简评爱默生的自然观.docVIP

【标题】简评爱默生的自然观 【作者】李金潞 【关键词】爱默生;?自然观;?个人主义 【指导老师】张亚军 【专业】英语 【正文】Ⅰ. IntroductionRalph Waldo Emerson is a great American thinker and the representative figure of transcendentalism. His transcendental thoughts have greatly influenced American culture such as philosophy, religion and literature. His individualism has become one of the most important characteristics of American culture and traditional values. As a philosopher, Emerson puts forward transcendentalism，a creative thought which originates from his age. Transcendentalism emphasizes intuition by which man can find truth, beauty and goodness embodied in nature. It urges man to rely on himself rather than conventions and traditions. The only thing that conventions and traditions can do is to prevent man from finding the truth.?In the past thirty years, scholars have studied Emerson’s works from philosophical, literary and political perspectives. They focus on a question. That is why Emerson’s individualism, in a certain sense, is the fundamental condition of American democracy. And the question this paper focuses on is what the condition of individualism is. Nature can be regarded as the basis of Emerson’s thoughts. It is a representative essay which expresses Emerson’s transcendental theory. In it, we see that nature is a symbol just as words are the symbols of natural facts. God expresses himself in nature. Emerson employs his poetic description to present a true, beautiful and good nature in front of readers. The concept of transcendence originates from Plato who believes that absolute goodness exists and it could be perceived only through intuition rather than logos or rationality. Kant is the first one to state that God and soul are transcendent. In Nature, Emerson argues that human has a close relation to nature. Man and nature come from the same root—Spirit. Nature is the expression of spirit. Therefore, human spirit has the same qualities as nature. As the fundamental basis of Emerson’s transc