Cathy Gutierrez
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195388350
- eISBN:
- 9780199866472
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195388350.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The conclusion argues that religions provide templates for thinking that endure long after their immediate relevance to a society has faded. An apocalyptic worldview in which the end of time is ...
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The conclusion argues that religions provide templates for thinking that endure long after their immediate relevance to a society has faded. An apocalyptic worldview in which the end of time is imminent remains in secular culture drained of meaning—the final days when the saved will be separated from the damned exists uncomfortably alongside multiculturalism and globalization. The inclusive nature of Platonic thinking, the ascent of a ladder of knowledge, love, or mysticism still has echoes in popular culture, where Spiritualism ultimately succeeded as an ethical enterprise.Less
The conclusion argues that religions provide templates for thinking that endure long after their immediate relevance to a society has faded. An apocalyptic worldview in which the end of time is imminent remains in secular culture drained of meaning—the final days when the saved will be separated from the damned exists uncomfortably alongside multiculturalism and globalization. The inclusive nature of Platonic thinking, the ascent of a ladder of knowledge, love, or mysticism still has echoes in popular culture, where Spiritualism ultimately succeeded as an ethical enterprise.
David L. McMahan
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195183276
- eISBN:
- 9780199870882
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195183276.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Buddhism has created a place for itself in the modern ecology of ideas and practices by placing itself within and between three key discourses of modernity: those of scientific naturalism, ...
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Buddhism has created a place for itself in the modern ecology of ideas and practices by placing itself within and between three key discourses of modernity: those of scientific naturalism, Romanticism and Transcendentalism, and Christianity. Specifically, it aligned itself with scientific rationalism over against conservative, missionary forms of Christianity, while borrowing from Christianity’s more liberal and mystical elements. Nevertheless, it has also been critical of positivistic and scientistic modes of rationalism, and in articulating this critique it has drawn on the Romantic-Transcendentalist cosmology and their stress on the value of interior experience. This chapter shows how foundational Buddhist modernists like Soen Shaku and Dwight Goddard re-configured Buddhist concepts in the languages of rationalism, Romanticism, and Christianity, carving out a space for Buddhism in the tensions between these discourses.Less
Buddhism has created a place for itself in the modern ecology of ideas and practices by placing itself within and between three key discourses of modernity: those of scientific naturalism, Romanticism and Transcendentalism, and Christianity. Specifically, it aligned itself with scientific rationalism over against conservative, missionary forms of Christianity, while borrowing from Christianity’s more liberal and mystical elements. Nevertheless, it has also been critical of positivistic and scientistic modes of rationalism, and in articulating this critique it has drawn on the Romantic-Transcendentalist cosmology and their stress on the value of interior experience. This chapter shows how foundational Buddhist modernists like Soen Shaku and Dwight Goddard re-configured Buddhist concepts in the languages of rationalism, Romanticism, and Christianity, carving out a space for Buddhism in the tensions between these discourses.
David L. McMahan
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195183276
- eISBN:
- 9780199870882
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195183276.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter investigates the articulation of Buddhism in terms of Romanticism and Transcendentalism by examining how Buddhism has come to be conceived as having a special link to art and creativity. ...
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This chapter investigates the articulation of Buddhism in terms of Romanticism and Transcendentalism by examining how Buddhism has come to be conceived as having a special link to art and creativity. D. T. Suzuki, a key figure in this conception, amalgamated German idealist and American Transcendentalist cosmological concepts with Buddhist ones and presented the Japanese poets, Zen monks, and samurai warriors as deeply and religiously attentive to nature in ways similar to the English Romantics and American Transcendentalists. His conception of spiritual freedom as a spontaneous, emancipatory consciousness that transcends rational intellect and social convention drew heavily on these figures. The idea caught on with other influential figures like Lama Govinda and Sangharakshita and has inspired a plethora of popular books, as well as programs in meditation and creativity in monasteries and universities.Less
This chapter investigates the articulation of Buddhism in terms of Romanticism and Transcendentalism by examining how Buddhism has come to be conceived as having a special link to art and creativity. D. T. Suzuki, a key figure in this conception, amalgamated German idealist and American Transcendentalist cosmological concepts with Buddhist ones and presented the Japanese poets, Zen monks, and samurai warriors as deeply and religiously attentive to nature in ways similar to the English Romantics and American Transcendentalists. His conception of spiritual freedom as a spontaneous, emancipatory consciousness that transcends rational intellect and social convention drew heavily on these figures. The idea caught on with other influential figures like Lama Govinda and Sangharakshita and has inspired a plethora of popular books, as well as programs in meditation and creativity in monasteries and universities.
