Time Period: 1737-1809
Notable Works:
-Common Sense (1776)
- The Rights of Man (1791)
- The American Crisis (1776)
Life Summary:
Through his works, Paine encouraged American independence from Britain, strongly in favor of a Republican government to take the place of the current monarchy. He was in favor of a Republican government because he thought them to be more peaceful than monarchies.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Time Period: 1803-1882
Notable Works:
- Nature (1836)
- "Self Reliance" (1841) published as a part of Essays
Life Summary:
Emerson was a transcendentalist who was in close contact with Henry David Thoreau. He was also affiliated with Harvard University, the institution that would go on to publish his journals. Emerson's writing career was supplemented with an active lecturing career, focusing on the philosophy of history, he also chose to write about events in his life in his poems and essays. His legacy lived on quite strongly through writers like Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman.
Henry David Thoreau
Time Period: 1817-1862
Notable Works:
-Walden
-"Civil Disobedience"
Life Summary:
Thoreau advocated for the philosophical path of right over wrong even if it meant going against the established authority figure, something that he conveys to the public in "Civil Disobedience". This work would go on to inspire influential human rights advocates such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and the author Leo Tolstoy.
W.E.B Du Bois
Time Period: 1868-1963
Notable Works:
- The Souls of Black Folk
- Black Reconstruction in America
-The Crisis
Life Summary:
W.E.B Du Bois was a prominent voice in the quest for civil rights for African Americans, detailing his views about things like Reconstruction and the social injustices that emerged as a result of racism. He was also a part of the Niagra movement, a group in favor of equality for African-Americans. Finally, he was a strong supporter of nuclear disarmament and supported world peace.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois
This post is really helpful for review! Another notable philosopher is Jane Addams. She was a leader is social reform and pushed women's rights as far far as she could in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Her most popular work is titled Democracy and social ethics. Over the course of her activism, she mainly protest for women's rights, but also educational and social reform.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the post, Alex! I appreciate how clearly you outlined each person and their philosophies. I was interested in learning more about W.E.B. Du Bois. From class, I had learned that he believed/came up with the idea of the talented tenth. After some more in-depth research I found that he was actually one of the founders of the NAACP and was a consultant to the United Nations. His dedication to a pan-African movement was evident as he took up citizenship in Ghana and worked on an encyclopedia about people of African descent. Something surprising for me was that he became a member of the American Communist Party at the age of 93.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.history.com/topics/black-history/w-e-b-du-bois
http://www.naacp.org/oldest-and-boldest/naacp-history-w-e-b-dubois/