Since I cannot possibly hope to contain all of my thoughts on Emerson's The Nature of Beauty within this blog, I'll focus on what I thought of his section that included the ancient Greeks. We tend to think of the ancient Greeks as pretty smart fellows. They did a lot of thinking, albeit a lot of fighting, but most importantly, they had an enormous respect for the arts. Beauty was a large part of their lives - man-made and nature-made. According to Emerson, the Greeks referred to the world as kosmos which could be translated to beauty. What greater respect for natural beauty could we find than naming the globe afterall that is beautiful? While Emerson does not discuss in length the meaning of kosmos, I believe a lesson can be learned from his mention. The human eye, in our time, must be trained to look at nature as an end rather than a means to an end. We must teach ourselves to appreciate nature for nature, not for what we can get out of it.
Tony Schroth
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