Philosopher views
Download 5.81 Mb.
|
Emerson’s Ideas"Whosoever would be a man, must be a nonconformist...A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...To be great is to be misunderstood." In this section I will argue that it is possible to trace several complimentary (if sometimes contradictory) ideas in Emerson’s writings. I will describe his Platonic conception of spirit as primary and matter as secondary; his differences from Plato (especially in Emerson’s faith in humanity and democracy); and his mystical vision of “feeling” or “mood” over logic as the basis of human understanding. To understand transcendentalism, one must first and foremost understand its derivation from Platonism. Plato, one of the most influential thinkers in the history of Western civilization, was the first major figure to posit a distinction between spirit and matter. Plato believed that the realm of "being" was absolute, unchanging, immaterial, and incorruptible, while the realm of "becoming," where matter, people and history existed, was a degraded and corrupt reflection of "being." Things changed, living entities died, and perfection was unattainable. Plato envisioned a realm of "perfect forms," where the things and ideas we contemplate exist in a state of unchanging consistency. Ordinary humans could contemplate this world of spirit provided they shed their worldly concerns and concentrate only on philosophical ideals. But humans could never really reach such a world; they could only contemplate it. Emerson's transcendentalism was an optimistic version of Plato's distinction between spirit and matter, being and becoming. Although, as we shall see, Emerson did not believe history or human interaction were irrelevant, he did believe that a mystical spirit-reality existed and was the true inspiration for human greatness. It is instructive to note that Emerson differed from Plato in a few important ways: 1. As mentioned, Plato rejected human matters, history, politics and the like, as corruptible facets of the realm of becoming. Emerson, on the other hand, believed it impossible "to extricate oneself from the questions in which your age is involved.” 2. It was fortunate that Emerson believed history and human interaction were important, because, unlike Plato, Emerson believed human beings and human endeavors were innately good. This was reflected in Emerson’s faith in democracy, a system of government Plato categorically rejected. 3. Whereas Plato ultimately appealed to reason and a kind of logic to govern philosophical thought, Emerson and the other transcendentalists turned toward the mystical world of the Romantics. Emerson put forth a mystical sense of "vision," including emotions such as love, as the basis of genuine knowledge. I wish to concentrate on this last point a little more. Emerson trusted instinct and emotion, which he saw as our connection to the divine, more than he trusted logic and analytic thought. He wrote: "Our spontaneous action is always the best. You cannot, with your best deliberation and heed, come so close to any question as your spontaneous glance shall bring you, whilst you rise from your bed, or walk abroad in the morning after meditating the matter before sleep on the previous night" (Emerson, "Intellect"). This way of thinking has been called Emerson’s “epistemology of moods.” Like the German and British Romantics, Emerson believed that it was possible to “think too much,” and in doing so lose the spontaneous connection to creation and nature that Romantics saw as vital to a higher kind of understanding. Emerson’s "epistemology of moods" is an attempt to construct a framework for encompassing what might otherwise seem contradictory outlooks, viewpoints, or doctrines. Emerson really means to "accept," as he puts it, "the clangor and jangle of contrary tendencies" (CW3: 36). He means to be irresponsible to all that holds him back from his self-development. That is why, at the end of "Circles," he writes that he is "only an experimenter…with no Past at my back" (CW2: 188). In the world of flux that he depicts in that essay, there is nothing stable to be responsible to: "every moment is new; the past is always swallowed and forgotten, the coming only is sacred" (CW2: 189) (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emerson/). In other words, higher understanding, based more on feeling than analysis, transcends the old Aristotelian maxim that things cannot be both true and false. Like Hegel, Emerson believed contradictory premises were simply stepping-stones to a higher, comprehensive understanding. This serves as a useful transition into Emerson’s belief in the connectedness of all creatures and things. Since that connectedness is more real than the analytic separateness of individual thinking, it would make sense that a transcendentalist would value the “spirit” of emotion more than the analysis of individual thoughts. After all, Emerson viewed emotion as the emanation of the divine, and in turn viewed the divine as an aggregate reflection of all creatures and things. He was very close, in this respect, to being a pantheist. Transcendentalism, as its name implies, holds that all living creatures and things of the earth are united as something mystically higher and more whole than the sum of their parts. Emerson combined this idea of the essential unity of all things and creatures with a belief in the innate goodness of humanity. Like many of transcendentalism's central themes, the notion of a "unitary soul" uniting all humankind seems more "Eastern" than "Western." But the idea that we are all joined by one common soul has immediate and important political implications that give a strong metaphysical basis to the American political ideal of equality. This is apparent in Emerson's position against slavery. For Emerson, democracy, however imperfect, was a method by which human beings could serve as "lenses through which we read our own minds." Like friendship and reading, democracy offered a variation of the process by which other individuals act as "lenses through which we read our own minds." As each person searches for the perfectly fitted lens, "the otherest," some geniuses manage to serve large groups because they 'stand for facts, and for thoughts.' ” (Thomas J. Brown, LAW AND SOCIAL INQUIRY, Spring, 2000, p. 669). Emerson refused to see distinctions based on skin color or national origin as being more important than the common humanity that unites Black and white, or other distinct groups. This, of course, explains his opposition to slavery and his position in favor of women’s emancipation. There are two more important political implications found in Emerson. First, since governments are not the ultimate source of morality, morality is more important than obeying the law. In his essay “Self-Reliance,” Emerson argues that Nature reveals moral truth. In “The American Scholar” he argues that institutions and books do not reveal truth as well as can be revealed through our personal relationships with the divine—mediated, presumably, through Nature. Because of this, Emerson was a strong supporter of civil disobedience against unjust laws. Second, “self-reliance” is valuable to Emerson because he sees “power” as something that makes us human, and dependence on others as a natural indictment of that power. This obsession with power has long been a rallying point against Emerson. Because he held an almost Nietzschian awe of power, critics sometimes contend that he glosses over many injustices that are on par with slavery, such as rapid industrialization or capitalist exploitation. Directory: uploads uploads -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 uploads -> Department of science and humanities department of mathematics part-a questions and answers uploads -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It? uploads -> For want of a nail uploads -> Ownership Models There are two different types of ownership models uploads -> Police Militarization uploads -> City of rising star regular meting thursday, july 14, 2016 uploads -> Township of winfield uploads -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 uploads -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program What We Want Now! Download 5.81 Mb. Share with your friends:
|