A BRIEF INTERACTION WITH
CAVELL’S
WHAT’S THE USE OF CALLING
EMERSON A PRAGMATIST
PREFACE
EMERSON AND HIS PEOPLE
“…I acknowledge that if Emerson is the founder of the
differences in American thinking, then later American
thinkers…are going to be indebted to Emerson. What I deny
is that their thinking, so far as it is recognizable as
something distinctly called pragmatism, captures or
clarifies or retains all that is rational or moral in the
Emersonian event.” (73)
Peirce
yes
NO
Dewey
James
DIFFERENCE (1/2)
• Mood as
“method”
• Genius &
Whim centered
in the common,
the low, and
the near
Dewey
How can Emerson be a proto-pragmatist when he
“differs” those labeled as “pragmatists?”
Emerson

• Scientific
method
• Reconstruction
towards higher
grounds
DIFFERANCE (2/2)

The importance of exploring, respecting, and
maintaining the difference (versus “sticking a
label on it” and ignoring the differences)
“What is important to me is what I find to be at
stake in asserting the differences.” (78)
ELOQUENCE: TWO BY TWO


“But do your work, and I shall know you.” “SelfReliance”
Your work now, in reading him, is the reading of
his page, and allowing yourself to be changed by
it.” (79)
AMERICA IS AS TRANSCENDENTALIST AS IT
IS PRAGMATIST…

What’s the “loss” of calling Emerson a protopragmatist?
We lose sight of his difference from pragmatism, i.e.
his transcendentalism
 By extension, we lose the richness and the genius
contained within his invitation to walk with us
 We continue to repress a voice that helped create us;
not only do we lose but those following us may lose…

NOTES
NOTES