Jonathan McKenzie
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813166308
- eISBN:
- 9780813166384
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813166308.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This book provides a fresh interpretation of Henry Thoreau’s political theory through a comprehensive interpretation of public and private writings. While recent critics have opened new vistas in ...
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This book provides a fresh interpretation of Henry Thoreau’s political theory through a comprehensive interpretation of public and private writings. While recent critics have opened new vistas in Thoreau interpretation, little attention has been paid to Thoreau’s journals and correspondence. This book argues that these private sources enhance our understanding of Thoreau’s political theory by highlighting its place within his overall philosophical mission. In particular, this book attends to the resonances between Thoreau’s overall political-theoretical mission of privatism and the Socratic practice of philosophy as a way of life. Through analyses of Thoreau’s reflective simplification, his philosophy of time, his place in the reform movements of the nineteenth century, his understanding of wildness as freedom, and his virtue-making of political indifference, this book rethinks the basic structure of Thoreau’s overall project.Less
This book provides a fresh interpretation of Henry Thoreau’s political theory through a comprehensive interpretation of public and private writings. While recent critics have opened new vistas in Thoreau interpretation, little attention has been paid to Thoreau’s journals and correspondence. This book argues that these private sources enhance our understanding of Thoreau’s political theory by highlighting its place within his overall philosophical mission. In particular, this book attends to the resonances between Thoreau’s overall political-theoretical mission of privatism and the Socratic practice of philosophy as a way of life. Through analyses of Thoreau’s reflective simplification, his philosophy of time, his place in the reform movements of the nineteenth century, his understanding of wildness as freedom, and his virtue-making of political indifference, this book rethinks the basic structure of Thoreau’s overall project.
Terryl L. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195313901
- eISBN:
- 9780199871933
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313901.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Romanticism brings back the twinned concepts of preexistence and theosis. The revival of Plato (under Thomas Taylor's influence) sparks revival of interest in preexistence especially. William Blake, ...
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Romanticism brings back the twinned concepts of preexistence and theosis. The revival of Plato (under Thomas Taylor's influence) sparks revival of interest in preexistence especially. William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Coleridge are only the most prominent names among the Romantics, as is Alfred, Lord Tennyson among the Victorians, and Ralph Waldo Emerson among the Transcendentalists, to espouse preexistence.Less
Romanticism brings back the twinned concepts of preexistence and theosis. The revival of Plato (under Thomas Taylor's influence) sparks revival of interest in preexistence especially. William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Coleridge are only the most prominent names among the Romantics, as is Alfred, Lord Tennyson among the Victorians, and Ralph Waldo Emerson among the Transcendentalists, to espouse preexistence.
Amanda Porterfield
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195131376
- eISBN:
- 9780199834570
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195131371.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Religious life in the U.S. underwent a profound change in the late twentieth century as divisions between different religious groups softened, exposure to various religions increased, and Americans ...
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Religious life in the U.S. underwent a profound change in the late twentieth century as divisions between different religious groups softened, exposure to various religions increased, and Americans experienced growing interest in personalized forms of religious experience. The surge of interest in personalized forms of spirituality coincided with the decline in the mainstream Protestant institutions that had once dominated American religion and shaped American culture. It also coincided with the criticism of American arrogance, the debacle in Vietnam, and the defeat of victory culture. Nevertheless, even as patriotic optimism and the authority of Protestant institutions declined, Protestant influence persisted in the celebration of individual religious experience, and in the tendency to place the authority of individual experience above that of established institutions and official hierarchies. Late twentieth‐century American spirituality reflected the Protestant tendency to individualism underlying American religious life, even as it also reflected the mainstreaming of Catholicism in American culture, and an unprecedented interest in, and freedom for, other religions. The book traces some of the antecedents of this recent awakening to the spirituality of American Transcendentalism in the nineteenth century and, before that, to New England Puritanism and its investment in the Holy Spirit's power in individual life. In its examination of these historical precedents, the book argues that the persistent tendency toward individualism in American religious life has often been affirmed and promoted as an effective source of benevolence, social responsibility, and reform.Less
Religious life in the U.S. underwent a profound change in the late twentieth century as divisions between different religious groups softened, exposure to various religions increased, and Americans experienced growing interest in personalized forms of religious experience. The surge of interest in personalized forms of spirituality coincided with the decline in the mainstream Protestant institutions that had once dominated American religion and shaped American culture. It also coincided with the criticism of American arrogance, the debacle in Vietnam, and the defeat of victory culture. Nevertheless, even as patriotic optimism and the authority of Protestant institutions declined, Protestant influence persisted in the celebration of individual religious experience, and in the tendency to place the authority of individual experience above that of established institutions and official hierarchies. Late twentieth‐century American spirituality reflected the Protestant tendency to individualism underlying American religious life, even as it also reflected the mainstreaming of Catholicism in American culture, and an unprecedented interest in, and freedom for, other religions. The book traces some of the antecedents of this recent awakening to the spirituality of American Transcendentalism in the nineteenth century and, before that, to New England Puritanism and its investment in the Holy Spirit's power in individual life. In its examination of these historical precedents, the book argues that the persistent tendency toward individualism in American religious life has often been affirmed and promoted as an effective source of benevolence, social responsibility, and reform.
