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The Cato Home Study Course, Vol. 9, Part 1: Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience

2,231 views · Published 1 July 2013 · 1:01:34 · Indexed 30 October 2026

Channel: Libertarianism.org · 2013 · News & Politics

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Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), perhaps best known as the author of Walden, was a deep believer in the demands of conscience over the demands of the state. His refusal in July 1846 to pay a tax led him to write the essay Civil Disobedience, which was to exercise a great influence on subsequent generations of thinkers. This module explores political obligation generally, including the questions whether one should submit to unjust demands from political authorities and whether a citizen should acquiesce when the state makes him or her "the agent of injustice to another." Thoreau draws on a long libertarian tradition that holds that, although our universal, or general, obligations are not the result of choice or action (for example, the obligation not to take the life, liberty, or justly held possessions of any other person), particular obligations, that is, specific obligations to specific persons, are based on some act of the obligee, for example, assenting to a contract that requires the payment of a sum of money for a service rendered. Obligations to pay taxes to the state or to submit to its authority normally fall into the second category of particular obligations. Thoreau insists that he did not consent to them, and that he therefore is not bound by them and instead follows the demands of his own conscience (notably his opposition to the enforcement of slavery and to the war with Mexico).

In effect, Thoreau insists on a right to withdraw from the state, a right also articulated by Herbert Spencer in his essay "The Right to Ignore the State" in the readings for this module. Thoreau sought to live as a wholly free person in a world that was not wholly free. David Boaz, in his chapter "The Obsolete State," speculates that the growth of the market and the spread of new technologies may allow individuals greater opportunity in the future to "bypass the state."

Readings to Accompany The Audio

From The Libertarian Reader: William Lloyd Garrison, "Man Cannot Hold Property in Man" (pp. 77-80); Frederick Douglas, "You Are a Man, and So Am I" (pp. 81-87); William Ellery Channing, "A Human Being Cannot Be Justly Owned" (pp. 88-91); Herbert Spencer, "The Right to Ignore the State" (pp. 149-53); Immanuel Kant, "Equality of Rights" (pp. 142-48); Lysander Spooner, "The Constitution of No Authority" (pp. 154-60).

From Libertarianism: A Primer: Chapter 11, "The Obsolete State" (pp. 256-75).

From Freedom and the Law: Chapter 3, "Freedom and the Rule of Law" (pp. 58-75).

Some Problems to Ponder & Discuss 

• What should a conscientious citizen do when the demands of the state conflict with the moral voice of conscience?

• Can one actually "mind one's own business" in a complex society? Can individuals withdraw from politics?

• How can a formal requirement of equality before the law or of certainty in the law generate substantive constraints on law?

• Henry David Thoreau survived his passive resistance to the American state, as Gandhi did his to British colonial rule, but would he have been so lucky under a National Socialist or Communist state? Does the character of the state determine the appropriate response to it?

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