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Articles 1 - 15 of 15
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Why Ralph Waldo Emerson Is A Virtue Ethicist, Christopher Julian Porzenheim
Why Ralph Waldo Emerson Is A Virtue Ethicist, Christopher Julian Porzenheim
Philosophy Theses
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s status as a canonical figure in American history and literature is firmly established, but there is little agreement on his place within the philosophical canon. The most prominent interpretations classify him as either a “pragmatist” or an “Emersonian moral perfectionist.” Yet, there is no consensus on whether these labels are accurate. I argue for an alternative hermeneutic approach to Emerson. Emerson should be read as a virtue ethicist.
The Trans-Historicity Of The Nineteenth-Century New England Novel: Social Injustice And The Puritan Ideological Legacy, Benjamin Michael Woods
The Trans-Historicity Of The Nineteenth-Century New England Novel: Social Injustice And The Puritan Ideological Legacy, Benjamin Michael Woods
Theses and Dissertations
This study offers a transhistorical reading of Catharine Maria Sedgwick’s Hope Leslie, Sylvester Judd’s Margaret, and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. I identify how each novel addresses the need for social reform in nineteenth-century New England by tracing the root of social injustice to the Puritan ideological legacy. These novels address social injustices by not merely using New England’s past as a catalyst, but in identifying their origin in New England’s Calvinist, Congregationalist past. These novels furthermore reflect the theological debate between Calvinists and their Unitarian and Transcendentalist opponents in the early nineteenth century. Each novel offers a challenge to …
The Paradox Of Theodore Parker: Transcendentalist, Abolitionist, And White Supremacist, Jim Kelley
The Paradox Of Theodore Parker: Transcendentalist, Abolitionist, And White Supremacist, Jim Kelley
History Theses
Theodore Parker was one of the leading intellectuals and militant abolitionists of the antebellum era who has been largely overlooked by modern scholars. He was a leading Transcendentalist intellectual and was also one of the most militant leaders of the abolitionist movement. Despite his fervent abolitionism, his writings reveal an attitude that today we would call racist or white supremacist. Some scholars have argued that Parker's motivation for abolishing slavery was to redeem the Anglo-Saxon race from the sin of slavery. I will dispute this claim and explore Parker's true understanding of race. How he could both believe in the …
Thoreau's A Week, Religion As Preservative Care: Opposing The Christian Doctrine Of Discovery, Manifest Destiny, And A Religion Of Subjugation, Robert Michael Ruehl
Thoreau's A Week, Religion As Preservative Care: Opposing The Christian Doctrine Of Discovery, Manifest Destiny, And A Religion Of Subjugation, Robert Michael Ruehl
Dissertations - ALL
This dissertation argues for a rereading of Henry David Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) as "Transcendental scripture writing." By placing his book in this genre, Thoreau's religious thinking comes to the fore. His book becomes a contextualized pilgrimage addressing three levels of human existence in the religious realm: (1) where we have been and are now, (2) where we could be, and (3) how to reach that next, better self with more intimate, liberative relationships with others. As he addresses human limitations and his hope for better human and nonhuman relationships, Thoreau articulates a religion …
Nature Writing, American Exceptionalism, And Philosophical Thoughts In Edward Bliss Emerson's Caribbean Journal, Raúl Mayo-Santana
Nature Writing, American Exceptionalism, And Philosophical Thoughts In Edward Bliss Emerson's Caribbean Journal, Raúl Mayo-Santana
The Qualitative Report
Through the use of qualitative content analysis (Patton, 2002), this essay examines the philosophical thoughts presented in the journal and family letters of Edward B. Emerson for 1831-1834, written in the Caribbean while he was seeking relief from consumption (tuberculosis). The analysis focused on the themes of nature writing, American Exceptionalism, and the journal as evidence of a liminal life-death event. Edward was actively engaged in the genres of travel and nature writing, where Transcendentalist ideas were not evident. In contrast, important elements of that movement emerged in his philosophical expressions. Edward evinced an acute and creative mind until the …
Science Fictional Transcendentalism In The Work Of Robert Smithson, Eric Saxon
Science Fictional Transcendentalism In The Work Of Robert Smithson, Eric Saxon
School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work
In studies of American artist Robert Smithson (1938-1973), scholars often set the artist’s early abstract expressionist and Christian iconographical paintings apart from the rest of his body of work, characterizing this early phase as a youthful encounter with the enduring legacy of abstract expressionism in the late 1950s to early 1960s as well as a temporary preoccupation with ritualized Catholic imagery. This thesis argues for the inclusion of this early phase into Smithson’s career as a foundational period in which he established the set of problems that artistically engaged him throughout his life: issues of temporality, materiality, and universal entropy. …
Ralph Waldo Emerson: From Buddhism To Transcendentalism, The Beginning Of An American Literary Tradition, Irene Jue
English
No abstract provided.
Introduction: Becoming An Atheist, Lois Eveleth
Introduction: Becoming An Atheist, Lois Eveleth
Faculty and Staff - Articles & Papers
One of America's great intellectuals, Ralph Waldo Emerson created Transcendentalism, the underpinning of the Romantic movement and America's 19th century Renaissance. Not so well known is his anguished departure from the Christianity of his youth. This book corrects this oversight by showing connections between the faith of his youth and the central themes of Transcendentalism. This is a book not only about Emerson's intellectual and spiritual journey but about the essence of New England Transcendentalism.
