[DOWNLOAD] "Emerson and Science" by Peter A. Obuchowski # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free

eBook details
- Title: Emerson and Science
- Author : Peter A. Obuchowski
- Release Date : January 01, 2005
- Genre: Religion & Spirituality,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 299 KB
Description
Ralph Waldo Emerson maintained a lifelong interest in science. His journals, from the earliest to the last, document this interestâan interest reflected in his lectures, essays, letters, and poems. Emerging from Emersonâs statements on science is a coherent attitude that can be defined as his scientific thinking. The purpose of Emerson and Science is to analyze this thinking and to indicate the relationship it bears to his total thought. An analysis of Emersonâs scientific thinking reveals that science, especially Goethean science, affords the means to explore and present what the book elaborates as Emersonâs monistic worldview. The pervasive influence of Goetheâs science on the epistemological bases underlying that view is presented at length. In addition to illuminating Emersonâs epistemological position, the context of science divulges how Emersonâs interest in science kept him from the extremes of Swedenborgâs mysticism and from falling preyâunlike many of his contemporariesâto the pseudo-sciences of the day, including phrenology, mesmerism, palmistry, astrology, and so forth. Emersonâs interest in science also played an important role in his rejection of conventional religion and helped qualify his idealism, making him sympathetic to the claims of materialism. His focus on science kept him from accepting either of the main streams of the scientific thought of his age and led him to what the book defines as Emersonâs âscientific mysticism,â or âspiritual science.â Peter Obuchowski, a professor emeritus of English language and literature, shows how the context of Emersonâs approach to science provides a new focus for considering a number of the key issues that have become the hallmarks of Emersonian criticismâissues such as Emersonâs optimism in relation both to his spiritually oriented worldview and to his faith in scientific progress, as well as his attitude to evil and his so-called philosophical naĂŻvetĂ©.