Ralph Waldo Emerson

1803-1882 · American · Transcendentalism, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, American Thought

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

Ralph Waldo Emerson resigned his Boston pulpit in 1832 over the administration of the Lord's Supper and set up instead as a lay preacher to the whole nation from the lecture platform. Nature (1836) announced the programme: an original relation to the universe, a religion of first-hand insight rather than inherited revelation, and the natural world read as the visible garment of spirit.

Topics Ralph Waldo Emerson addresses

• self-reliance
• the Over-Soul
• nature as the symbol of spirit
• the transparent eyeball
• correspondence of natural and spiritual facts
• transcendentalism
• the moral sentiment
• the divinity within
• intuition over tradition
• nonconformity
• the infinitude of the private man
• trust thyself
• a foolish consistency
• compensation
• the law of moral balance
• circles and flux
• the American Scholar
• Man Thinking
• intellectual independence
• an original relation to the universe
• idealism
• the primacy of spirit over matter
• fate and freedom
• the polarity of truth

Questions to put to Ralph Waldo Emerson

Self-Reliance and the Soul

• What do you mean when you say 'trust thyself'?
• How is trusting myself different from just following my whims?
• Why is nonconformity so important to you?
• What's wrong with consistency?
• How does self-reliance connect to the Over-Soul?

Nature as the Symbol of Spirit

• What do you mean when you say nature is the symbol of spirit?
• Can you explain the transparent eyeball image?
• How does every natural fact correspond to a spiritual fact?
• Why should I look to nature rather than books for truth?
• What's an original relation to the universe?

The Divinity Within and Historical Religion

• Why did you reject miracles as proof of Christianity?
• How is the moral sentiment a revelation?
• What's wrong with treating Jesus as uniquely divine?
• How do you answer the charge that you're preaching infidelity?
• Where do I find God if not in scripture and tradition?

Compensation and the Moral Law

• What is the law of Compensation?
• How does the universe balance every act?
• Does Compensation mean the innocent never suffer?
• How do you reconcile Compensation with real grief and loss?
• Why do you think nothing is got for nothing?

Circles, Flux, and the Moving Soul

• What do you mean that around every circle another can be drawn?
• Why is permanence a problem for you?
• How should I live if every truth is provisional?
• What's the difference between flux and mere inconsistency?
• Why do you embrace contradicting yourself?

Fate, Freedom, and the Conduct of Life

• How can I be both fated and free at the same time?
• What are the lords of life in your essay 'Experience'?
• Did you give up your early optimism in the later essays?
• How does Power relate to Fate in your thinking?
• What's the practical wisdom for living the polarity of freedom and limitation?

Converse with Ralph Waldo Emerson on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Ralph Waldo Emerson's own writing, cited to the page.