Ah, Emerson. You just keep amazing me.
"The picture waits for my verdict: it is not to command me, but I am to settle its claims to praise."
In the first paragraph we read today, the quote I just wrote was mentioned. Amazing, it is, that we are the meaning makers. We are the humans that give things that power to be valuable according to out own values. And us, as individuals are those who dictate that value.
Also, Emerson goes to the categorizing, hierarchical issue we've been having for centuries. We're trained to think with a category from the very first time we start to learn things. But we must be free and care about our own shining. That is were the real selves lie.
We first share the life by which things exist, and afterwards see them as appearances in nature, and forget that we have shared their cause. Here is the fountain of action and of thought. Here are the lungs of that inspiration which giveth man wisdom, and which cannot be denied without impiety and atheism. We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activity. When we discern justice, when we discern truth, we do nothing of ourselves, but allow a passage to its beams. If we ask whence this comes, if we seek to pry into the soul that causes, all philosophy is at fault. Its presence or its absence is all we can affirm. Every man discriminates between the voluntary acts of his mind, and his involuntary perceptions, and knows that to his involuntary perceptions a perfect faith is due. He may err in the expression of them, but he knows that these things are so, like day and night, not to be disputed. My wilful actions and acquisitions are but roving; — the idlest reverie, the faintest native emotion, command my curiosity and respect. Thoughtless people contradict as readily the statement of perceptions as of opinions, or rather much more readily; for, they do not distinguish between perception and notion. They fancy that I choose to see this or that thing. But perception is not whimsical, but fatal. If I see a trait, my children will see it after me, and in course of time, all mankind, — although it may chance that no one has seen it before me. For my perception of it is as much a fact as the sun.
I must apologize for such a big quote I just posted, but it is of great importance for me to share this. I first ought to mention that Emerson is a Transcendentalist, for this I mean that he believes in an external universal ethic. He is a theist, undoubtedly. But in this, Is there consilience breathing underneath these words?
"The picture waits for my verdict: it is not to command me, but I am to settle its claims to praise."
In the first paragraph we read today, the quote I just wrote was mentioned. Amazing, it is, that we are the meaning makers. We are the humans that give things that power to be valuable according to out own values. And us, as individuals are those who dictate that value.
Also, Emerson goes to the categorizing, hierarchical issue we've been having for centuries. We're trained to think with a category from the very first time we start to learn things. But we must be free and care about our own shining. That is were the real selves lie.
We first share the life by which things exist, and afterwards see them as appearances in nature, and forget that we have shared their cause. Here is the fountain of action and of thought. Here are the lungs of that inspiration which giveth man wisdom, and which cannot be denied without impiety and atheism. We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activity. When we discern justice, when we discern truth, we do nothing of ourselves, but allow a passage to its beams. If we ask whence this comes, if we seek to pry into the soul that causes, all philosophy is at fault. Its presence or its absence is all we can affirm. Every man discriminates between the voluntary acts of his mind, and his involuntary perceptions, and knows that to his involuntary perceptions a perfect faith is due. He may err in the expression of them, but he knows that these things are so, like day and night, not to be disputed. My wilful actions and acquisitions are but roving; — the idlest reverie, the faintest native emotion, command my curiosity and respect. Thoughtless people contradict as readily the statement of perceptions as of opinions, or rather much more readily; for, they do not distinguish between perception and notion. They fancy that I choose to see this or that thing. But perception is not whimsical, but fatal. If I see a trait, my children will see it after me, and in course of time, all mankind, — although it may chance that no one has seen it before me. For my perception of it is as much a fact as the sun.
I must apologize for such a big quote I just posted, but it is of great importance for me to share this. I first ought to mention that Emerson is a Transcendentalist, for this I mean that he believes in an external universal ethic. He is a theist, undoubtedly. But in this, Is there consilience breathing underneath these words?
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