The purpose of this
posting is to review, in a few words, the effect of Ralph Waldo Emerson – known
to his acquaintances as Waldo – on the Transcendentalist movement in the US. This account will be spotty but hopefully
cover the importance of Emerson in advancing and, at times, inhibiting
federalist values. He initially set out
to do his work in religious venues – he trained to be a minister – but in time
he left that behind.
Probably his most utilized stage was that of an essayist. Originally, his efforts usually appeared as
lectures that he then converted into written form. His overall messages portrayed him as a
champion of individualism and as a social critic. As such, he portrayed an uncanny ability to
foresee developments as he repeatedly set out to dispense good advice in relation
to countervailing societal forces.
In that effort, he described
how and why those forces did what they did.
For that, he enjoyed an expansive audience that grew not just across the
nation but extended into Europe. From his 1500 or so lectures, one can find the
core of his thinking in the first two published collections of his essays, those
being Essays: First Series (1841)
and Essays: Second Series (1844).
A few of his well-known essays include “The Over-Soul”, “Circles”,
“Experience”, “The Poet”, “Self-Reliance”, and his most famous piece, “Nature”.
And underlying his main
themes was his transcendent view and reliance on the role of intuition in determining
one’s knowledge and the direction one takes in life.[1] As a cited source puts it, using Emerson’s
words,
… he explicitly identifies Transcendentalism as a form of
philosophical Idealism. Emerson wrote:
As thinkers, mankind have ever been divided into two sects, Materialists and Idealists; the first class founding on experience, the second on consciousness; the first class beginning to think from the data of the senses, the second class perceive that the senses are not final, and say, The senses give us representations of things, but what are the things themselves, they cannot tell…Society is good when it does not violate me, but best when it is likest to solitude. Everything real is self-existent. Everything divine shares the self-existence of Deity…[Kant showed] there was a very important class of ideas or imperative forms, which did not come by way of experience, but through which experience was acquired; that these were intuitions of the mind itself; and he denominated them Transcendental forms.[2]
On more political
topics, he espoused the potential of the individual and of his/her freedom to
seek those potentials. This individualism
should not be seen as the one seen in the twenty-first century. It was more a concern for the integrity of a
person and his/her challenge to overcome his/her weaknesses or other obstacles
in life.
And in true Romantic spirit, he extoled the virtues of
nature. Some would consider his philosophic
bent to eventually become a pantheist or pandeist. He is quoted as saying, “In all my lectures,
I have taught one doctrine, namely, the infinitude of the private man.”[3] His political contributions gained steam
during the Civil War years.
An antislavery person, he initially shied away from entering
that arena. But probably as a reaction
to the number of his friends and family members being outspoken critics of the
institution, he eventually joined the fray.
Besides a series of lectures opposing slavery in 1837, he began taking a
more active role in 1844.
Beyond giving speeches, he hosted John Brown in his home in
Concord.[4] During the war he met with Abraham Lincoln
and upon meeting him, changed his estimation of the President. His initial concern with Lincoln was that he
was not as committed to ending slavery as he was in saving the Union. His face-to-face meeting convinced him that his
judgement was not accurate and became one of Lincoln’s great admirers.
So, on the pro-federalist side of the ledger, Emerson strove
toward inclusion of blacks into the political partnership of the nation. In that, he had no hesitation in promoting
his belief in the need for a civil war and seemed to consider it as a rebirth of
the nation. On the not so federalist end
of the scale was Emerson’s attraction to Thomas Carlyle. Apparently, the Scot had a profound effect on
Emerson.
As alluded to earlier in this blog, Carlyle was a strong proponent
of the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon “race.” In this, one can sense an exclusionary trait
and the degree to which Emerson shared this belief is not clear. Emerson wished for Carlyle to visit America
and served as a sort of agent for the historian on this side of the ocean. The two kept up an ongoing correspondence
until Carlyle died in 1881.[5]
In this blogger’s opinion, Emerson did much to secularize American
thought. His opposition to slavery
helped bring an end to that scourge on American federalism. His travels, both domestic and in Europe, led
him to meet just about everyone of any note in the literary as well as the
political world of his time. Early on, while
living in St. Augustine, Florida, he even met a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, Prince
Achille Murat. They became close friends as they discussed the heady topics of
the day such as religion, philosophy, sociology, and politics.[6]
That stay in Florida was where Emerson witnessed slavery
firsthand and noted that on one of his outings to a Bible Society meeting, there
was a slave auction taking place nearby.
He is quoted as expressing, “One ear therefore heard the glad tidings of
great joy, whilst the other was regaled with ‘Going, gentlemen, going!”[7]
The
history of Emerson’s time and his influence betray much of American culture of
the 1800s. While his family’s background
spanned the European experience in North America up to his time, he helped
further define what the espoused political values of his countrymen should be. In his efforts, he was more a force for
liberating the prevailing federalist thought than adding to its parochialism. In that, he helped Transcendentalism as a
movement stay true to the nation’s basic moral stand in defining its political proclivities.
Eventually
given the title, Sage of Concord, he is judged to have upgraded the art of
lecturing. Reported are the later
thinkers and writers who were influenced by Emerson’s work, and they include William
James – who happened to be Emerson’s godson – and Nietzsche. And despite his anti-establishment religious
turn, he is credited by some as having a great influence on American theology. With the focus this posting gives this great
American lecturer/essayist, the blog ends its review of the
Romantic/Transcendentalist movement in the US.
[1] David Boersema, “American Philosophy,” Internet
Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A Peer-Reviewed
Academic Resource (n.d.), accessed September 20, 2021, https://iep.utm.edu/american/#H2 .
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journal entry, April 7, 1840.
[4] Len Gougeon, Virtue’s Hero: Emerson, Antislavery, and Reform (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2010).
[5] Robert D. Richardson, Jr., Emerson: The Mind on Fire (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995).
[6] Peter S. Field, Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Making of a Democratic Intellectual (Lanham,
MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003).
[7] Richardson, Emerson, 76.
No comments:
Post a Comment