Kyle Gann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252040856
- eISBN:
- 9780252099366
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040856.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
In January 1921, New York insurance company executive Charles Ives mailed self-published scores of a piano sonata he had written to 200 strangers. Unprecedentedly complex and modern beyond any music ...
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In January 1921, New York insurance company executive Charles Ives mailed self-published scores of a piano sonata he had written to 200 strangers. Unprecedentedly complex and modern beyond any music the recipients had seen before, the piece was subtitled “Concord, Mass., 1840-1860,” and the four sonata movements were named for American authors: “Emerson,” “Hawthorne,” “The Alcotts,” “Thoreau.” Ridiculed in the press at first, the Concord Sonata gained admirers (including composers like Copland and Gershwin and writers like Henry Bellamann), and when finally given its complete world premiere by John Kirkpatrick in 1939, it was hailed as “the greatest music composed by an American.” The piece is so complex that it has never been fully analyzed before, and this book is the first to explore and detail its methods on every page. Likewise, Ives wrote a book to accompany the sonata, titled Essays Before a Sonata, purporting to explain his aesthetic thinking, and no one has ever before seriously examined Ives’s aesthetic through-argument.Less
In January 1921, New York insurance company executive Charles Ives mailed self-published scores of a piano sonata he had written to 200 strangers. Unprecedentedly complex and modern beyond any music the recipients had seen before, the piece was subtitled “Concord, Mass., 1840-1860,” and the four sonata movements were named for American authors: “Emerson,” “Hawthorne,” “The Alcotts,” “Thoreau.” Ridiculed in the press at first, the Concord Sonata gained admirers (including composers like Copland and Gershwin and writers like Henry Bellamann), and when finally given its complete world premiere by John Kirkpatrick in 1939, it was hailed as “the greatest music composed by an American.” The piece is so complex that it has never been fully analyzed before, and this book is the first to explore and detail its methods on every page. Likewise, Ives wrote a book to accompany the sonata, titled Essays Before a Sonata, purporting to explain his aesthetic thinking, and no one has ever before seriously examined Ives’s aesthetic through-argument.
David F. Holland
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199753611
- eISBN:
- 9780199895113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199753611.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter traces the intellectual history of the canon among liberal Christians of the nineteenth century. Beginning with Hicksite Quakers, it moves through William Ellery Channing's Unitarianism, ...
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This chapter traces the intellectual history of the canon among liberal Christians of the nineteenth century. Beginning with Hicksite Quakers, it moves through William Ellery Channing's Unitarianism, the Transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and Theodore Parker, the transition from Transcendentalism to Catholicism of Orestes Brownson, and finally the liberal congregationalism of Horace Bushnell. It demonstrates how the convergence of various intellectual trends in the nineteenth century—such as skepticism, sentimentalism, and biblical criticism—combined to push prominent American thinkers toward a concept of an open canon.Less
This chapter traces the intellectual history of the canon among liberal Christians of the nineteenth century. Beginning with Hicksite Quakers, it moves through William Ellery Channing's Unitarianism, the Transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and Theodore Parker, the transition from Transcendentalism to Catholicism of Orestes Brownson, and finally the liberal congregationalism of Horace Bushnell. It demonstrates how the convergence of various intellectual trends in the nineteenth century—such as skepticism, sentimentalism, and biblical criticism—combined to push prominent American thinkers toward a concept of an open canon.
Paul C. Gutjahr
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199740420
- eISBN:
- 9780199894703
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199740420.003.0036
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Chapter thirty-six is primarily concerned with the rise of Transcendentalism in America and Princeton’s response to this new variation of American Unitarianism. Hodge, along with Albert Dod and James ...
