Emerson

I have more to say about Emerson than Thoreau, for I see Emerson's legacy played out in so many philosophical pathways of understanding. Firstly, I was aware of Emerson's influence on Nietzsche, but I did not know it was this close. Furthermore, I had not considered Foucault to be influenced as well. However, Foucault turns towards the material while Emerson looks through the material and towards the spirit, the only way, according to Emerson, by which we can really understand the world. Foucault's order of things and Emerson's order of things are similar, for they both look to establish an end (an understanding of) to the final cause--the final cause, in the Aristotelian sense, is the intention made towards some objective end--the product, which, for Emerson, can only be understood through phenomena, the thing as it is perceived, in the Kantian sense. Nietzsche and Emerson are similar in that they both believe that the understanding of spirit (Nietzsche's "god") can only happen indirectly (not to mention the proto-fascist musings on will and power and how some people are more capable than others) through parable or poetry. Foucault, the man who provided us with the intellectual tools for codifying the boundaries of discourse, looks to the place where the word touches the body, not where the word, the idea, glimpses the spirit. Furthermore, Foucault's episteme runs contrary to Nietzsche's anti-system, anti-nihilist philosophy, not even to mention Emerson's optimism. Emerson and Nietzsche are very romantic in their view, seeing great potentiality and value for human perception, whereas Foucault shackles us with the noumena (not in the empirical sense). I would like to say that I am a Nietzschean or an Emersonian, but alas I am a Foucauldian. How sad. I would definitely like to say that I am a Thoreauian, but that is not my world. I can't imagine living in a world where nature is anything other than an ornament.