SENIOR Faculty Fellow 1999-2000
Roger Lundin (English)
Wheaton College
Natural Experience: Emerson and
the Shaping of American Pragmatism
The years from 1836-1844 became the most productive of Ralph Waldo
Emerson's career. They are bounded by the publication of Nature
at the start and "Experience" at the close. These years
in Emerson's career raise crucial questions about the long-term
shift in American culture from the idealism of Jonathan Edwards
to the pragmatism of William James. Cambridge Platonism, German
Idealism, and English Romanticism fed into Emerson, and a very modern
skepticism and pragmatism came out of his influence. Decades ago,
Perry Miller wrote a controversial essay, "From Edwards to
Emerson." In "Natural Experience," I will attempt
to account for the shifts in Emerson's thought that drew him away
from the idealism of his Puritan and Romantic forebears and towards
the pragmatism that would eventually flower under James and Dewey.
One of the purposes of this study will be to understand the dimensions
of recent American literary scholarship--especially its fascination
with theory--by charting development and reversals in Emerson's
thought. The study will explore through the case of Emerson one
of the most important instances in which mid-nineteenth century
American writers adumbrate important cultural and intellectual developments
of the twentieth century.
|
