Turns Out Emerson Wrote Some “Very Stupid” “Trash”

Last updated on: August 29, 2013 at 2:43 pm by Chris Henrichsen

Turns Out Emerson Wrote Some “Very Stupid” “Trash” 2013-08-29T14:43:58-07:00 Chris Henrichsen

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I love John Stuart Mill. However, it is probably a good thing he never read anything I ever wrote, because he was rather brutal and harsh.

Historian Frank Prochaska has discovered Mill’s comments of the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson in letters by from Mill and in Mill’s notes on a copy Emerson’s Essays.

History Today reports the following:

The words ‘fudge’, ‘nonsense’, ‘oh’, ‘pooh’, ‘sentimental’, ‘superficial’, ‘stupid’, ‘very stupid’, ‘trash’ are among the many pencilled annotations dotting the pages of John Stuart Mill’s personal copies of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essays. They constitute something of a revelation. Imagine finding Kant’s marginalia on Hume’s philosophical writings, or George Eliot’s annotations on Jane Austen’s novels. There is an assumption among scholars that little can be said about the opinion Mill, the preeminent English thinker of his age, held of Emerson, equally preeminent in American thought. In a recent book on the political ideas of the two men, Alex Zakaras remarks that ‘it seems that Mill never read any of Emerson’s writing, so we can only speculate as to what he would have thought of it’. We now know that he at least read the Essays – which are largely responsible for Emerson’s standing as a philosopher – and had something intriguing to say about them. As might be expected, the annotations tell us more about Mill than they do about Emerson.

So, in addition to having a persuasive writing style, Mill was rather snarky. What isn’t there to love about that? Right?

Check out the full article in History Today.

American History

American Political Thought

Culture

Philosophy

Previous Post

August 28, 2013

New Video Released About LDS Church Welfare System

Next Post

August 29, 2013 Who Are We Talking About, When We Talk About the Minimum Wage?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Adventures in Parenting Adventures in Sunday School American History American Political Thought American Politics American Religion Blog Admin Books Campaign Chronicles Culture Current Events Faith & Social Justice News Roundup General Conference Green Party Guest Post Guns HuffPost Live Hymns of Social Justice Independence Rock Group Las Vegas Marginalia Mormon Studies Mormonism Music Personal and Family Philosophy Political Philosophy Pop culture Queer Pioneer Week Quote of the Day Rawls Rawls and Religion Religion Social Justice Social Justice Book Club Sports Theology U.S Constitution Uncategorized Unions Video Wyoming

Select a Month February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many stringed instruments were used in the Temple?

Select your answer to see how you score.

7 10 5 3