Session Information
13 SES 03, Long Paper Session
Long Paper Session
Contribution
John Dewey professed at the first centennial of Emerson’s birth that “the coming century may well make evident what is just now dawning, that Emerson is not only a philosopher, but that he is the Philosopher of Democracy.” I hope that this paper will contribute to further demonstrating the force and potential of Ralph Waldo Emerson's thinking for philosophy of education. While recent Emerson scholarship has started to open up for social and political readings also of Emerson’s work, the reception of this new Emersonianism has been relatively sparse within philosophy of education. Drawing chiefly on Stanley Cavell's reading, I argue that it can be shown that, when taken seriously as a philosophical writer, Emerson´s writing proposes an understanding of self and society which undermines any bipolar opposition of the two concepts as early as in “Self-Reliance,” and that, if there is to be hope for the individual self, then, for Emerson, there always has to be hope for a democratic society as well. The paper will conclude by considering the consequences of this reading of “Self-Reliance” for understanding Emerson’s American appropriation of the concept of Bildung, adjusting some arguments recently put forth in scholarship, also regarding his influence on American pragmatism.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Buell, Lawrence. Emerson. Cambridge et al.: Belknap Press, 2003. Print. Cavell, Stanley. Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1990. Print. Cavell, Stanley. This New Yet Unapproachable America. Albuquerque, New Mexico: Living Batch Press, 1989. Print. Cavell, Stanley. “Thinking of Emerson.” New Literary History 11.1 (1979), 167-176. Print. Cavell, Stanley. “What is the Emersonian Event? A Comment on Kateb`s Emerson.” New Literary History 25.4 (1994), 951-958. Print. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Concord Edition in 12 Vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1904. Print. Hodge, David Justin. “The Opacity of the Initial: Deciphering the Terms of Agency and Identity in 'Self-Reliance' and On Liberty.” In: Tharaud, Barry (Ed.). Bicentenary Appraisals. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2006. 297-325. Print. Kateb, George. Emerson and Self-Reliance. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage, 1995. Print. Kovalainen, Heikki A. “Emersonian Self-Culture and Individual Growth: The American Appropriation of Bildung.” In: Siljander, Pauli et al. (Eds.). Theories of Bildung and Growth. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2012. Print. Kant, Immanuel. Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals. Transl. by Thomas K. Abbot. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Educational Publishing, 1949. Print. Mill, John Stuart. “On Liberty.” In: Wootton, David (Ed.). Modern Political Thought. Readings from Macchiavelli to Nietzsche. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1996. 605-672. Print. Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971. Print. Tharaud, Barry. “Introduction: Emerson Bicentenary Essays.” In: Tharaud, Barry (Ed.). Bicentenary Appraisals. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2006. 1-39. Print.
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