Transcript Dr. Marc D. Baldwin Ralph Waldo Emerson Copyright 2005 © by Marc D.

Dr. Marc D. Baldwin
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Copyright 2005 © by Marc D. Baldwin, PhD
Introduction
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
domesticated philosophy, bringing it down
to earth and making it accessible to the
common man.
Making generous use of analogies, E can
be very hyperbolic, claiming grand visions.
Carlyle’s Influence
One of E’s primary influences was the British
philosopher and writer, Thomas Carlyle, who
wrote of man’s need to celebrate the "wonder" of
nature and that any object is a symbol of God
and could serve as a "window" to "infinitude"
with the right point of view .
"What is life but the angle of vision?" asked
Carlyle.
Like Carlyle, E felt that the problems we face are
not in the world itself but in man's manner of
regarding the world.
Romanticist
E is a romantic in that he's forever
pursuing the unattainable reconciliation of
those disparate opposites—a neo-Platonic
Idealism vs. a hard boiled, homegrown
American Realism.
Please see my Lecture on Romanticism.
Transcendentalist
E is also a Transcendentalist.
Please see my Lecture on that subject.
Organicism
E believed in the principle of organicism, seeking the
"marriage of thought and things": seeing a doubleness in
the importance of particulars to illustrate general truths.
He used images of physical things as metaphors of
spiritual profundities.
Much like Melville’s Moby Dick, William Wordsworth's
lakes, or Mark Twain’s Mississippi River, his images
relate to unseen spiritual sources or forces.
This belief is derived from S. T. Coleridge’s stance that a
literary work grows from a seed, a germinal idea, and
what makes it grow is a miraculous spiritual energy.
Pantheism
E saw no basic hostilities in nature and no radical evil in
man; thus, he was to some degree at least a pantheist.
He believed that there’s a god-like force in nature and
that the external world reflects an invisible inner reality.
E wanted to express himself as nature worked: not
consciously by design but naturally, organically.
E was a "witness" giving testimony about the source and
force of Pantheism.
He was led to this belief primarily as a reaction against
what he saw as rampant materialism and
commercialism.
The “Sublime”
E also relished what he called the
“Sublime”: not just the pretty or
picturesque, but those things and ideas
and moments that bring with them a
feeling of extreme "awe."
He wished to be struck dumb by
witnessing the spiritual in the material,
often through a correspondence with
Nature.
The Doctrine of Correspondence
In fact, this is one of E’s doctrines, the
Doctrine of Correspondence—that the
whole natural world corresponds to the
spiritual world.
Over-Soul
Over-soul: Furthermore, E believed in an Oversoul, a universal, collective unconsciousness, an
inner light or animating force where what is “Me”
and what is “Not-Me” are joined.
All of nature, including the body, is “Not-Me”;
only the soul is “Me.”
This is the equivalent of Wordsworth’s "spots of
time" in which we transcend this world and
become one with Nature.
Nature
This work is E's manifesto: a rhapsodic, prose
poem that asks the essential question: What is
the purpose of Nature?
Replete with the American themes of
egalitarianism, self-reliance, and individualism,
Nature posits that "Words are signs of natural
facts...Every natural fact is a symbol of some
spiritual fact... [and] the whole of nature is a
metaphor of the human mind."
Nature (continued)
Throughout all of Nature, Emerson stresses this
correspondence between visible things and human
thoughts, noting how words operate as symbols and that
man can corrupt the language and pervert the meanings
of words.
The whole world, in fact, is "emblematic," and the "whole
of nature is a metaphor."
Thus, man must be disciplined to understand the
spiritual truths and to "build" his "own world" out of "the
pure idea" in his mind.
When he does that, when he "marries Matter and Mind,"
he will enjoy an "influx of the spirit" and begin to see
things in "great proportions."
Wonder
For E, seeing things with “a transparent eyeball”
allows man to experience life and existence with
a sense of wonder.
Remember, the American writer, unlike writers
just about anywhere else, had little history or
tradition to work with.
So much was brand new and too big to
comprehend about the country and the
continent.
Thus, awe and wonder were the order of the
thinking man’s day.
“The American Scholar”
In fact, E issued a challenge to all scholars and
would-be scholars: to see themselves as “Man
thinking.”
In "The American Scholar," Emerson contends
that the "sublime" doctrine posits "that there is
One Man," yet society forces its "members" to
specialize so that they've "suffered amputation,"
having become "metamorphosed into a thing."
Thus, society has divided an otherwise unified
nature by seeing people as things, valuable only
in a material sense.
“Self-Reliance”
Another of E’s masterpieces, "Self-Reliance" stresses
the connection between the self and god-like nature.
Emerson encourages us to "accept the place the divine
providence has found" for us because our
"Self-existence is the attribute of the Supreme Cause."
As a finite, individual part of an infinite, collective whole,
we are one with organic nature and our "soul becomes."
Once we recognize and accept that "the man is at one
with God," then we can become our individual selves,
something we must do, for "imitation is suicide."
“Self-Reliance” (continued)
This essay overflows with Emerson's faith in the
individual who recognizes his correspondence to the
"Over-Soul" and employs his intuition in his quest to "see
truly."
According to Emerson, you "must be a non-conformist,"
"speak the rude truth," and hold sacred "the integrity of
your own mind."
Individuals "can and must detach themselves" from men
who "measure their esteem of each other by what each
has, and not by what each is."
The self-reliant individual must shun the materialism of
society for "nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of
principles."
“Self-Reliance” (continued)
Here are some more brilliant lines and thoughtprovoking concepts from SR:
"Society everywhere is in a conspiracy against
the manhood of every one of its members."
"Whoso would be a man must be a
non-conformist."
"Trust thyself."
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little
minds."
"To be great is to be misunderstood."
"Traveling is a fool's paradise."
Conclusion
An intellectual liberator, E has been an
enormous influence on American thought,
politics, and society.
However, as some of the preceding quotes
suggest, the Emersonian individual must be
fairly well-balanced, well-educated, and wellmeaning.
For those people who are not, his philosophies
easily can be faulted for their overly-optimistic,
idealistic, and visionary nature.