DOCSLIB.ORG

A Higher Sphere of Thought”

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Higher Sphere of Thought” “A HIGHER SPHERE OF THOUGHT”: EMERSON’S USE OF THE EXEMPLUM AND EXEMPLUM FIDEI By CHARLA DAWN MAJOR Master of Arts Oklahoma State University Stillwater, Oklahoma 1995 Bachelor of Arts The University of Texas at Dallas Richardson, Texas 1990 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December, 2005 “A HIGHER SPHERE OF THOUGHT”: EMERSON’S USE OF THE EXEMPLUM AND EXEMPLUM FIDEI Dissertation Approved: _______________Jeffrey Walker________________ Dissertation Adviser _____________William M. Decker_______________ _______________Edward Jones________________ ________________L. G. Moses_________________ ______________A. Gordon Emslie_______________ Dean of the Graduate College ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my sincere appreciation to my advisor, Dr. Jeffrey Walker, for his guidance, support, and friendship, not only during the considerable duration of this work but throughout the entire course of my graduate studies here at Oklahoma State University. No one could ask for a better teacher, advisor, mentor, and friend, and I have gained immeasurably from this long association. I consider myself extremely fortunate and blessed. My gratitude extends to my committee members. Dr. William Decker has been a continual source of guidance and resources and has consistently perpetuated my interest in both this subject and literary period. Dr. Edward Jones, who has been there from the very beginning, has been a great source of guidance, assistance, encouragement, and friendship and has demonstrated a welcome propensity for being available to me at critical points in my education. And Dr. L. G. Moses, my most recent acquaintance, has offered a unique intelligence and wit that made this dissertation a truly enjoyable learning experience. I also wish to express my sincere appreciation to the Digital Library Services staff at Edmon Low Library for providing resources and assistance that have enabled me to accomplish this work at a distance. I would also like to extend my special gratitude to my husband, David Major, for his suggestions, guidance, and limitless encouragement before, during, and following this long process. Finally, I wish to thank the Department of English, and especially Ms. Dale McLaughlin, for its support during the years of this study. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION . 1 II. NATURE AND THE POST-MINISTERIAL MESSAGE. 7 III. THE DOMINION OF THE ORATOR: THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY . 40 IV. THE VISION OF PRINCIPLES: THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR AND THE DIVINITY SCHOOL ADDRESS . 64 V. THE SEEN TO THE UNSEEN: ESSAYS, FIRST SERIES . 101 VI. THE POET AND OTHER REPRESENTATIVE MEN . 166 VII. CAUSE, COUNTRY, AND AGE: THE HEROIC EXEMPLAR, ABOLITION, AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR . 212 VIII. CONCLUSION . 288 NOTES . 295 WORKS CITED . 313 iv LIST OF SYMBOLS AW Emerson's Antislavery Writings. Ed. Len Gougeon and Joel Myerson. (New Haven: Yale UP, 1995). EL Early Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 3 vols. Ed. Stephen E. Whicher, Robert E. Spiller, and Wallace E. Williams. (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1964-72). JMN The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Vols. I-XIV. Ed. William H. Gilman, Alfred R. Ferguson, George P. Clark, Merrell R. Davis, Harrison Hayford, Ralph Orth, J. E. Parsons, Merton M. Sealts, and A. W. Plumstead. (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1960-78). L The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ed. Ralph L. Rusk, 6 vols. (New York: Columbia UP, 1939). W The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 12 vols. Ed. Edward W. Emerson. (Boston: Houghton, 1903-1904). Y Young Emerson Speaks, Unpublished Dissertations on Many Subjects. Ed. Arthur Cushman McGiffert, Jr. (Boston: Houghton, 1938). v Introduction Each man has his own vocation. The talent is the call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him. He has faculties silently in- viting him thither to endless exertion. He is like a ship in a river; he runs against obstructions on every side but one, on that side all obstruction is taken away and he sweeps serenely over a deepening channel into an infinite sea. -- “Spiritual