33. Liberty or Equality? Part II: Emerson's "The Transcendentalist," Kant, and America's Idealism

Liberty or Equality? Pt. II Emerson's "The Transcendentalist": Kant, Transcendental Philosophy, and the American Legacy of German Idealism This week, we proceed past Emerson's dismissal of rote memory and old forms in the Conservative mindset to see how he viewed revolutionary existence: its mindset, its epistemology, and its historical legacy. "The Transcendentalist" was a speech he gave in response to some criticisms leveled at he and his fellow individualists, who were, in truth, a motley assortment of characters without a centralizing dogma to bind them. The essay lays out the principles and origins of the spirit of individual reform and reason (Anarchy), over and against the spirit of collective constraint (Culture). He divides himself from mere activism and places the responsibility for actual change where it belongs: on the individual conscience. In doing so, Emerson adapts German Idealism to the American way of life in a market society, where true reform is not embodied in a political agency founded on force and fraud. **Featuring a prefatory essay by Morgan A. Brown: (http://www.culture-anarchy.com/public_html/pages/wpblog/?p=62) **Emerson's "The Conservative" begins @ 26:00. Featuring music from the Cello Sonata in D Major, by Pietro Locatelli; performed by Elizaveta Sushchenko. Provided by a Creative Commons license courtesy of Musopen.org: (https://musopen.org/music/performer/elizaveta-sushchenko/). Also, featuring tracks by the Passion Hifi (https://soundcloud.com/freehiphopbeatsforyou): Cold Heat, I Close My Eyes, and Untouchable. Audio from A King in New York, a Charlie Chaplin film, provided with the expressed permission of Roy Export S.A.S. (www.charliechaplin.com), who holds the copyright thereto. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/culture-anarchy/support