Overview

Aesthetic Transcendentalism is a philosophy endorsing the qualitative and creative aspects of nature. Theoretically it argues for a metaphysical dimension of nature that is aesthetically real, pluralistic, and prolific. It directs our attention to the rich complexity of immediate experience, the possibility of discovering new aesthetic features about the world, and the transformative potential of art as an organic expression. This book presents the philosophy in its relationship to its historical roots in the philosophic and artistic traditions of nineteenth-century North America. In this multidisciplinary study, Nicholas L. Guardiano brings together a philosophic and literary figure in Ralph Waldo Emerson, the scientifically minded philosopher Charles S. Peirce, and the plastic arts in the form of American landscape painting. Guardiano evaluates this constellation of philosophers and artists in global perspective as it relates to other historical theories of metaphysics and aesthetics, while simultaneously performing a cultural analysis that identifies an essential feature of the American mind. Aesthetic Transcendentalism thus possesses abiding significance for our vital interactions with nature, daily experiences, and contemplations of great works of art. Aesthetic Transcendentalism in Emerson, Peirce, and Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Painting will be of interest to scholars of American philosophy and American art history, especially specialists of Charles S. Peirce, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the Hudson River School painters. It will also appeal to philosophers working on systematic metaphysical theories of nature.

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9781498524551

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In Aesthetic Transcendentalism in Emerson, Peirce, and Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Painting, Nicholas Guardiano makes a case for aesthetic transcendentalism employing the work of Peirce, Emerson, and the Hudson School painters. Guardiano employs the inherent affinities in the pragmatic and transcendentalist traditions, affinities that are often overlooked, to make an argument concerning the aesthetic importance of nature-an importance that is both ontologically inherent and instrumentally useful for human culture. There are some wonderful old ideas here put to work to create new philosophical possibilities for the twenty-first century. -- Douglas R. Anderson, University of North Texas Aesthetic Transcendentalism constitutes a truly original understanding of the complex connections between philosophy, literature and the arts, in America's 19th century. New roads are opened in an intertwining of logic and aesthetics, pointing to all forms of knowledge, and profiting from inverted perspectives: exactitude in poetry and elasticity in science. The study of the Hudson School in landscape painting, through the lenses of some of 19th century Masters (Peirce, Emerson), proves to be a unique contribution to the understanding of the richness of American imagination and thought. -- Fernando Zalamea, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Author Information

Nicholas L. Guardiano is a philosopher and research specialist overseeing the American philosophy collection at the Morris Library archives.

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