West on Emerson

D. Emerson as Organic Intellectual


1. Emerson's themes (individuality, idealism, voluntarism, optimism, amelioration, and experimentation) prefigure those of American Pragmatism.

2. "Emerson conceived of his project as a form of power, a kind of provocation, and of himself as an indomitable person whose very presence, i.e., activity changed the world."




Back (West's chapter on Emerson)