Nature. [1909]

Nature – is a philosophical essay published in 1909 and written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, poet, philosopher, pastor, lecturer, public figure; one of the most prominent thinkers and writers in the United States. Emerson criticizes modernity for being "retrospective." God and nature, in his opinion, should be perceived through insight and delight, and not through historical texts. He admires nature, praises it as "God's plantation" and values solitude in its bosom. Nature and Soul are two components of the Universe. By Nature, Emerson understands the Fichtean-Schellingian "the not me", which includes the entire field of the thinkable, including art, other people, and even his own body. However, even the human soul is not opposed to Nature. Nature is a part of God and "the currents of the Universal Being" pass through it. As for the final cause of the world, Emerson names four classes: Convenience, Beauty, Language, and Discipline. These classes are devoted to chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the essay. Under the Commodity of Nature, he understands her ability to give us pleasure from the use of her fruits. By Beauty, Emerson understands a more subtle pleasure from the shape, color and movement of natural objects. The beauty of movement necessarily contains a spiritual component and is the beauty of will, heroic act and virtue. Love for Beauty is called Taste, while its creation is Art. Language also refers to natural phenomena. Nature is a symbol of the spirit, and words are signs of natural phenomena. Emerson draws attention to how well natural phenomena can express moral rules and even the truths of the gospel. Discipline means the fact that Nature is a great teacher. Emerson refers to his position as idealism, the essence of which lies in the thesis that matter is a phenomenon, not a substance.