Laws,” 1841 Ralph Waldo Emerson likely seldom lived a day in which his works were not subject to review. From the moment he could put pen to paper, his parents, his Aunt Mary Moody, and his brothers were available to offer their criticism of the thoughts and the words he put forth. His teachers, his professors, and other mentors chimed in, and later, clerics, colleagues, and members of his congregation. As time went on, orators, editors, and authors added their voices, as did publishers, activists, other writers, and friends. Emerson’s was a life saturated with external input; from his earliest days as a minister’s son and student at Boston’s Latin School, he received tutelage and indoctrination from a variety of disparate sources from both within and beyond the limits of prescribed curricula. When combined with a natural curiosity and interests in a wide range of subjects, these and other factors converged to create a mind alive with activity and prone to intense periods of contemplation, correspondence, and creativity. The mature Emerson became a prolific writer whose body of works spanned six decades of his own life and continue to be reprinted and studied within the historical distance of our own. When a writer continues to generate criticism and interest two centuries removed from the initial production of his work, questions of influence invariably arise, as they have in the case of Emerson. Emerson scholarship has enjoyed numerous studies devoted to the many influences upon his work, including 1 historical factors such as Puritanism, neoPlatonism, and democracy, and the literary effects of other writers such as Shakespeare, Coleridge, Carlyle, and Goethe. The criticism and scholarship of more than a century and a half has revealed a wide variety of Emersons (the theologian, the visionary, the philosopher, the Transcendentalist, and the American) who have played a variety of public roles (the minister, the essayist, the orator, the poet, and the patriot). The essential expansiveness of the character in question precludes convenient pigeonholing: all of these Emersons, and many others as well, can be readily identified and explored within the contexts of his biography, works, and career. Although critical studies of Emerson’s philosophy enhance our ever-expanding knowledge of the man and his material, very few make more than a passing acknowledgment of the influence of Emerson’s first career. Despite the availability of works such as Jonathan Bishop’s Emerson on the Soul, Evelyn Barish’s Emerson: The Roots of Prophecy, and David M. Robinson’s The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Writings, critical focus remains primarily on influences other than that of Emerson’s time as a clergyman. Although Emerson continues to inspire inquiry that reenergizes interest in his life and work and attests to the vitality of his words and the enduring veracity of his message, the fact remains that scholars are still trying to determine exactly who Emerson was. Not that Emerson himself necessarily knew. As he acknowledges in “Experience,” Emerson “accept[ed] the clangor and jangle of contrary tendencies” (W 3: 62). Having dutifully followed family tradition by becoming a Unitarian minister, he resigned his position with Boston’s Second Church after only three years in the pulpit. His departure from the church, which closely coincided with the death of his first wife, Ellen Tucker, initiated a period of intense introspection that culminated in Emerson’s redefinition of many of his personal perceptions as well as his goals for his life and career. The Emerson who 2 published Nature was not the intellectually restless cleric who had questioned the need for sacraments and fallen passionately in love with Ellen; in 1836, Emerson had a new wife, a new profession, and a significantly transfigured approach to articulating the wide range of philosophical concepts he elected to engage. Freed from the intellectual restraints of ritual and dogma, Emerson reconsidered a variety of subjects and recast them within the frameworks of friendlier and more flexible media. Emerson the essayist and humanistic lecturer emerged as a result of this process. For many scholars, this period in Emerson’s life allows his transcendentalist philosophy to evolve; the implication of the “death” of the minister unfortunately, but perhaps inevitably, accompanies