# Ralph Waldo Emerson **Entity class:** Person (American essayist and philosopher, 1803–1882) **Domain:** American Philosophy / Cultural Independence **Concept Hub:** [[wiki/Charter Civilization|Charter Civilization]] ## Definition **Ralph Waldo Emerson was the American essayist whose Phi Beta Kappa address "The American Scholar" (Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 31, 1837) declared American intellectual independence from Europe.** Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. later called the address America's "Intellectual Declaration of Independence." ## The American Scholar Nine years after [[wiki/Noah Webster|Noah Webster]]'s *American Dictionary*, Emerson extended Webster's linguistic claim to scholarship and philosophy: "Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close. The millions that around us are rushing into life cannot always be fed on the sere remains of foreign harvests." He closed the charge with "We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe." [[articles/war with empire/Authorship of the West|Authorship of the West]] cites him as the philosophical ancestor of the claim that Western philosophy can be governed by American philosophy, a line continued by the pragmatism of Charles Sanders Peirce, [[wiki/William James|William James]] and John Dewey. ## Relationships - **Concepts:** [[wiki/Charter Civilization|Charter Civilization]] · [[wiki/Authorship of the West|Authorship of the West]]. - **Lineage:** [[wiki/Noah Webster|Noah Webster]] (linguistic independence) · [[wiki/William James|William James]] (pragmatism). - **Source article:** [[articles/war with empire/Authorship of the West|Authorship of the West]] in [[collections/War With Empire|War With Empire]]. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > “Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close. The millions that around us are rushing into life cannot always be fed on the sere remains of foreign harvests.” > **— Ralph Waldo Emerson**, *The American Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa address, August 31, 1837* [[reminders/Civilization/Our Long Apprenticeship to the Learning of Other Lands Draws to a Close by Ralph Waldo Emerson|Our Long Apprenticeship to the Learning of Other Lands Draws to a Close by Ralph Waldo Emerson]] > “We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe.” > **— Ralph Waldo Emerson**, *The American Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa address, August 31, 1837* [[reminders/Civilization/We Have Listened Too Long to the Courtly Muses of Europe by Ralph Waldo Emerson|We Have Listened Too Long to the Courtly Muses of Europe by Ralph Waldo Emerson]] ## Sources / Provenance - Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The American Scholar" (1837), in [Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16643) (Project Gutenberg).