Upon reading work by Ralph Waldo Emerson for English 152W, I was struck with a feeling of déjà vu; many of his claims and basic philosophical tenets felt like something I had heard somewhere before, but not from this particular author nor any of his transcendentalist contemporaries. The writer and philosopher I was thinking of was Ayn Rand, novelist and founder of the philosophy known as Objectivism.

After making this connection, I quickly realized that I wanted to explore it further. Which specific ideas and claims from the author reminded me of Rand’s philosophy, and why? These are the questions I hope to answer over a series of posts on this blog.

Before I dig in to the texts that I believe connect these two authors, I feel it important to make a quick disclaimer. The purpose of my analysis is not to claim that the philosophies of Emerson and Rand are exactly the same; there are clear structural differences in their approaches and worldviews. However, this does not mean that they have nothing in common. Instead of making broad claims about the sameness of their philosophies, I am interested in exploring specific issues and claims represented in their work in order to infer and describe connecting themes and ideas. Specifically, I will be exploring the authors’ understandings of individualism, reason, perception, and solitude.