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Chapter thirty-six is primarily concerned with the rise of Transcendentalism in America and Princeton’s response to this new variation of American Unitarianism. Hodge, along with Albert Dod and James W. Alexander, wrote early, stinging critiques of Transcendentalism for the Repertory. The articles were so well argued that the Unitarian Andrews Norton had them republished in his own battle against the rising influence of Transcendentalism in New England.Less
Chapter thirty-six is primarily concerned with the rise of Transcendentalism in America and Princeton’s response to this new variation of American Unitarianism. Hodge, along with Albert Dod and James W. Alexander, wrote early, stinging critiques of Transcendentalism for the Repertory. The articles were so well argued that the Unitarian Andrews Norton had them republished in his own battle against the rising influence of Transcendentalism in New England.
Bruce Kuklick
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199260164
- eISBN:
- 9780191597893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199260168.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Thinkers unconnected to institutions were the most lively and creative thinkers in the US for much of the nineteenth century. These ‘amateurs’ were more willing to adopt untraditional, usually ...
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Thinkers unconnected to institutions were the most lively and creative thinkers in the US for much of the nineteenth century. These ‘amateurs’ were more willing to adopt untraditional, usually German, ideas; and they moved more quickly to modern, secular ideas. The most important of these thinkers were James Marsh of Vermont, who introduced Kantian ideas into America; Ralph Waldo Emerson, the leading Transcendentalist; Connecticut minister Horace Bushnell, who followed Nathaniel William Taylor in remaking the theology of New England and leading it to figurative and metaphorical interpretations of the Bible; John Williamson Nevin and Philip Schaff of the Mercersburg Seminary in Pennsylvania, who meditated on an organicist Protestant theology; and The St Louis Hegelians.Less
Thinkers unconnected to institutions were the most lively and creative thinkers in the US for much of the nineteenth century. These ‘amateurs’ were more willing to adopt untraditional, usually German, ideas; and they moved more quickly to modern, secular ideas. The most important of these thinkers were James Marsh of Vermont, who introduced Kantian ideas into America; Ralph Waldo Emerson, the leading Transcendentalist; Connecticut minister Horace Bushnell, who followed Nathaniel William Taylor in remaking the theology of New England and leading it to figurative and metaphorical interpretations of the Bible; John Williamson Nevin and Philip Schaff of the Mercersburg Seminary in Pennsylvania, who meditated on an organicist Protestant theology; and The St Louis Hegelians.
Justin T. Clark
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469638737
- eISBN:
- 9781469638751
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469638737.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
In the decades before the U.S. Civil War, the city of Boston evolved from a dilapidated, haphazardly planned, and architecturally stagnant provincial town into a booming and visually impressive ...
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In the decades before the U.S. Civil War, the city of Boston evolved from a dilapidated, haphazardly planned, and architecturally stagnant provincial town into a booming and visually impressive metropolis. In an effort to remake Boston into the "Athens of America," neighborhoods were leveled, streets straightened, and an ambitious set of architectural ordinances enacted. However, even as residents reveled in a vibrant new landscape of landmark buildings, art galleries, parks, and bustling streets, the social and sensory upheaval of city life also gave rise to a widespread fascination with the unseen. Focusing his analysis between 1820 and 1860, Justin T. Clark traces how the effort to impose moral and social order on the city also inspired many—from Transcendentalists to clairvoyants and amateur artists—to seek out more ethereal visions of the infinite and ideal beyond the gilded paintings and glimmering storefronts. By elucidating the reciprocal influence of two of the most important developments in nineteenth-century American culture—the spectacular city and visionary culture—Clark demonstrates how the nineteenth-century city is not only the birthplace of modern spectacle but also a battleground for the freedom and autonomy of the spectator.Less
In the decades before the U.S. Civil War, the city of Boston evolved from a dilapidated, haphazardly planned, and architecturally stagnant provincial town into a booming and visually impressive metropolis. In an effort to remake Boston into the "Athens of America," neighborhoods were leveled, streets straightened, and an ambitious set of architectural ordinances enacted. However, even as residents reveled in a vibrant new landscape of landmark buildings, art galleries, parks, and bustling streets, the social and sensory upheaval of city life also gave rise to a widespread fascination with the unseen. Focusing his analysis between 1820 and 1860, Justin T. Clark traces how the effort to impose moral and social order on the city also inspired many—from Transcendentalists to clairvoyants and amateur artists—to seek out more ethereal visions of the infinite and ideal beyond the gilded paintings and glimmering storefronts. By elucidating the reciprocal influence of two of the most important developments in nineteenth-century American culture—the spectacular city and visionary culture—Clark demonstrates how the nineteenth-century city is not only the birthplace of modern spectacle but also a battleground for the freedom and autonomy of the spectator.
