Emerson as Philosopher

"Gilmore demonstrates a deeply philosophical and influential Emerson in this book. He puts Emerson in conversation with an extraordinarily wide range of philosophers, including Charlies Peirce, Simone de Beauvoir, Richard Rorty, Slavoj Žižek, Octavio Paz, Luce Irigaray, Jacques Derrida, and Martin Heidegger, to offer a cogent reading of Emerson’s philosophy as prescient of postmodern philosophy and as a strikingly relevant response to the philosophical and practical fallout of postmodernism today. As Gilmore explains, the postmodern exposé of the essentialist and hierarchical metanarratives that underlie systemic oppression can engender cynicism or even nihilism, but Gilmore finds in Emerson the pragmatism and capacity for joy that render nihilism powerless and offer reason to hope and to work for positive change." —Susan L. Dunston, Professor Emerita, New Mexico Tech, President of the American Emerson Society This book considers the role of postmodernism (skepticism towards metanarratives and anti-essentialism) in Ralph Waldo Emerson's philosophy by putting it in conversation with key 20th and 21st century thinkers such as Beauvoir, Coates, Derrida, Paz, Rorty, and Zizek. Postmodern Emerson shows how Emersonian skepticism to metanarratives such as sexism, racism, Beauvoiran "serious values," and others, can help us face some of society's gravest contemporary social and philosophical challenges. Methodologically, the book exemplifies Emersonian postmodernism by defying traditional philosophical metanarratives about the difference between high and low culture or serious and ridiculous subjects, and Emerson with what would seem to be his opposite. This is itself a postmodern gesture, breaking rules of genre and topic to make unlikely but interesting connections. Above all, this book proves that in this time of social division and widespread despair, Emerson can help. Richard Gilmore received his Ph. D. in Philosophy from The University of Chicago. He is the author of Philosophical Health: Wittgenstein’s Method in Philosophical Investigations (Lexington, 1999), Doing Philosophy at the Movies (SUNY, 2005), and Searching for Wisdom in Movies: From the Book of Job to Sublime Conversations (Palgrave, 2017). He is a Professor of Philosophy at Concordia College (USA).