‘How Emerson Reshaped America’

     
The School of Practical Philosophy has another discussion on the philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson planned for early next year. The details are below, but first please know the School continues its amazingly generous offer of the $10 registration fee to enroll in its first semester of classes. That’s ten weeks of introductory schooling for ten bucks. Click here to get started.

Emerson’s Legacy:

How He Reshaped America

A Talk by David Beardsley

Saturday, February 4, 2017

12 East 79th Street, Manhattan

7 to 9:30 p.m.

Central to the philosophy of Emerson was his “one doctrine: the infinitude of the private man.” He understood the divinity of each human being and urged people to look at the details of their lives and celebrate them, not trying to be something they are not.

In this talk we will look at three examples of people in the next generation who took this challenge: Charles Ives, a composer still regarded as ahead of his time. Emily Dickinson, the reclusive poet sitting alone in her room, who created a whole world from her own imagination, and Swami Paramananda, an Indian guru who took Emerson’s writing as a starting point for a deeper understanding of the Indian scriptures.

The hope is that the example of these three will inspire each of us to look for the fingerprints of that “infinitude” in our own lives.

Fee is $25, which includes refreshments. Register here for this event.

David A. Beardsley has been attending classes in Practical Philosophy since 1994, and is drawn to its recognition of wisdom from the East and the West. He tutors Introduction to Philosophy at the New York School, where he hopes to communicate his own “love of wisdom.” David has written three books on the Western wisdom tradition, and maintains the website idealinthewest.com. He also wrote and directed the video biography Emerson: The Ideal in America.