American Studies (미국학)

Seoul National University American Studies Institute (서울대학교 미국학연구소)
권호 표지

A Moralist of Beauty in America: Emerson on the Cultivation of Public Virtue in Liberal Democracy

  • Received : 2021.11.15
  • Accepted : 2021.12.16
  • Published : 2021.12.31

⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

"In the United States, you almost never say that virtue is beautiful," Alexis de Tocqueville reports in Democracy in America. Yet Ralph Waldo Emerson, arguably the most prominent American moralist in the nineteenth century, stands as an exception to Tocqueville's generalization. This article explores Emerson's perspective on beauty in the moral education of democratic citizens. His interest in this aesthetic category partly stemmed from his deep concern about both the moral inaction and interest politics in commercial culture. As a response to the crisis, Emerson conceived ethical beauty as a key promoter of public-minded democratic citizenship as exemplified by the American abolitionists, and his own practice as a poetic moralist further illustrates this belief. Emerson's aesthetic approach to the cultivation of public virtue in liberal democracy offers a meaningful comparison to contemporary neo-Tocquevillian emphasis on the language of interest or duty.

Keywords

References

  1. Ashton, R. (1980). The German idea: Four English writers and the reception of German thought: 1800-1860. Cambridge University Press.
  2. Berry, E. G. (1961). Emerson's Plutarch. Harvard University Press.
  3. Brodwin, S. (1974). Emerson's version of Plotinus: The flight to beauty. Journal of the History of Ideas, 35(3), 465-483. https://doi.org/10.2307/2708794
  4. Brown, P. W. (1957). Emerson's philosophy of aesthetics. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 15(3), 350-354. https://doi.org/10.2307/427299
  5. Cavell, S. (1990). Conditions handsome and unhandsome: The constitution of Emersonian perfectionism. University of Chicago Press.
  6. Chignell, A. (2007). Kant on the normativity of taste: The role of aesthetic ideas. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 85(3), 415-433. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048400701571677
  7. Danoff, B. (2007). Asking of freedom something other than itself: Tocqueville, Putnam, and the vocation of the democratic moralist. Politics & Policy, 35(2), 165-190. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2007.00056.x
  8. Dolan, N. (2009). Emerson's liberalism. The University of Wisconsin Press.
  9. Downard, J. (2003). Emerson's experimental ethics and Kant's analysis of beauty. Transactions of the Charles S. Pierce Society, 39(1), 87-112.
  10. Dumler-Winckler, E. (2015). Romanticism as modern re-enchantment: Burke, Kant, and Emerson on religious taste. Journal for the History of Modern Theology, 22(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1515/znth-2015-1001
  11. Emerson, R. W. (1904). The complete works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Vol. 12. Natural history of intellect and other papers. Houghton Mifflin. https://www.bartleby.com/90/1202.html
  12. Emerson, R. W. (1909a). The works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Vol. 8. Letters and social aims. Boston and New York. https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/emerson-the-works-of-ralph-waldo-emerson-vol-8-letters-and-social-aims#Emerson_1236-08
  13. Emerson, R. W. (1909b). The works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Vol. 10. Lectures and biographical sketches. Boston and New York. https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/emerson-the-works-of-ralph-waldo-emerson-vol-10-lectures-and-biographical-sketches#Emerson_1236-10
  14. Emerson, R. W. (1909c). The works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Vol. 12. Natural history of intellect and other papers. Boston and New York. https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/emerson-the-works-of-ralph-waldo-emerson-vol-12-natural-history-of-intellect-and-other-papers#Emerson_1236-12
  15. Emerson, R. W. (1959a). The early lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Vol. 1). The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
  16. Emerson, R. W. (1959b). The early lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Vol. 2). The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
  17. Emerson, R. W. (1959c). The early lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Vol. 3). The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
  18. Emerson, R. W. (1983). Essays & lectures. Literary Classics of the United States.
  19. Emerson, R. W. (1995). Emerson's antislavery writings. Yale University Press.
  20. Ginsborg, H. (2013, February 13). Kant's aesthetics and teleology. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-aesthetics/
  21. Gougeon, L. (1995). Historical background. In L. Gougeon and J. Myerson (Eds.), Emerson's antislavery writings. Yale University Press.
  22. Gougeon, L. (2010). Virtue's hero: Emerson, antislavery, and reform. University of Georgia Press.
  23. Greenham, D. (2012). Emerson's transatlantic romanticism. Palgrave Macmillan.
  24. Hopkins, V. C. (1951). Spires of form: A study of Emerson's aesthetic theory. Harvard University Press.
  25. Hudnut, R. K. (1996). The aesthetics of Ralph Waldo Emerson: The materials and methods of his poetry. The Edwin Mellen Press.
  26. Kateb, G. (1995). Emerson and self-reliance. Sage.
  27. Kateb, G. (2000). Aestheticism and morality: Their cooperation and hostility. Political Theory, 28(1), 5-37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0090591700028001002
  28. Keane, P. J. (2005). Emerson, romanticism, and intuitive reason: The transatlantic "light of all our day." University of Missouri Press.
  29. Ladu, A. I. (1940). Emerson: Whig or democrat. The New England Quarterly, 13(3), 419-441. https://doi.org/10.2307/360192
  30. Malachuk, D. S. (1998). The republican philosophy of Emerson's early lectures. The New England Quarterly, 71(3), 404-428. https://doi.org/10.2307/366851
  31. Mariotti, S. (2009). On the passing of the first-born son: Emerson's "focal distancing," Du Bois' "second sight," and disruptive particularity. Political Theory, 37(3), 351-374. https://doi.org/10.1177/0090591709332328
  32. McDonald, J. J. (1971). Emerson and John Brown. The New England Quarterly, 44(3), 377-396. https://doi.org/10.2307/364781
  33. Ostrander, G. M. (1953). Emerson, Thoreau, and John Brown. The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 39(4), 713-726. https://doi.org/10.2307/1895396
  34. Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. Simon & Schuster.
  35. Reynolds, L. J. (2011). Righteous violence: Revolution, slavery, and the American Renaissance. University of Georgia Press.
  36. Shusterman, R. (1999). Emerson's pragmatist aesthetics. Revue Internationale de Philosophie, 53(207), 87-99.
  37. Strysick, M. (2001). Emerson, slavery, and the evolution of the principle of self-reliance. In T. Gregory Garvey (Ed.), The Emerson dilemma: Essays on Emerson and social reform. (pp. 139-169). University of Georgia Press.
  38. Tocqueville, A. (2010). Democracy in America: Historical-critical edition of de la democratie en Amerique, a bilingual French-English edition (Vol. 3). Liberty Fund. https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/schleifer-democracy-in-america-historical-critical-edition-vol-3#Tocqueville_1532-03_EN
  39. Villa, D. (2017). Teachers of the people: Political education in Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill. The University of Chicago Press.
  40. Williams, B. (1993). Shame and necessity. University of California Press.
  41. Wolin, S. S. (2004). Politics and vision: Continuity and innovation in western political thought. Princeton University Press.
  42. Zakaras, A. (2009). Individuality and mass democracy: Mill, Emerson, and the burdens of citizenship. Oxford University Press.