the notion of the “birth” of Emerson the writer and speaker. A customary emphasis on the apparent secularization of Emerson’s message in Nature and subsequent publications effectively, if not necessarily intentionally, reinforces this assumption by dividing his career into “before” and “after” segments that frequently fete the transcendentalist philosopher while relegating the former minister to the realm of honorable mention. Combined with long-established pedagogical structures that initiate students of American literature with the Emerson of Nature and the Essays, such arguments often obscure a fundamental facet of Emerson by implicitly suggesting that he renounced religious faith as he embraced transcendentalism. However understandable such a conclusion appears, categorization replaces an in-depth study of Emerson and forges consideration in favor of oversimplification. Emerson’s redirection of his career away from the ministry and toward the pen and the podium did not signal an abandonment of God, or faith,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • UNIT 26 RALPH WALDO EMERSON Ralph Waldo Emerson
    UNIT 26 RALPH WALDO EMERSON Ralph Waldo Emerson Structure 26.0 Objectives 26.1 Introduction 26.2 Emerson: A Biographical Sketch 26.3 The Snow Storm 26.3.1 Introduction 26.3.2 The Text 26.3.3 An Appreciation 26.4 Hamatreya 26.4.1 Introduction 26.4.2 The Text 26.4.3 An Appreciation 26.5 Let Us Sum Up 26.6 Answers to Self-Check Exercises 26.0 OBJECTIVES After reading this unit you will be able to: • critically analyse Emerson’s life and work, • explain Emerson’s poetry against his cultural background, • comment upon ‘The Snow Storm’ and • appreciate the Importance of Indian scriptures in the study of a poem such as ‘Hamatreya’. 26.1 INTRODUCTION In the introduction to this block you read about the various poets writing in America in the Colonial, Enlightenment and the Antebellum periods of American Literature. You must have noticed that the earliest settlers in America were the Puritans and Calvinists, profoundly influenced by the Christian faith. As time passed by they got influenced by neo-classicism on the one hand and reason and commonsense on the other of the late seventeenth and eighteenth century European culture. Late in the eighteenth century the American colonies began to dislike their colonial status and on the continent the French rebelled against the ancien regime. In England poets such as William Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge were writing in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. They were later called the romantic poets. Romanticism began to influence poets in the United States also.
    [Show full text]
  • The Roles of Solon in Plato's Dialogues
    The Roles of Solon in Plato’s Dialogues Dissertation Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Samuel Ortencio Flores, M.A. Graduate Program in Greek and Latin The Ohio State University 2013 Dissertation Committee: Bruce Heiden, Advisor Anthony Kaldellis Richard Fletcher Greg Anderson Copyrighy by Samuel Ortencio Flores 2013 Abstract This dissertation is a study of Plato’s use and adaptation of an earlier model and tradition of wisdom based on the thought and legacy of the sixth-century archon, legislator, and poet Solon. Solon is cited and/or quoted thirty-four times in Plato’s dialogues, and alluded to many more times. My study shows that these references and allusions have deeper meaning when contextualized within the reception of Solon in the classical period. For Plato, Solon is a rhetorically powerful figure in advancing the relatively new practice of philosophy in Athens. While Solon himself did not adequately establish justice in the city, his legacy provided a model upon which Platonic philosophy could improve. Chapter One surveys the passing references to Solon in the dialogues as an introduction to my chapters on the dialogues in which Solon is a very prominent figure, Timaeus- Critias, Republic, and Laws. Chapter Two examines Critias’ use of his ancestor Solon to establish his own philosophic credentials. Chapter Three suggests that Socrates re- appropriates the aims and themes of Solon’s political poetry for Socratic philosophy. Chapter Four suggests that Solon provides a legislative model which Plato reconstructs in the Laws for the philosopher to supplant the role of legislator in Greek thought.
