P. 372 ¶2 starting with line 65
• With their bodies
– Army, militia, etc.
– No judgment
• Heads
– Legislators, politicians
– Don’t make moral distinctions
• Consciences
– Heroes, patriots, reformers
– Often resist the state
What is your first reaction to
Thoreau’s ideas on civil
disobedience, or nonviolent
resistance?
According to Thoreau, what should
be respected more than the law?
• Conscience
– “Must the citizen ever for a moment… resign
his conscience to the legislator?”
– “The only obligation which I have a right to
assume is to do at any time what I think is
right.”
• Justice
– “Law never made men a whit more just”
– Example of men who fight in wars they
disagree with
What should a citizen do about an
unjust law?
• “If it is of such a nature that it requires you
to be the agent of an injustice to another,
then, I say, break the law.”
• “If one honest man…ceasing to hold
slaves, were actually to withdraw from this
copartnership…it would be the abolition of
slavery in America.”
How does Thoreau respond to
being jailed?
• “Under a government which imprisons any
unjustly, the true place for a just man is
also a prison.”
• “I did not for a moment feel confined”
2. How convincing do you find
Thoreau’s argument?
• A man must live according to his nature
• Circumstances under which he advocates
breaking the law
• His views on majority rule
3. How important to Thoreau’s
argument is his idea about the
different ways of serving the state?
• Three ways of serving state:
– Body, mind, conscience
•It’s very important because he points out
that great people serve the state with their
conscience, and therefore often resist it.
4. What might some find
threatening about Thoreau’s
ideas?
• What if everyone resists everything?
• How far is too far with civil disobedience?
• Powerful may be afraid of the power of
people working together
5. A paradox is a statement that
seems to contradict itself but
may nevertheless suggest an
important truth.
• Example: a good citizen must sometimes
break the law
• That government is best that governs not
at all (cont. next slide)
5. (cont) Paradox
• Under a government which imprisons any
unjustly, the true place for a just man is
also a prison.
• Those who serve with their conscience
often resist the state.
• I did not for a moment feel confined, and
the walls seemed a great waste of stone
and mortar.
What connections do you see
between Thoreau’s views and
Gandhi’s?
• Gandhi’s “satyagraha” is similar to
Thoreau’s “civil disobedience”
– Resist injustice peacefully
– Cheerfully accept the consequences
• “We will gladly die and will not so much as
touch you. But so long as there is yet life
in these our bones, we will never comply
with your arbitrary laws.”
Transcendentalist Literature
Analysis Chart
Self-reliance/intuition
• “The only obligation which I have a right to
assume is to do at anytime what I think
right.”
• “What I have to do is to see, at any rate,
that I do not lend myself to the wrong
which I condemn”
Importance of nature
• Nature/earth
– “If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it
dies; and so a man.”
• Human nature
– “The only obligation which I have a right to
assume is to do at any time what I think right.”
Free thought and expression
• “Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in
the least degree, resign his conscience to
the legislator?”
• “Why does it not encourage its citizens to
be on the alert to point out its faults, and
do better than it would have them?”
• Refused to pay poll tax due to anti-slavery
and anti-war beliefs
Importance of
individual/nonconformity
• “A minority is powerless while it conforms
to the majority; it is not even a minority
then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by
its whole weight.”
• “Let your life be a counter-friction to stop
the machine.”
Confidence
• “Let your life be a counter-friction to the
machine.”
• “A very few – as heroes, patriots, martyrs,
reformers in the great sense, and men –
serve the state with their consciences
also, and so necessarily resist it for the
most part; and they are commonly treated
as enemies by it….”