Arthur Versluis
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199368136
- eISBN:
- 9780190201951
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199368136.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
By the early twenty-first century, a phenomenon that once was inconceivable had become nearly commonplace in American society: the American public spiritual teacher who does not belong to, or at ...
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By the early twenty-first century, a phenomenon that once was inconceivable had become nearly commonplace in American society: the American public spiritual teacher who does not belong to, or at least, is not authorized by a major religious tradition. From Eckhart Tolle and Andrew Cohen to figures like Gangaji and Adhyashanti, there are now countless such spiritual teachers—both male and female—that claim and teach variants of instant or immediate enlightenment. American Gurus tells the story of how this phenomenon of religious immediatism emerged, especially in American religion. This phenomenon has many precedents and a long history. From Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman through the twentieth century, the Beat movement, the psychedelic revolution, Timothy Leary, the influence of Hindu gurus to the New Age movement, Versluis tells the enthralling saga of how contemporary American immediatism came into being. In American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions (1993), Versluis surveyed how Asian religions helped shape the entire Transcendentalist intellectual movement, and in The Esoteric Origins of the American Renaissance (2001), he showed how Western esoteric traditions contributed much to mid-nineteenth-century American literature and literary religion. In American Gurus, Versluis shows how the confluence of Asian religions and Western mysticism come together to produce the continuing and fascinating saga that culminates in the phenomenon of contemporary “spontaneously enlightened” American gurus.Less
By the early twenty-first century, a phenomenon that once was inconceivable had become nearly commonplace in American society: the American public spiritual teacher who does not belong to, or at least, is not authorized by a major religious tradition. From Eckhart Tolle and Andrew Cohen to figures like Gangaji and Adhyashanti, there are now countless such spiritual teachers—both male and female—that claim and teach variants of instant or immediate enlightenment. American Gurus tells the story of how this phenomenon of religious immediatism emerged, especially in American religion. This phenomenon has many precedents and a long history. From Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman through the twentieth century, the Beat movement, the psychedelic revolution, Timothy Leary, the influence of Hindu gurus to the New Age movement, Versluis tells the enthralling saga of how contemporary American immediatism came into being. In American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions (1993), Versluis surveyed how Asian religions helped shape the entire Transcendentalist intellectual movement, and in The Esoteric Origins of the American Renaissance (2001), he showed how Western esoteric traditions contributed much to mid-nineteenth-century American literature and literary religion. In American Gurus, Versluis shows how the confluence of Asian religions and Western mysticism come together to produce the continuing and fascinating saga that culminates in the phenomenon of contemporary “spontaneously enlightened” American gurus.
Michael J. McClymond and Gerald R. McDermott
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199791606
- eISBN:
- 9780199932290
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199791606.003.0040
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter explores some of the intellectual trajectories of Edwards both in the United States and abroad. Although Edwards never produced a distinct philosophical school of thought, continuity can ...
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This chapter explores some of the intellectual trajectories of Edwards both in the United States and abroad. Although Edwards never produced a distinct philosophical school of thought, continuity can nevertheless be identified. On the American scene, common themes can be found in William Ellery Channing (unitarianism), Ralph Waldo Emerson (transcendentalism), Josiah Royce and William James (Harvard school, pragmatism), and even John Dewey (instrumentalism). More recently, the same can be said for William Harder Squires (German-trained American), Stephen H. Daniel (American), Miklos Vetö (Hungarian-French), and Oliver Crisp (British). As such, it is clear that Edwards's thought continues to be of interest to philosophers and has evoked complex, divergent, and even antithetical interpretations and responses.Less
This chapter explores some of the intellectual trajectories of Edwards both in the United States and abroad. Although Edwards never produced a distinct philosophical school of thought, continuity can nevertheless be identified. On the American scene, common themes can be found in William Ellery Channing (unitarianism), Ralph Waldo Emerson (transcendentalism), Josiah Royce and William James (Harvard school, pragmatism), and even John Dewey (instrumentalism). More recently, the same can be said for William Harder Squires (German-trained American), Stephen H. Daniel (American), Miklos Vetö (Hungarian-French), and Oliver Crisp (British). As such, it is clear that Edwards's thought continues to be of interest to philosophers and has evoked complex, divergent, and even antithetical interpretations and responses.