    [Show full text]
  • Ralph Ellison and the American Pursuit of Humanism by Richard
    Ralph Ellison and the American Pursuit of Humanism by Richard Errol Purcell BA, Rutgers University, 1996 MA, University of Pittsburgh, 1999 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2008 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Faculty of Arts and Sciences This dissertation was presented by Richard Errol Purcell It was defended on May 14th, 2008 and approved by Ronald Judy, Professor, English Marcia Landy, Professor, English Jonathan Arac, Professor, English Dennis Looney, Professor, French and Italian Dissertation Advisor: Paul Bove, Professor, English ii Copyright © by Richard Errol Purcell 2008 iii Ralph Ellison and the American Pursuit of Humanism Richard Purcell, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2008 In the middle of a 1945 review of Bucklin Moon’s Primer for White Folks, Ralph Ellison proclaims that the time is right in the United States for a “new American humanism.” Through exhaustive research in Ralph Ellison’s Papers at the Library of Congress, I contextualize Ellison’s grand proclamation within post-World War II American debates over literary criticism, Modernism, sociological method, and finally United States political and cultural history. I see Ellison's “American humanism” as a revitalization of the Latin notion of litterae humaniores that draws heavily on Gilded Age American literature and philosophy. For Ellison, American artists and intellectuals of that period were grappling with the country’s primary quandary after the Civil War: an inability to reconcile America’s progressive vision of humanism with the legacy left by chattel slavery and anti-black racism.
    [Show full text]
  • Heroic Individualism: the Hero As Author in Democratic Culture Alan I
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2006 Heroic individualism: the hero as author in democratic culture Alan I. Baily Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Baily, Alan I., "Heroic individualism: the hero as author in democratic culture" (2006). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 1073. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/1073 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. HEROIC INDIVIDUALISM: THE HERO AS AUTHOR IN DEMOCRATIC CULTURE A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Political Science by Alan I. Baily B.S., Texas A&M University—Commerce, 1999 M.A., Louisiana State University, 2003 December, 2006 It has been well said that the highest aim in education is analogous to the highest aim in mathematics, namely, to obtain not results but powers , not particular solutions but the means by which endless solutions may be wrought. He is the most effective educator who aims less at perfecting specific acquirements that at producing that mental condition which renders acquirements easy, and leads to their useful application; who does not seek to make his pupils moral by enjoining particular courses of action, but by bringing into activity the feelings and sympathies that must issue in noble action.
    [Show full text]
  • Dirk Held on Eros Beauty and the Divine in Plato
    Nina C. Coppolino, editor ARTICLES & NOTES New England Classical Journal 36.3 (2009) 155-167 Eros, Beauty, and the Divine in Plato Dirk t. D. Held Connecticut College ontemporary intellectual culture is diffident, perhaps hostile, towards the transcendent aspects of Plato’s metaphysics; instead, preference is given to the openness and inconclusiveness of CSocratic inquiry. But it is not possible to distinguish clearly between the philosophy of Socrates and Plato. This essay argues first that Socrates does more than inquire: he enlarges the search for truth with attention to erotics. It further contends that Plato’s transformative vision of beauty and the divine directs the soul, also through erotics, to truth not accessible to syllogisms alone. We must therefore acknowledge that Plato’s philosophy relies at times on affective and even supra-rational means. Debate over the function of philosophy for Socrates and Plato arose immediately following the latter’s death. The early Academy discussed the mode and intent of reason for Socrates and Plato in terms of whether it was best characterized as skepticism or dogmatism. The issue remains pertinent to the present discussion of how Plato intends mortals both to live a life of reason and strive for the divine which is beyond the normal grasp of reason. What we regard as the traditional “Socratic question” arose in the early nineteenth century from studies of Plato by the Protestant theologian and philosopher, Friedrich Schleiermacher. The phrase stands for the attempt to winnow out an historical figure from the disparate accounts of Socrates found in Plato, Xenophon, and Aristophanes.
