The American Pragmatists outlined in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries a profound evolutionary process philosophy. The view of reality they explored was one in which all of reality was seen as an unending …
Emerson’s Call to Greatness
When I ask myself who was Ralph Waldo Emerson the answer that comes to my mind is that he was a call to greatness. Throughout all of his writing what can be heard is a …
Evolution, Enlightenment and Reincarnation: Part 3
In Emerson’s new account of evolutionary spirituality the human soul is on a journey of its own creation – a journey from its original source through the process of manifestation to a perfected state of …
Evolution, Enlightenment and Reincarnation: Part 2
Emerson wondered how would it be possible to evolve to the perfected state in the span of only one lifetime given the weight and drag that Fate places on human development? How could a man …
Truth as Fact, Truth as Commitment
I have taken up the practice of listening regularly to the podcasts of classes by Dr. Hubert Dreyfus of the University of California at Berkeley. Recently I was very taken by something he was saying …
Evolution, Enlightenment and Reincarnation: Part 1
In 1860 Ralph Waldo Emerson published an essay called Fate in a collection called The Conduct of Life. This essay is written by a mature Emerson, a man who has worked and taught for nearly …
Kant, Coleridge and the Power of Intuition
My current presentation of the evolutionary ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson is a good place for a discussion about epistemology to fall in. How do we know what we know? is the question that epistemology …
Spiritual Realism and Process Philosophy
As I have read through Emerson’s writing I see two aspects to his metaphysics. On the one hand he describes a spiritual Realism in which the collective human soul of humanity exists in a transcendent …
Emerson’s Dualistic Idealism
Emerson was an Idealist. He believed that ultimately some form of mind was the foundation for the rest of reality. His spiritual teaching about Self-Reliance and the Over-soul are all based on his idealism. In …
The Holistic Vision of Ralph Waldo Emerson
I am sorry that I missed a post this week due to travel, but I am excited to share more from Ralph Waldo Emerson. As we understand more how Emerson’s thought developed we see the …
How do we know what we know?
I was very interested in the discussion that occurred around my post about belief and fact and I agree with Chuck that it is our interpretation of our experience that must be questioned. I have …
The Conscious Evolution of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Part 3
Why is the universe evolving? That is a question that must necessarily arise if we are to even entertain the possibility that there might be any form of consciousness directing the process of evolution. If …
Belief and Fact
The worst speculative Skeptic ever I knew, was a much better Man than the best superstitious Devotee & Bigot. —David Hume (Letter to Gilbert Elliot of Minto, March 10, 1751) Before I go on to …
The Conscious Evolution of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Part 2
Ralph Waldo Emerson had a spiritual vision explaining how the process of evolution was leading life inevitably in the direction of consciousness, and he did not separate human consciousness and activity from that process. Through …
The Conscious Evolution of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Part 1
The influence of Ralph Waldo Emerson on the future trajectory of American philosophy probably cannot be over-estimated. He held a metaphysical vision of an evolving universe. His idealism with its dualistic character would be largely …
Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Gifts of Nature
The idea of Nature is essential to Ralph Waldo Emerson. And throughout his lifetime he created a beautiful and poetic appreciation of the relationship between humankind and nature. As he states “our intercourse with heaven …
The Spiritual Teachings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
In the first half of the 19th century Ralph Waldo Emerson was part of a small group of forward thinking Unitarian ministers who were ushering in an exciting wave of “new thought” that they later …
Who was Ralph Waldo Emerson?
Who was Ralph Waldo Emerson? This blog started with Emerson, but quickly turned toward the Pragmatists. Now, however, I am turning back for a time. I want to explore with you this great man of …
My Initial Encounter with the Radical Inquiry of Charles Sanders Peirce (Part II)
What I was confronted with in myfirst encounter with Peirce was not the skepticism of Descartes that assumes everything is untrue and then builds from there. It was a more evolutionary skepticism that assumes that …
Consciousness is not a “stuff”
I pulled two quotes from Chuck to respond to. We may be the “conscious part of the universe” (possibly not the *only* conscious part – life on other planets?) but that doesn’t inexorably lead to …