Emerson, "Nature" , Idealism, Transcendentalism and the Over-Soul (by Carlota C. and Beatriz S.)

Transcendentalism is an American religious, literary and philosophical movement from the 19^th Century, whose seed is the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).  Kant’s theory states that we cannot know objects in themselves, due to the fact that these can only be apprehended through the sensible apriori forms — instilled in our minds and conditioning our experience —  of space and time. According to this theory, all knowledge is transcendental that is concerned not so much with the object, but with our mode of knowledge of the object, in the sense that this should be possible aprior. When it is not, then Kant speaks  of Noumena (things themselves, which we cannot know, hence  they are transcendental to us) in opposition to the Phenomena (the appearances, which we can know). This consideration about knowledge is the basis for Idealism, a philosophical theory that defends that whatever exists is mainly known in a mental dimension, through ideas. Idealism refutes, thus, empiricism which claims that knowledge is accessed through sensorial experiences — cf. “In my utter impotence to test the authenticity of the report of my senses (...) it is ideal to me, so long as I cannot try the accuracy of my senses.”, in “Nature”, (pg.56). Idealism is paramount in understanding   the American Transcendentalism in the sense that the latter refers the existence of a spiritual state that transcends the physical and the empirical.  This movement, that is very much connected to Concord (Massachusetts) and to which names like Margret Fuller(1810-1850) and Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) are permanently etched, emphasizes the spiritual over the material (“Thus even in physics, the material is degraded before the spiritual.”, in “Nature” (pg.48)) and for that, they find the formal religious structure lacking when compared with Nature. The transcendentalists defend that divinity exists in the individual (“…the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.”, in Nature, (pg.48-49 )).

Emerson expands on his idea that God lives within us in his Essay, ‘The Over-Soul’ (1841), in which he presents the concept of Over-Soul- spiritual essence or vital force present in all of us and that transcends the individual consciousness, due to the fact that all souls participate in it. This idea states each individual is a manifestation of creation and for that has an essential role in solving the mysteries of the Universe. As it is with Humans, Nature is too an expression of the divine — “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which have been shown!”, in Nature, (pg.48)) — and a key to solve it; Nature is nothing without Spirit: “Nature is not fix but fluid. Spirit alters, molds, makes it. The immobility or bruteness of Nature is the absence of spirit.”, in Nature (pg. 48-49), because spirit “creates” and “behind nature, throughout nature spirit is present” ( In Nature, pg. 59). Moreover, this “ineffable essence” is closely linked to men, since it “…does not build nature around us, but puts it forth through us…” and seeing as though “the foundation of man are not in matter, but in spirit” ( In Nature, pg. 61), it is possible to say that to Emerson the concepts of Man, Nature, Spirit and even God were closely related and could not be analyzed or perceived without one another.

The fact that by the end of “Nature” Emerson has, in a most inciting manner, urged the reader to “Build, therefore, [his] own world” (pg.62) because Nature is, in fact, his (“Out from him sprang the sun and moon…”, pg.61) is a perfect example of that Unity “within which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all other…”(In “The over-soul”).

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