    [Show full text]
  • Self-Actualization: Transcendentalist Discourse in the Work of Stuart Saunders Smith
    SELF-ACTUALIZATION: TRANSCENDENTALIST DISCOURSE IN THE WORK OF STUART SAUNDERS SMITH José Augusto Duarte Lacerda A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS December 2015 Committee: Roger Schupp, Advisor Timothy Messer-Kruse Graduate Faculty Representative Marilyn Shrude Robert Wallace Thomas Rosenkranz © 2015 José Augusto Duarte Lacerda All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Roger Schupp, Advisor Born and raised in Maine, composer Stuart Saunders Smith (1948) grew up immersed in a milieu that still echoed the influence of the nineteenth-century literary movement known as Transcendentalism. The work of key Transcendentalist figures, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, show the movement’s emphasis on autonomy, intuition, pacifism, and social justice. But Transcendentalism also maintains a spiritual focus: a claim that each person is part of a single universal spirit—“Oneness.” However, this “Oneness” does not equate to homogeneity of ideas and individual voices. Rather, each person’s divine worth grants them autonomy of thought and agency. Both the social and spiritual ideas of Transcendentalism have informed Smith’s music, his writings on music compositional process, and his personal life. Amongst the Transcendentalist notions displayed in Smith’s music, pacifism and anti- technologism appear in his use of intricate rhythms. A Thoreauvian anti-materialism can be found in Smith’s limited use of instrumentation and in his concept of “percussion ecology.” Moreover, the Transcendentalist non-teleological stance is reflected in Smith’s tendency to write evening-length pieces that disregard form, his recurring references to New England imagery, and his use of non-sequiturs.
    [Show full text]
  • Ralph Waldo Emersonの“Rhodora”再読 −ナチュラル・ヒストリーと
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE Ralph Waldo Emersonの“Rhodora”再読－ナチュラル・ヒストリーと東洋（佐久間） 33 Ralph Waldo Emersonの“Rhodora”再読 －ナチュラル・ヒストリーと東洋 佐久間 みかよ Ralph Waldo Emersonの自然観については、トランセンデンタリズムとの関連で内面的 な観念性を帯びたものとして従来解釈されてきた。エマソンの観念性は、1960年代、70年代 には抽象的であると批判され、Ann Douglassは、エマソンは歴史を生きていない、と評した。１ これらへの反発からか、近年エマソンを多面的に捉えようとする傾向にともない、 Lawrence Buellが指摘するように、独自の思想を打ち立てた思想家という面だけでなく、当 時の政治、文学といったコンテクストにのせてエマソンは再解釈されている。２ そこで、 本稿は、エマソンが自然をどうみていたかについて、当時の文化状況のなかでも、自然科学 と東洋からの影響という視点で考察するものである。 エマソンの自然観を見る上で、自然科学と東洋からの影響について考察するのは、当時、 ナチュラル・ヒストリーが一般の人にも一種の流行となっており、また、トランセンデンタ リストの間では、東洋に関する興味が増していたという状況があったからである。エマソン は、科学に興味をもち、“The American Scholar”でも「歴史と科学については多くの本を 読んで学ばねばならない」（CW II, 93） と科学の重要性を説いており、とりわけナチュラル・ ヒストリーには大いに引かれていた。「コンコードの聖人」といわれるエマソンだが、科学 との距離は以外に近い。３ かつてナチュラリストになろうと言ったエマソンが、はたして、 アメリカの自然をどのように描いたかについて、これまでなされてきた自然科学とエマソン の関係を指摘する研究をふまえ、具体的に自然をどのようにあらわしたかという実作につい て考察したい。これらを考察するには、今まで看過されがちであったエマソンの詩に注目し たい。エマソンの詩は従来、副次的なものと捉えられ研究自体も少なかった。４ しかし、 エマソンは、若い頃から詩を書き、それに対する興味は終生続いた。そこで、本稿では、エ マソンの描く生物について、その詩に焦点をあて、ナチュラル・ヒストリーとの関連で考察 することで、エマソンの自然観を明らかにしつつ、その過程において、エマソンの東洋から の影響について詩の面から新たな指摘をしたい。 言語・文学系外国語・外国文学研究室 34 和洋女子大学紀要 第49集（人文系編） １．エマソンの詩 Saundra Morrisによれば、詩人エマソンに関する研究は1970年代ころが活発で、研究書 が３冊出版されるが、その後、研究は下火となる。５ しかし、1999年に出版されたThe Cambridge Companion to Ralph Waldo Emersonにはエマソンの詩に注目した研究論文が２ 本収録され、エマソンの詩が再読される気配が感じられる。６ エマソンは、再編集された ものをのぞくと二作、詩集を発表している。そのなかでも初期の作品である“Rhodora”に 注目したい。この詩は、1834年５月に書かれ、1839年のWestern Messenger誌に発表された。 Joel PorteとSaundra Morrisを編注者とするNorton Critical版の注によると、Rhodoraとい
    [Show full text]
  • Melville's Quarrel with the Transcendentalists
