The Philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson

This study offers the first comprehensive account of Emerson''s philosophy since his philosophical rehabilitation began in the late 1970s. It builds on the historical reconstruction proposed in the author''s previous book, Emerson''s Metaphysics, and like that study draws on the entire Emerson corpus-the poetry and sermons included. The aim here is expository. The overall though not exclusive emphasis is on identity, as the first term of Emerson''s metaphysics of identity and flowing or metamorphosis. This metaphysics, or general conception of the nature of reality, is what grounds his epistemology and ethics, as well as his esthetic, religious, and political thought. Acknowledging its primacy enables a general account like this to avoid the anti-realist overemphasis on epistemology and language that has often characterized rehabilitation readings of his philosophy.

After an initial chapter on Emerson''s metaphysics, the subsequent chapters