Christopher Gair
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619887
- eISBN:
- 9780748671137
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619887.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter commences with an overview of conservative representations of the 1950s and of the sociological studies that emerged to identify discontent at the time. It contains particular focus on ...
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This chapter commences with an overview of conservative representations of the 1950s and of the sociological studies that emerged to identify discontent at the time. It contains particular focus on Paul Goodman and Betty Friedan, before examining the roots of the counterculture in American Transcendentalism, Civil Rights and the European avant garde.Less
This chapter commences with an overview of conservative representations of the 1950s and of the sociological studies that emerged to identify discontent at the time. It contains particular focus on Paul Goodman and Betty Friedan, before examining the roots of the counterculture in American Transcendentalism, Civil Rights and the European avant garde.
Bryan G. Norton
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195093971
- eISBN:
- 9780197560723
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195093971.003.0017
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmentalist Thought and Ideology
This book began with an anecdote, my encounter with an eight-year-old with hundreds of living sand dollars. While I knew what I wanted the little girl to ...
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This book began with an anecdote, my encounter with an eight-year-old with hundreds of living sand dollars. While I knew what I wanted the little girl to do—I wanted her to put most of the living sand dollars back in the lagoon—I felt in a quandary when I tried to explain why she should do so. I had no objection if the little girl took a couple home, to watch them in her aquarium or even to dissect them to learn their structure. But the family’s actions showed no respect for life or living systems. I wanted to make a moral point not expressible in the language of economics. I hesitated to introduce, however, without serious qualifications, the moral language of rights. Rights have an individualistic ring about them; if sand dollars have rights, then surely the family should put them all back. One language said too little, the other said too much. This original intuition, that the environmentalists’ dilemma is mainly a dilemma of values and explanations, more than preferred actions, has been borne out by the considerations of the second part of this book. An examination of major areas of environmental policy has reinforced the hypothesis that a consensus on the broad outlines of an intelligent policy is emerging among environmentalists, even though there remain significant value differences that affect the explanations and justifications they offer for basically equivalent policies. Environmentalists of different stripes, as far back as the days of Pinchot and Muir, have often set aside their differences to work for common goals. But those traditional cooperations were, it seemed, almost accidental collaborations originating in temporary political expediency. My hypothesis about the current environmental scene asserts a more than accidental growth in cooperation: In spite of occasional rancorous disputes, the original factions of environmentalism are being forced together, regardless of their value commitments. For example, a growing sense of urgency led soil conservationists and preservationist groups to work together to pass the 1985 Farm Bill, even though they suffered some ill feelings along the way. Similarly, the National Wildlife Federation, a collection of sportsmen’s organizations, and Defenders of Wildlife advocate similar wetlands protection policies.
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This book began with an anecdote, my encounter with an eight-year-old with hundreds of living sand dollars. While I knew what I wanted the little girl to do—I wanted her to put most of the living sand dollars back in the lagoon—I felt in a quandary when I tried to explain why she should do so. I had no objection if the little girl took a couple home, to watch them in her aquarium or even to dissect them to learn their structure. But the family’s actions showed no respect for life or living systems. I wanted to make a moral point not expressible in the language of economics. I hesitated to introduce, however, without serious qualifications, the moral language of rights. Rights have an individualistic ring about them; if sand dollars have rights, then surely the family should put them all back. One language said too little, the other said too much. This original intuition, that the environmentalists’ dilemma is mainly a dilemma of values and explanations, more than preferred actions, has been borne out by the considerations of the second part of this book. An examination of major areas of environmental policy has reinforced the hypothesis that a consensus on the broad outlines of an intelligent policy is emerging among environmentalists, even though there remain significant value differences that affect the explanations and justifications they offer for basically equivalent policies. Environmentalists of different stripes, as far back as the days of Pinchot and Muir, have often set aside their differences to work for common goals. But those traditional cooperations were, it seemed, almost accidental collaborations originating in temporary political expediency. My hypothesis about the current environmental scene asserts a more than accidental growth in cooperation: In spite of occasional rancorous disputes, the original factions of environmentalism are being forced together, regardless of their value commitments. For example, a growing sense of urgency led soil conservationists and preservationist groups to work together to pass the 1985 Farm Bill, even though they suffered some ill feelings along the way. Similarly, the National Wildlife Federation, a collection of sportsmen’s organizations, and Defenders of Wildlife advocate similar wetlands protection policies.
Paul Giles
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199301560
- eISBN:
- 9780199369218
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199301560.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature, World Literature
This chapter discusses how Australia is represented in Melville’s fiction as an epitome of British colonial legacies and as a figure of alterity, based on the country’s geographical position in the ...
