Destiny and conditionality: the ameliorative pragmatisms of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Fukuzawa Yukichi

David Dilworth

doi:10.23925/2316-5278.2020v21i1p45-67

Destiny and conditionality: the ameliorative pragmatisms of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Fukuzawa Yukichi

Authors

David Dilworth Stony Brook University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23925/2316-5278.2020v21i1p45-67

Keywords:

Amelioration, American Pragmatism, Civilization, Emerson, Free Citizenry, Fukuzawa, Modernization of Japan.

Abstract

The paper develops a comparative hermeneutic of the “life worlds” of continental North America and of Pacific rim Meiji Japan by way of interfacing the proto-pragmatistic articulations of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901). Still relevant in today’s marketplace of ideas, Emerson’s The Young American (1844) and Fukuzawa’s Outline of a Theory of Civilization (1875) pioneered ameliorative possibilities of meritocratic modernity in post-patriarchic and post-feudal civilization.

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Published

2020-07-19

How to Cite

Dilworth, D. (2020). Destiny and conditionality: the ameliorative pragmatisms of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Fukuzawa Yukichi. Cognitio: Revista De Filosofia, 21(1), 45–67. https://doi.org/10.23925/2316-5278.2020v21i1p45-67