Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Ralph Emerson" redirects here. For other uses, see Ralph Emerson (disambiguation).

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson c. 1857
Born(1803-05-25)May 25, 1803
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedApril 27, 1882(1882-04-27) (aged 78)
Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma materHarvard University
Spouse(s)
Ellen Louisa Tucker
​
​
(m. 1829; died 1831)​
[1]
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(m. 1835)​
Era19th-century philosophy
RegionAmerican philosophy
SchoolTranscendentalism
InstitutionsHarvard College
Main interests
Individualism, nature, divinity, cultural criticism
Notable ideas
Self-reliance, transparent eyeball, double consciousness, stream of thought
Ecclesiastical career
ReligionChristianity
ChurchUnitarianism
Ordained11 January 1829
Laicized1832
Signature

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882),[2] who went by his middle name Waldo,[3] was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and critical thinking, as well as a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and conformity. Friedrich Nietzsche thought he was "the most gifted of the Americans," and Walt Whitman called Emerson his "master".

Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of Transcendentalism in his 1836 essay, "Nature". Following this work, he gave a speech entitled "The American Scholar," in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. considered to be America's "intellectual Declaration of Independence".[4]

Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures, first, and then, revised them for print. His first two collections of essays, Essays: First Series (1841) and Essays: Second Series (1844), represent the core of his thinking. They include the well-known essays "Self-Reliance",[5] "The Over-Soul," "Circles," "The Poet," and "Experience". Together, with "Nature",[6] these essays made the decade from the mid-1830s to the mid-1840s Emerson's most fertile period. Emerson wrote on a number of subjects, never espousing fixed philosophical tenets, but rather, by developing certain ideas, such as individuality, freedom, the ability for mankind to realize almost anything, and the relationship between the soul and the surrounding world. Emerson's "nature" was more philosophical than naturalistic: "Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul." Emerson is one of several figures who "took a more pantheist or pandeist approach, by rejecting views of God as separate from the world".[7]

He remains among the linchpins of the American romantic movement,[8] and his work has greatly influenced the thinkers, writers, and poets that followed him. "In all my lectures," he wrote, "I have taught one doctrine, namely, the infinitude of the private man."[9] Emerson is also well-known as a mentor and friend of Henry David Thoreau, a fellow Transcendentalist.[10]

  1. ^ Richardson, p. 92.
  2. ^ Ralph Waldo Emerson at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference namechoice was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Richardson, p. 263.
  5. ^ Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1841). "Self-Reliance". In Charles William Eliot (ed.). Essays and English Traits. Harvard Classics. Vol. 5, with introduction and notes. (56th printing, 1965 ed.). New York: P.F.Collier & Son Corporation. pp. 59–69. It is for want of self-culture that the idol of Travelling, the idol of Italy, of England, of Egypt, remains for all educated Americans. They who made England, Italy, or Greece venerable in the imagination, did so not by rambling round creation as a moth round a lamp, but by sticking fast where they were, like an axis of the earth. ... The soul is no traveller: the wise man stays at home with the soul, and when his necessities, his duties, on any occasion call him from his house, or into foreign lands, he is at home still and is not gadding abroad from himself. p. 78
  6. ^ Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Ralph Waldo Emerson – Essays". Transcendentalists.com. Retrieved August 10, 2017.
  7. ^ Lachs, John; Talisse, Robert (2007). American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 310. ISBN 978-0-415-93926-3.
  8. ^ Gregory Garvey, T. (January 2001). The Emerson Dilemma. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-2241-4. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
  9. ^ Journal, April 7, 1840.
  10. ^ "Emerson & Thoreau". Wisdomportal.com. June 6, 2000. Archived from the original on February 3, 2012. Retrieved October 26, 2012.