Subscribe to get this discussion ad-free, plus tons of bonus content. Are we underlyingly all really a single, unified organism? Or do we just have a lot in common? We begin unraveling this puzzling claim by reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1841 essay "The Over-Soul." Read along with us. This is the public premiere of a new weekly series by the most verbose of your PEL Continue Reading …
Closereads: Emerson’s Oversoul (Part One for PEL Supporters)
Are we underlyingly all really a single, unified organism? Or do we just have a lot in common? We begin unraveling this puzzling claim by reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1841 essay "The Over-Soul." Read along with us. This is the first of four parts of this series. The others will all be up this week, but will only be visible to those support Closereads through Continue Reading …
Emerson on the Over-Soul
In our Emerson discussion, Wes and Dylan didn't seem too interested in trying to figure out Emerson's religious/metaphysical views, which were drawn on in the essays we read but which were not their central feature. I think (as does Thoreau, who incidentally we're talking about next) that reading him in a secular vein is ultimately more rewarding, but my complaints about how Continue Reading …
Episode 102: Emerson on Wisdom and Individuality
On Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The American Scholar" lecture (1837) and his essays "Self-Reliance" and "Circles" (1841). How should we live? Emerson thinks that conformity, which includes most of what passes for ethics, jobs, and scholarship, makes us less than truly human. Be true to yourself! But since we're all ever-changing, that's a moving target, right? But Emerson thinks Continue Reading …
Episode 102: Emerson on Wisdom and Individuality (Citizen Edition)
On Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The American Scholar" lecture (1837) and his essays "Self-Reliance" and "Circles" (1841). How should we live? Emerson thinks that conformity, which includes most of what passes for ethics, jobs, and scholarship, makes us less than truly human. Be true to yourself! But since we're all ever-changing, that's a moving target, right? But Emerson thinks Continue Reading …
Topic for #102: Emerson on Wisdom and Individuality
On 8/31/14, we discussed three essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson: "The American Scholar" (an address from 1837): Emerson throws out the image of Man separated out into individual men to enable us to get more kinds of things done. But this division of labor has led to narrowing of minds, so that, e.g. an individual merchant or farmer ends up being focused his whole life on the Continue Reading …