    -. MELVILLE'S QUARREL WITH THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS A Monograph Pl:>esented to the Faculty of the Department of English Morehead State University ' . In Partial Fulfillmen~ of the Requirements for the Degree ''I Master-of Al>ts by Ina Marie Lowe August 1970 ' Accepted by the faculty of the School. of ft,,._11114.4 ; f:i~ 5 • Morehead State University, in partial. fulfil.l.ment of the require- ments for the Master of _ _,_A,.l'.._t".._.:i._ ____ degree, TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Introduction . ••...••..••.•.••..••.•.•........•..•.• , .•.•.•• l II. Melville and Transcendental Idealism ••••••••••••••••••••••• 3 III. Melville and Transcendental Intellectualism •••••••••••••••••• 18 IV. Melville and 'l'X'anscendental Optimism and Innocence ••••••••• 36 v. Summary and Conclusion ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 56 BIBLIOGRAPHY • •••••••••••• , ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• , , •••••• , • , • 59 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Melvill.e has usually been considered either as one of the Trans­ cendental writers or as having been influenced by Transcendental thought. There has been a critical acceptance of the thesis that Melville began as a Transcendentalist; then, as he grew older and presumably less wise in the romantic sense, he eschewed his early idealism and opted for an acceptance of moral expediency and com­ plicity. The beginning hypothesis of this study will be that Melville, although he could be said to share some of Transcendentalism's secondary ideas and attitudes, objected to many of the Transcend­ alists' most cherished beliefs. In fact, one can say that, rather than being a Transcendentalist writer, Melville was an anti­ Transcendentalist writer, constitutionally and intellectuall.y unable to accept the Transcendental view of life. In advancing the argument of this study, the critical works of Melvillean scholars will be considered for the light they may throw upon Transcendental influence on Melville's work.
    [Show full text]
  • From Transcendentalism to Progressivism: the Making of an American Reformer, Abby Morton Diaz (1821-1904)
    East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Student Works 5-2006 From Transcendentalism to Progressivism: The Making of an American Reformer, Abby Morton Diaz (1821-1904). Ann B. Cro East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd Part of the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Cro, Ann B., "From Transcendentalism to Progressivism: The akM ing of an American Reformer, Abby Morton Diaz (1821-1904)." (2006). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2187. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2187 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. From Transcendentalism to Progressivism: The Making of an American Reformer, Abby Morton Diaz (1821-1904) ____________________ A thesis presented to the faculty of the Department of Cross-Disciplinary Studies East Tennessee State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Liberal Studies ___________________ by Ann B. Cro May 2006 ____________________ Dr. Theresa Lloyd, Chair Dr. Marie Tedesco Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Keywords: Abby Morton Diaz, Transcendentalism, Abolition, Brook Farm, Nationalist Movement ABSTRACT From Transcendentalism to Progressivism: The Making of an American Reformer, Abby Morton Diaz (1821-1904) by Ann B. Cro Author and activist Abby Morton Diaz (1821-1904) was a member of the Brook Farm Transcendental community from 1842 until it folded in 1847.
