What the mirror seesReflection and Wholeness in Emerson and Heidegger

  1. Derrick, Paul Scott
Revista:
Liburna

ISSN: 1889-1128

Ano de publicación: 2008

Número: 1

Páxinas: 83-95

Tipo: Artigo

Outras publicacións en: Liburna

Resumo

This essay compares several of the basic ideas in Ralph Waldo Emerson�s Transcendental poetry and philosophy (knowledge through intuition, renunciation of the will to power, artistic creation as a natural process) with some fundamental concepts of Martin Heidegger�s Existential philosophy (letting�be, reflection), suggesting a historical�though not necessarily causal�continuity between the two. The fact that both of them advocate a more passive, or receptive, attitude for the human being and conceive of thought as a devout response to existence indicates that they form part of the same alternative Romantic current in Occidental culture that encourages a return for western thinking to a holistic paradigm.