From Self-Reliance to that which Relies: Emerson and critique as self-criticism (original) (raw)
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Relentless Unfolding: Emerson's Individual
The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 2003
Amid its romantic excesses such as "[t]o believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men,-that is genius" (Porte 2001, 121), Emersonian individualism remains a living project, one we would do well to understand more thoroughly and pursue more rigorously. To aid in this recovery, I will, in a translating repetition of Emerson's thought that engages a range of texts, offer eight theses that any successful reconstruction of individualism must embrace. 1 I am not claiming that these theses are unique to Emerson; others hold similar views. I have elected to work with Emerson, however, because his work eludes the exhausted opposition between atomistic and collectivist accounts of human flourishing. Emerson thinks in severely relational terms. I say "severely relational" because he both denies the possibility of an atomistic self and refuses to dissolve human beings into, or defer our endeavors to, the systemic activities of macrosubjectivities like culture, states, traditional communities, civil-social associations, ecosystems, or even a divinity. Because he broaches the issue of how individuals are private and public, solitary and engaged, Emerson strikes me as a salutary interlocutor for those who would rethink individualism. 1. Individualism Requires Conscious Self-Fashioning Permit me a point of stipulation and clarification. In metaphysics, we might speak of singular beings as individuals, and distinguish them from larger collectivities to which they may or may not belong. In this sense,
Creativity, Self, and Communal Being in Emerson
SPELL Swiss Papers in English Language and Literature 35, 2017
In an attempt to engage in the debate about Ralph Waldo Emerson's understanding of self and community, this essay seeks to explore the ontological hermeneutics of communal being in Emerson's philosophy. Principally opposed to all matters of social participation, institutional framing, and submission to the normative orders of a superficial individuality, Emerson's thinking nonetheless relies on a particular mode of communality and relatedness without which individual autonomy, self-understanding, and potentially "authenticating" forms of social (inter-)action are unthinkable. In fact, this essay wants to show that it is essentially in "thinking" as in an intersubjective mode of philosophizing that Emerson locates the self-affirming viability of community and creative power. The essay moves from a discussion of Emerson's critique of social reform communities such as Brook Farm via a close reading of his essays "Experience" and "Quotation and Originality" to his assumption that in order to understand the original relation of self and world we need to "treat things poetically." According to such an ontological hermeneutics of communal being, community is being one's self.
Educational Philosophy and Theory
b Education, stockholms universitet, stockholm, sweden 'Where do we find ourselves?' (Emerson, 1983, p. 27) is the question which opens Ralph Waldo Emerson's classic essay 'Experience'. In admiration of Emerson, Nietzsche warns, addressing his reader, that answering this question may lead into 'countless paths and bridges and demi-gods which would bear you through this stream; but only at the cost of yourself' (1997, p. 129). Instead Nietzsche suggests a path into the unknown. The attention to Bildung and self-cultivation in this special issue is an attempt to explore Nietzsche's rephrasing of Emerson's question, 'But how can we find ourselves again?' (1997, p. 129). The contributors to this issue, in their writing and thinking, stay with this question, rather than giving it a hasty answer. Such a posture, for Emerson, characterizes democratic life. Emerson has long been admired as a writer and important figure of American culture and literature. His works have inspired philosophers such as Nietzsche, John Dewey, George Santayana and others, but until recently his writing thrived mostly on the peripheries of the discussions in professional philosophy. In philosophy of education, his work has shared this fate. Emerson is widely admired but not often thoroughly and explicitly discussed. 1 Still, as Heikki Kovalainen has argued: 'Emerson might be understood as the nexus author par excellence of […] various line of American Bildung. Not only was his philosophy of Bildung decisively shaped by Europeans and Americans, it also exerted subsequent influence on them, particularly Friedrich Nietzsche and the three classical American pragmatists, Peirce, James, and Dewey' (Kovalainen, 2012, p. 183). Nietzsche's prominent text on education, 'Schopenhauer as Educator' , can be seen as the work which is most indebted to Emerson. There, he pronounces the idea of education as a matter of finding oneself and finding oneself again; a form of education in which educators or teachers are thought of as cultivators, where cultivation is a liberation from set paths and bridges and other idolatrous gods that determine the goal of the journey (Nietzsche, 1997, p. 130). In this conception of education resound Emerson's words: 'Truly