Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) was a Harvard‐educated American essayist, poet, and philosopher, who acted for a time as a Unitarian minister in Boston (1829–1832) but established his fame during his lifetime as a popular lecturer and essayist. Emerson's thought developed at the intersection of various philosophical currents: English Romanticism and Post‐Kantian German idealism; Platonism and Neoplatonism, and Scottish commonsense philosophy. His religious sources were also eclectic, ranging from Unitarian and Calvinist Christianity to Hinduism and Buddhism. In philosophy, Emerson has been conventionally interpreted as a Kantian philosopher, yet textual evidence from Emerson's own works argues for a strong Platonic influence. Emerson's philosophy had a crucial influence on later philosophers both in classical American and continental philosophy. For Friedrich Nietzsche, he was one of the abiding influences; for the pragmatists Charles S. Peirce, William James, and John Dewey, Emerson was also an indispensable source of inspiration.
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