    [Show full text]
  • Three Essays on Top Management Team Compensation
    TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT MÜNCHEN Lehrstuhl für Betriebswirtschaftslehre – Controlling Three Essays on Top Management Team Compensation Tim Kettenring Vollständiger Abdruck der von der Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften der Technischen Universität München zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Wirtschaftswissenschaften (Dr. rer. pol.) genehmigten Dissertation. Vorsitzender: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christoph Kaserer Prüfer der Dissertation: 1. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Gunther Friedl 2. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Anja Tuschke, Ludwig-Maximilian- Universität München Die Dissertation wurde am 21. Mai 2012 bei der Technischen Universität München eingereicht und durch die Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften am 15. Juli 2012 angenommen. TABLE OF CONTENTS – OVERVIEW I TABLE OF CONTENTS – OVERVIEW TABLE OF CONTENTS – OVERVIEW TABLE OF CONTENTS – OVERVIEW ................................................................................... I TABLE OF CONTENTS – DETAILS ..................................................................................... II LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................. IV LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... V LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................. VI 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Further Exploration of the Thought of Self-Reliance with the Concept of Compensation and Vocation
    ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 3, No. 8, pp. 1448-1452, August 2013 © 2013 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/tpls.3.8.1448-1452 Further Exploration of the Thought of Self-reliance with the Concept of Compensation and Vocation Haijing Liang School of Foreign Language, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China Abstract—Ralph Waldo Emerson is a theorist of active self-reliance as the search for power and the energy; he is also a theorist of compensation. This is a complex idea on Emerson’s version. The most relevant aspect of it for the way of life is compensation as the fate that must be endured by an actively self-reliant individual prone to repeated efforts of ever more ample self-definition. The net result of the law of compensation is that the adventurous or experimental person is overtaken. He or she is encircled, limited, thrown back. From one perspective, there is no progress, no ascendant movement, no breaking out. If what is circular is compensatory, it is not progressive. Index Terms—self-reliance, individualism, compensation, vocation I. A COMPLEX IDEA OF SELF-RELIANCE--COMPENSATION A. The Theory of Compensation Reassuring that Every Wrong Done Is Paid for In Compensation, Emerson struggles to put forth the moral idea of compensation. Its preponderant effect is a qualification of his exuberance, even though it also attempts to convert despair into hope. Emerson includes within the theory of compensation the reassurance that every wrong done is paid for, just as every is rewarded, and every unlucky disadvantage has a corresponding strength.
    [Show full text]
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson: from Buddhism to Transcendentalism
    Jue 1 Ralph Waldo Emerson: From Buddhism to Transcendentalism, the Beginning of an American Literary Tradition A Senior Project presented to the Faculty of the English California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree English, Bachelor of Arts by Irene Jue May 2013 © 2013 Irene Jue Jue 2 INTRODUCTION Ralph Waldo Emerson was a key figure in the American literary tradition. He was an extraordinary and revolutionary thinker who helped found a new philosophical, social and literary movement in the United States during the early 19 th century. The movement was created as a way to protest against the general state of society at the time. Transcendentalism grew to be more than just a rebellious act against conformity, however; it became a way of life. Early in his life, Emerson identified as a Calvinist and then later a Unitarian, even becoming a Unitarian minister. However, after the death of his first wife, he renounced his Unitarian beliefs and gave up the observance of any specific kind of religion, instead adopting many different philosophies and epistemologies. Although Emerson was a great thinker, many of his ideas were influenced by other intellectual figures and philosophies, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, the theories of Immanuel Kant, and many more. One of the most significant influences on Emerson’s transcendental ideals was Buddhism. Although there is evidence of Emerson studying Indian Buddhism, many of his philosophies seem to parallel with the school of Zen Buddhism. FUNDAMENTALS OF BUDDHISM Buddhism originated in India, but it is now practiced throughout the world.
    [Show full text]