speaking, it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul' (1971, p. 80). Education, for Emerson, is a form of cultivation of the self. But this is not all. If Emersonian education begins with questions like 'Where do we find ourselves?' then education as self-cultivation is not only a matter of Bildung as an enculturation in the hands of others. It also makes us 'responsible for our own self-cultivation' (Bates, 2012, p. 28). The tension between our dependency on others for provocation and education and our own improvisations in cultivating ourselves is a recurrent theme in this special issue. It is present in questions of inheritance and novelty, of language and our application of words, in positioning ourselves as scholars, in orienting ourselves as private and public beings between the political and the personal. These tensions are not intellectual riddles, but, as is demonstrated in this issue, experiences of life, in life. It has been largely due to the commendable work of Stanley Cavell and his extensive endeavors to reclaim for Emerson the status of a philosopher to be taken seriously as
Self Discovery and Calling in Emerson’s Philosophy of Education
Emerson's philosophy seems elusive. In addition to a reading of his essay entitled "Education," an illustration of his philosophy of education includes, but is not limited to, an interpretation of the poet as teacher and the American Scholar as student. In this way, we see education not as minor concern for Emerson, but a rather central one. What emerges from this examination is the unique purpose of Emersonian education-selfdiscovery. To reveal this distinctive intention, I will expose several features of Emerson's educational philosophy including his break from his Kantian roots concerning the role of imagination and inspiration, children as the center and starting point of education, the balance of the physical and contemplative functions of a student, the goal of moral education, and the proper pace of education. Many of these features center on two meanings of Nature at work in his philosophy. Emerson sees Nature itself as an educator and access to self-discovery. It is the all-encompassing environment of the student and communicates to him its universal laws. Additionally, Nature serves as an analogy to the pace and method which education should follow. Education should proceed naturally and should not be artificially forced.
Socio-biographical Analysis of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance"
This paper intends to explore Ralph Waldo Emerson"s essay "Self-Reliance" within the guiding framework of relationships between text and author"s biography and the prevailing social milieu of 19 th century America. Published in 1841, "Self-Reliance" represents one of Emerson"s profound works that gained immense attention for its seminal appeal and reflections on the general nature of human or "individual" conduct within society. The paper intends to examine how particular biographical, social and political events may have influenced particular reflections within the text. Like Emerson"s first work "Nature" (1836), "Self-Reliance" (1841) was recognized for its peculiar character as a work of social commentary, espousing ideals of "how men ought to live" while deemphasizing the asphyxiating pressures of external authority. The paper would also attempt a critique of some of Emerson"s philosophies in a bid to generate a more comprehensive analysis.
Humanism and Ethos in the Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ars Aeterna, 2014
The article deals with the ideas of humanity and morality as reflected in the works of R. W. Emerson, the main representative of an intellectual movement called American transcendentalism. It conveys basic facts about the movement and focuses on the key aspects of Emerson’s transcendental philosophy, particularly his concept of the Over-soul and his concept of Nature, which gave his humanistic philosophy a religious and moral accent. Due to it, Emerson’s religious humanism also became the basis of American democratic individualism. The article offers insight into Emerson’s ideas on morality and ethical behaviour, which challenge us to live in harmony with God and nature.
Understanding Emerson’s Self-Reliance in Terms of Education with a Focus on Language Didactics
Human and Social Studies, 2015
Education has always been at the heart of most, if not all, human endeavours. This explains the growing interest of many scholars in educational issues. Self-Reliance, one of Emerson’s most impressive and influential works, provides an outstanding contribution to education in general and particularly to the personal development of individuals in society. The relevance of the educational values addressed in Self-Reliance makes it an appropriate context for academic reflection. This paper scrutinises the educational dimension of Emerson’s work with a focus on language didactics. My concern is to provide evidence that the educational values expressed instruct didactics. The study of Self-Reliance reveals the expression of some values, the main ones being trust, responsibility, commitment, creativity, autonomy, independence, self-esteem, self-determination, self-evaluation, and individual talents. By reflecting on their educational dimension with a focus on their didactic implications I...