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This chapter discusses how Australia is represented in Melville’s fiction as an epitome of British colonial legacies and as a figure of alterity, based on the country’s geographical position in the southern hemisphere. Melville’s own experience on an Australian whaler, as recounted in Omoo, is related to his broader interrogation of narratives of Manifest Destiny in Moby-Dick. This chapter goes on to describe how Emerson, Thoreau and other Transcendentalist writers aligned Australia with California as sites for gold diggers in the 1850s. It notes how Harriet Jacobs’s son died in Australia, how this British colony became seen by African Americans as a haven from slavery in the antebellum years, and also how these tensions influenced the nationalist politics of Australian politicians such as John Dunmore Lang. Finally, it charts how Emily Dickinson uses images from theories of geology and astronomy to chart trajectories of hemispheric reversal in her poetry.Less
This chapter discusses how Australia is represented in Melville’s fiction as an epitome of British colonial legacies and as a figure of alterity, based on the country’s geographical position in the southern hemisphere. Melville’s own experience on an Australian whaler, as recounted in Omoo, is related to his broader interrogation of narratives of Manifest Destiny in Moby-Dick. This chapter goes on to describe how Emerson, Thoreau and other Transcendentalist writers aligned Australia with California as sites for gold diggers in the 1850s. It notes how Harriet Jacobs’s son died in Australia, how this British colony became seen by African Americans as a haven from slavery in the antebellum years, and also how these tensions influenced the nationalist politics of Australian politicians such as John Dunmore Lang. Finally, it charts how Emily Dickinson uses images from theories of geology and astronomy to chart trajectories of hemispheric reversal in her poetry.
Alison Hulme
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781526128836
- eISBN:
- 9781526146724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526128843.00011
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
Explores Henry Thoreau’s rationale for living simply and his emphasis on spirituality and sensuality via Transcendentalist and Eastern philosophy. Analysis his own relationship with both Capitalism ...
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Explores Henry Thoreau’s rationale for living simply and his emphasis on spirituality and sensuality via Transcendentalist and Eastern philosophy. Analysis his own relationship with both Capitalism and asceticism and his complicated mix of spiritualism and materialism. Finally looks at his posthumously published manuscript – Wild Fruits – and discusses its status as a potential blueprint for collective thrift.Less
Explores Henry Thoreau’s rationale for living simply and his emphasis on spirituality and sensuality via Transcendentalist and Eastern philosophy. Analysis his own relationship with both Capitalism and asceticism and his complicated mix of spiritualism and materialism. Finally looks at his posthumously published manuscript – Wild Fruits – and discusses its status as a potential blueprint for collective thrift.
Fred Dallmayr
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813141916
- eISBN:
- 9780813142364
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813141916.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Chapter Eight explores the major dilemma between faith and reason in modern Western thought. Dallmayr discusses the conflict between religion and secular life, asserting that both the divine and ...
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Chapter Eight explores the major dilemma between faith and reason in modern Western thought. Dallmayr discusses the conflict between religion and secular life, asserting that both the divine and human life undergo constant transformation. The core of chapter eight focuses on the thought of philosopher Raimon Panikkar. Inspired in part by the Indian tradition of non-dualism, Panikkar hold that the problem in the modern age is due to the collusion of radical transcendentalism and agnostic immanentism. In this view, recovering a proper balance of life requires a basic acknowledgement of being in the world. Panikkar critiques both an immanentism neglectful of deeper spiritual aspirations and an abstract transcendentalism neglectful of social problems and ethical standards of public conduct. Dallmayr asserts that the situation is damaging to public life and basic requisites of democracy, as well as religion.Less
Chapter Eight explores the major dilemma between faith and reason in modern Western thought. Dallmayr discusses the conflict between religion and secular life, asserting that both the divine and human life undergo constant transformation. The core of chapter eight focuses on the thought of philosopher Raimon Panikkar. Inspired in part by the Indian tradition of non-dualism, Panikkar hold that the problem in the modern age is due to the collusion of radical transcendentalism and agnostic immanentism. In this view, recovering a proper balance of life requires a basic acknowledgement of being in the world. Panikkar critiques both an immanentism neglectful of deeper spiritual aspirations and an abstract transcendentalism neglectful of social problems and ethical standards of public conduct. Dallmayr asserts that the situation is damaging to public life and basic requisites of democracy, as well as religion.
