Review of Gustaaf Van Cromphout, Emerson’s Modernity and the Example of Goethe

Abstract

Claims the book’s principal strength lies in Van Cromphout’s ability to demonstrate the influence of Goethe on Emerson. Believes that, while the idea that Goethe’s and Emerson’s work represent approaches to the idea of modernity different from that of Enlightenment thinkers who followed Kant, Van Cromphout does not really explain how this alternative concept emerges in individual works by these authors.