Ralph Waldo Emerson
Trust yourself and your own insight above tradition and authority, because the same divine spirit lives in every person and in nature.
Placement
Transcendentalist: self-reliance and the “Over-Soul” – nature as a mirror of the spirit.
Key ideas
- Self-reliance
- Over-Soul
Influence
Influenced by 5
Plato
influenced by ✓
Emerson made Plato the type of the philosopher in Representative Men (1850): ‘Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated among men of thought.’ R. W. Emerson, Representative Men (1850), “Plato; or, the Philosopher”; SEP “Ralph Waldo Emerson”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Plato › 428–348 BCE
Plotinus
influenced by
Emerson took the motto of Nature (1836) from Plotinus: nature is ‘but an image or imitation of wisdom, the last thing of the soul’. R. W. Emerson, Nature (1836), motto; SEP “Ralph Waldo Emerson”
Evidence: AI draft
Plotinus › 204–270
Michel de Montaigne
influenced by ✓
Emerson made Montaigne the type of the sceptic in Representative Men (1850), recalling that reading the Essays as a youth felt as if he had written them himself. R. W. Emerson, Representative Men (1850), “Montaigne; or, the Skeptic”; SEP “Ralph Waldo Emerson”
Michel de Montaigne › 1533–1592
Emanuel Swedenborg
influenced by ✓
Emerson took up Swedenborg’s doctrine of correspondences between natural facts and spiritual truths in Nature (1836) and portrayed him as the mystic in Representative Men (1850). R. W. Emerson, Nature (1836), “Language”; Representative Men (1850), “Swedenborg; or, the Mystic”
Emanuel Swedenborg › 1688–1772
Immanuel Kant
influenced by
In ‘The Transcendentalist’ (1842) Emerson traced his movement’s name to Kant’s use of ‘transcendental’, a Kant he knew largely at second hand, through Coleridge and Carlyle. R. W. Emerson, “The Transcendentalist” (1842); SEP “Ralph Waldo Emerson”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Immanuel Kant › 1724–1804
Influenced 4
Henry David Thoreau
influenced ✓
Thoreau, Emerson’s protégé, took up his ideals of self-reliance and of nature as spirit (Nature, 1836) and tested them at Walden Pond on Emerson’s land (Walden, 1854). R. W. Emerson, Nature (1836); “Self-Reliance” (1841); H. D. Thoreau, Walden (1854); SEP “Henry David Thoreau”
Henry David Thoreau › 1817–1862
William James
influenced ✓
James, whose father was Emerson’s friend, spoke at the Emerson centenary in Concord (1903), praising his faith in the worth of each individual’s experience. W. James, “Address at the Emerson Centenary in Concord” (1903), in Memories and Studies (1911); SEP “William James”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
William James › 1842–1910
Friedrich Nietzsche
influenced ✓
Nietzsche read Emerson’s essays from his school years and put a passage from Emerson’s ‘History’ as the motto of the first edition of The Gay Science (1882). F. Nietzsche, Die fröhliche Wissenschaft (1882), motto; R. W. Emerson, Essays: First Series (1841), “History”; SEP “Friedrich Nietzsche”
Friedrich Nietzsche › 1844–1900
José Martí
influenced
Martí admired Emerson’s idealism of nature and self-reliance, which he joined with republican ethics, in an essay written at Emerson’s death (‘Emerson’, 1882). J. Martí, “Emerson”, La Opinión Nacional (Caracas, 1882), in Obras completas XIII
Evidence: AI draft
José Martí › 1853–1895
Works
- 1836Nature
Manifesto of Transcendentalism: I become a transparent eyeball.
- 1841Self-Reliance
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
Position
Emerson called on Americans to free themselves from the authority of European tradition, church doctrine and conformity and to trust their own intuition. In each individual soul speaks the divine “Over-Soul”, which connects all beings; nature, rightly seen, is a language of spirit. Hence his call to self-reliance: whoever follows their own inner voice touches what is universal. “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” His essays, drawing on Romanticism, German idealism and Indian thought, gave the young American culture a philosophy of its own and shaped Thoreau, Whitman, Nietzsche and later the pragmatists.
Life & context
Emerson came from a long line of New England ministers, studied at Harvard and served as a Unitarian pastor until he resigned in 1832. After meeting Coleridge, Wordsworth and Carlyle in Europe, he settled in Concord, Massachusetts. As essayist and celebrated lecturer he became the central figure of American Transcendentalism and a mentor to Thoreau.
Further main works
- The American Scholar (1837)
- Representative Men (1850)
- The Conduct of Life (1860)
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