Hawthorne's Transcendental Ambivalence In Mosses From An Old Manse, Matthew S. Eisenman
Hawthorne's Transcendental Ambivalence In Mosses From An Old Manse, Matthew S. Eisenman
English Theses
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s collection of short stories, Mosses from an Old Manse, serves as his contribution to the philosophical discussions on Transcendentalism in Concord, MA in the early 1840s. While Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and the other individuals involved in the Transcendental club often seem to readily accept the positions presented in Emerson’s work, it is never so simple for Hawthorne. Repeatedly, Hawthorne’s stories demonstrate his difficulty in trying to identify his own opinion on the subject. Though Hawthorne seems to want to believe in the optimistic potential of the spiritual and intellectual ideal presented in Emersonian Transcendentalism, …
To Be Alive - Is Power: Fullers Feminine Ideal Realized In Dickinsons Poems, Emma A. Krosschell
To Be Alive - Is Power: Fullers Feminine Ideal Realized In Dickinsons Poems, Emma A. Krosschell
Honors Theses
This thesis examines the relationship between nineteenth-century American feminism, transcendentalism, and poetry through an analysis of Margaret Fuller’s essay Woman in the Nineteenth Century in tandem with Emily Dickinson’s collected poems. Fuller presents an original type of feminist optimism influenced by the precepts of the American transcendentalist movement. Her essay employs the transcendental belief in the possibility for human semi-divinity in order to proclaim that women, rather than men, possess unique potential for transcendence. As a result, Fuller theorizes that with women’s social, sexual, and intellectual liberation, a certain ideal woman will be able to transcend not only women’s limited …
Emerson And The Vision Of The Child, Matthew Mcclelland
Emerson And The Vision Of The Child, Matthew Mcclelland
All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)
This work argues for a reading of Ralph Waldo Emerson that takes into account his childhood and early upbringing, and thereby reads his mature philosophical works as reactionary enabling mythologies that were forged by his troubled childhood.
Emersonian Perfectionism: A Man Is A God In Ruins, Brad James Rowe
Emersonian Perfectionism: A Man Is A God In Ruins, Brad James Rowe
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Ralph Waldo Emerson is a great American literary figure that began his career as a minister at Boston’s Second Church. He discontinued his ministry to become an essayist and lecturer and continued as such for the remainder of his life. This thesis was written with the intent of demonstrating that, in spite of leaving the ministry, Emerson continued to be religious and a religionist throughout his life and that he promulgated a unique religion based upon the principle of self-reliance. At the heart of Emerson’s religion of self-reliance is the doctrine of perfectionism, the infinite capacity of individuals. This thesis …
From Transcendentalism To Progressivism: The Making Of An American Reformer, Abby Morton Diaz (1821-1904)., Ann B. Cro
From Transcendentalism To Progressivism: The Making Of An American Reformer, Abby Morton Diaz (1821-1904)., Ann B. Cro
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Author and activist Abby Morton Diaz (1821-1904) was a member of the Brook Farm Transcendental community from 1842 until it folded in 1847. Although critics have long recognized that Brook Farm played a role in Diaz's intellectual preparation, they have not attempted to demonstrate its influence through a study of her writings.
In this study I will examine in detail two of Diaz's novels and two long essays, with passing references to other works, that reveal how the utopian socialism practiced at Brook Farm influenced Diaz as a writer and reformer. In all her writings Diaz emphasized the importance of …
American Transcendental Vision: Emerson To Chaplin, Bill R. Scalia
American Transcendental Vision: Emerson To Chaplin, Bill R. Scalia
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Ralph Waldo Emerson's publication of Nature in 1836 began a process of creating a new condition of American thinking, severed from European cultural and intellectual influences. The subsequent lectures The American Scholar and The Divinity School Address furthered this process, calling for an original American literature. Emerson's writing called consistently for poets with the ability to "see" past the material, apparent world to the world of eternal forms, which shaped nature in accordance with a divine moral imperative. Through this connection, man-as-poet would discover God in himself. In short, Emerson effectively transferred divinity from Unitarian doctrine to the individual, thereby …
An Introductory Lecture Delivered At The Opening Of The Bangor Lyceum, Nov. 15, 1836, Frederick Henry Hedge
An Introductory Lecture Delivered At The Opening Of The Bangor Lyceum, Nov. 15, 1836, Frederick Henry Hedge
Maine Bicentennial
The Bangor Lyceum was first established in November 1829 as a forum for members to attend lectures on various topics of interest. This pamphlet contains the text of Rev. Frederic Henry Hedge's introductory lecture of the 1836 season. Hedge frames his remarks in the period of sharp economic decline, known as The Crisis of 1839, as turbulence raged between the Democrats and Whigs over Jacksonian Economics and the general public attitude toward intellectualism during the period.
Frederic Hedge, 1805-1890, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and became a Unitarian minister, Transcendentalist, and was considered one of the leading scholars in …