Theory and Practice of Insight in R. W. Emerson

Abstract

The concept of insight has been the subject of significant debate in modern and contemporary philosophy, crossing both the European and American traditions; just think of Bergson and the American current of radical empiricism. The aim of this article is to add a precious piece to this debate, investigating the meaning of insight in R. W. Emerson, whose thought is at the origin of American pragmatism and of great importance for European philosophy. The concepts of Nature and Sympathy characterize philosophical insight not only from the theoretical and gnoseological point of view, but also from the practical one; applying the method of insight also to the ethical and political sphere, Emerson’s metaphysics of insight elaborates the traits of an ideal society, sympathetically or intuitively inspired by the order of Nature, that is, the ontogenetic common background of man and reality