Following Thoreau’s Instincts

Abstract

Observes how Thoreau’s confession of two “instincts” at the beginning of “Higher Laws” exaggerates a tension already inherent in the favorite Transcendentalist metaphor of “instinct”: on the one hand, the metaphor signifies idealist intuition, while on the other, it depends on the recognition of a form of nonhuman intelligence. Notes that under the influence of pre-Darwinian evolutionary debates contemporaneous with Walden’s composition, Thoreau’s two instincts assumed the forms of conflicting notions of “development” circulating at the time. While the “higher” instinct fits with idealist theories of human development, his representation of the “lower” instinct implicitly acknowledges the human kinship with animals that was central to transmutationist theories. Concludes that following Thoreau’s representation of these instincts through the Walden manuscript’s evolution paradoxically reveals both a continuing commitment to transcendental progressionism and an increasing evolutionary awareness of animal kinship and animal intelligence.