Samantha Harvey
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780748681365
- eISBN:
- 9780748693887
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748681365.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
Transatlantic Transcendentalism: Coleridge, Emerson, and Nature is the first book devoted to the most important transatlantic source for Emerson and the development of American Transcendentalism: the ...
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Transatlantic Transcendentalism: Coleridge, Emerson, and Nature is the first book devoted to the most important transatlantic source for Emerson and the development of American Transcendentalism: the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge's thought galvanized Emerson at a pivotal moment in his intellectual development in the years 1826–1836. Coleridge's discriminating distinctions and definitions, his call for cultivating the art of reflection, and his dynamic intellectual method gave Emerson new ways to think about a central question of Romanticism: what is the relationship between the natural, spiritual, and human worlds? Emerson did not think about Coleridge: he thought with Coleridge, resulting in a unique case of assimilative influence.The emerging field of transatlantic studies has opened new circulatory spaces to reconsider the relationship between Coleridge and Emerson by restoring the intellectual contexts and the rich interplay of ideas across the Atlantic. While Coleridge's thought guided, stimulated, and provoked Emerson to create his most distinctive literary creations, it also shaped several major American intellectual movements. In addition toexamining Coleridge's specific literary, philosophical, and theological influences on Emerson, this bookreveals his centrality for Boston Transcendentalism and the related but lesser-known Vermont Transcendentalism, a movement which profoundly affected the development of modern higher education, the national press, and the emergence of Pragmatism. Transatlantic Transcendentalism dedicates one chapter to each category of the Romantic triad of nature, humanity, and spirit, bookended by two historical chapters about Coleridge's American legacy for Boston and Vermont Transcendentalism. Chapter 4 is dedicated to Coleridge's intellectual method and his practice of “distinguishing without dividing” as dynamic strategies for mediating the Romantic triad.Less
Transatlantic Transcendentalism: Coleridge, Emerson, and Nature is the first book devoted to the most important transatlantic source for Emerson and the development of American Transcendentalism: the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge's thought galvanized Emerson at a pivotal moment in his intellectual development in the years 1826–1836. Coleridge's discriminating distinctions and definitions, his call for cultivating the art of reflection, and his dynamic intellectual method gave Emerson new ways to think about a central question of Romanticism: what is the relationship between the natural, spiritual, and human worlds? Emerson did not think about Coleridge: he thought with Coleridge, resulting in a unique case of assimilative influence.The emerging field of transatlantic studies has opened new circulatory spaces to reconsider the relationship between Coleridge and Emerson by restoring the intellectual contexts and the rich interplay of ideas across the Atlantic. While Coleridge's thought guided, stimulated, and provoked Emerson to create his most distinctive literary creations, it also shaped several major American intellectual movements. In addition toexamining Coleridge's specific literary, philosophical, and theological influences on Emerson, this bookreveals his centrality for Boston Transcendentalism and the related but lesser-known Vermont Transcendentalism, a movement which profoundly affected the development of modern higher education, the national press, and the emergence of Pragmatism. Transatlantic Transcendentalism dedicates one chapter to each category of the Romantic triad of nature, humanity, and spirit, bookended by two historical chapters about Coleridge's American legacy for Boston and Vermont Transcendentalism. Chapter 4 is dedicated to Coleridge's intellectual method and his practice of “distinguishing without dividing” as dynamic strategies for mediating the Romantic triad.
Kyle Gann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252040856
- eISBN:
- 9780252099366
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040856.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
Ives’s essay on Emerson is less a description of that writer than an apologia for Ives’s compositional method, which is intentionally disunified and based on the discontinuous way in which humans ...
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Ives’s essay on Emerson is less a description of that writer than an apologia for Ives’s compositional method, which is intentionally disunified and based on the discontinuous way in which humans perceive reality. The idea that Ives was a Transcendentalist himself (like Emerson) is difficult to maintain given the other, more conventional religious influences evident in Ives’s thinking. But there is a strong parallel between the way Emerson left the church at age 29, and Ives left the music world at page 27, both because they could no longer carry on the conventions of those worlds in good conscience.Less
Ives’s essay on Emerson is less a description of that writer than an apologia for Ives’s compositional method, which is intentionally disunified and based on the discontinuous way in which humans perceive reality. The idea that Ives was a Transcendentalist himself (like Emerson) is difficult to maintain given the other, more conventional religious influences evident in Ives’s thinking. But there is a strong parallel between the way Emerson left the church at age 29, and Ives left the music world at page 27, both because they could no longer carry on the conventions of those worlds in good conscience.
