The Emerson Enigma

Abstract

Interprets Emerson’s thought as a form of perspectivalism. Examines three perspectives in detail: transcendentalism, existential individualism, and fatalism. Shows that transcendentalism, as Emerson presented it, was based upon a weak foundation and was a distortion of Kant’s philosophy. Although referring to it intermittently, Emerson continually moved away from it in the direction of an American mode of existentialism that parallels, in some respects, the thought of Kierkegaard and the Heidegger of Being and Time. Claims the fatalism in Emerson’s writings is a strong position not balanced by a philosophical defense of freedom – the weakest aspect of his thought. Concludes Emerson produced a philosophy of paradox that retains a tension between a philosophical idealism and a realism that emphasizes the contradictions and tensions of existence and philosophical reflection.