David H Gordon
Abstract
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s transcendentalism aims to demonstrate that Nature is infused with a higher spiritual reality, a view sharply at odds with a strictly scientific understanding of the world. That his philosophy is called transcendentalism implies that he was a Kantian. However, Emerson never read Kant and only acquired knowledge of his philosophy through secondary sources such as Coleridge. Emerson’s philosophy is more rightly appraised as Neo-Platonic than Kantian. Kant’s intuitive faculty never achieved knowledge of things-in-themselves, whereas Emerson posits intuition as the umbilical cord linking us directly to metaphysical realities. The intellect and mind are always primary in Emerson’s thought and empirical knowledge is secondary, except in his formulation of the forest seer in his poem “Woodnotes I.” Here, Emerson describes an archetype as well as a person who has an ideal relationship with nature. The forest seer serves as a bridge between the seemingly dichotomous worlds of mind and matter, humanity and nature, divinity and humanity, and the sacred and the profane. Asking who or what a forest seer is is like asking what Zen is; in Emerson’s writings the answer is everywhere and nowhere. The only explicit reference to such a title comes from a single poem of Emerson’s, the rest remains implied in his writing. Henry David Thoreau and John Muir are the only trained naturalists and skilled nature poets that Emerson alludes to who might fulfill these qualifications. Therefore in order to further determine what Emerson meant by this obscure title, the lives and writings of Thoreau and Muir will be examined since they represent the living personification of the archetype of the forest seer. Next, the work of the Deep Ecologist Arne Naess will be considered since he appears to follow in the tradition of Thoreau and Muir. Finally, the question is raised as to whether or not the concept of a forest seer is coherent and whether or not this person can successfully bridge human and non-human worlds. The criticism of Val Plumwood is critical to answering this question. The overall conclusion is that a forest seer based upon Emerson’s Neo-Platonism is inherently flawed, but that a theistic interpretation of the forest seer as a naturalist who combines the modern principles of ecology with the findings of a natural theologian succeeds where Emerson fails. In an age that faces impending environmental crises, the forest seer offers a paradigm that is more respectful of free nature than the dominant Cartesian/Baconian worldview and therefore offers greater hope in solving these problems.
Key takeaways
- The passages about the forest seer fit Thoreau so well that the general belief that Mr. Emerson had him in mind may be accepted, but one member o f the family recalls his saying that a part of this picture was drawn before he knew Thoreau's gifts and experience.
- Even without knowing about Emerson's relationship with Thoreau, or his naturalist traits, the poem itself still provides enough clues to solve the riddle o f the forest seer.
- Emerson enumerates the displays 61 Emerson, The Essential Writings o f Ralph Waldo Emerson, in "Thoreau," 815. performed in honor of "this philosopher," the forest seer, by the partridge, woodcock, thrush, and hawk as if they were done "at his bidding" or "to please and win" him.
- "^^ As one would expect of the prototypical forest seer, Thoreau 'sees' in the forest more than just the possibility for economic gain, more than mere commodity or a culinary interest in satisfying his appetites.
- When Emerson refers to Thoreau as "the attorney of indigenous plants," this is exactly the type of role a forest seer should be fulfilling as defender of the rights of the natural world.
