Emerson Redefines the Concept of Reason

"Nature" Essay Conflates Ideas of Intuition, Faith, and Imagination

Sep 25, 2009

Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay "Nature," implicitly distinguishes his "Reason" as a divine property as opposed to the individual capability of common reason.

It would soon become clear to anyone diving into Emerson's celebrated essay Nature that his employ of the word "reason" is largely alien to the general understanding of the concept. To many, reason is an individual's capacity to form ideas, to deduce cause and consequence, or to perform other rational or interpretive feats.

In other words, reason is commonly cast as a product of the individual to be harnessed and utilized by the individual. Emerson, however, uses the word "reason" to propagate his own understanding of the concept (his Reason), which is one that removes reason from the individual's ownership while simultaneously incorporating properties of intuition, faith, and imagination -- creating a much more powerful (if alien) sense of the word.

Manifesting the "Universal Soul"

Emerson first discusses Reason in the fourth section of the essay, "Language," while acknowledging the "universal soul" that pervades each individual's life: "This universal soul he calls Reason: it is not mine, or thine, or his, but we are its; we are its property and men" (49). Not only does Emerson remove any control the individual might have practiced over reason, but he reverses the roles and places the individual under the control – or, perhaps more accurately, the guidance – of Reason.

In this regard does the author seem to borrow from the use and meaning of the concept of intuition. The American Heritage Dictionary lists the primary definition of the word as "the act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes; immediate cognition."

By this definition, intuition, and likewise Emerson's Reason, is not practiced by the individual (as he makes no use of his "rational processes"), but rather it occurs to the individual. This kind of omnipresent guidance gestures toward a divine quality in Reason (indeed, Emerson refers to Reason as the intellectual manifestation of the "universal soul"), which in turn gestures toward the author's inevitable incorporation of faith.

Morality in Emerson's Reason

In the section "Nature," Emerson writes: "In the woods, we return to reason and faith" (39). This statement immediately marries nature, Reason, and spirituality by explicitly suggesting that the three occur together, and in so doing it anticipates further attention given to the necessary meshing of Reason with faith (that is, faith in terms of both belief and spiritual morality). Some such attention is paid in the aforementioned quotation equating Reason to the "universal soul"; the individual must possess faith, or belief, that this entity will not abuse or manipulate his conscience, for he cannot control it himself.

Another passage, found in the section "Discipline," exhibits yet more attention: "Sensible objects conform to the premonitions of Reason and reflect conscience. All things are moral; and in their boundless changes have an unceasing reference to spiritual nature" (58). Here, Reason anticipates and interprets the sensation of all things by their effusion of morals -- an impossible feat if reason were not equipped with a sense of spiritual morality -- and consequently infuses a sense of faith (or spirituality, or religion) into the individual affected by Reason.

Imagination Used to See Beyond the Material World

Emerson incorporates aspects of yet another concept into his redefinition of Reason: imagination. In the section "Idealism," he writes: "When the eye of reason opens, to outline and surface are at once added grace and expression. These proceed from imagination and affection," and later, "The Imagination may be defined to be the use which the Reason makes of the material world" (64-5). With the contribution of imagination, Emerson's Reason does not interpret empirical evidence (as the common understanding of reason, or rationality, would); it dissolves and rearranges the various components of the "material world" in an effort to expose the divine - the soul, the spirit of Nature, God - as the fundamental truth of all things.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Ed. Larzar Ziff. Nature and Selectes Essays. New York: Penguin Books, 2003.

The copyright of the article Emerson Redefines the Concept of Reason in Classic American Fiction is owned by Angela Zito. Permission to republish Emerson Redefines the Concept of Reason in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.