Logos of Light, Abyss of Being: The Soul’s Ascent and Phenomenological Unfolding in Emerson and Tymieniecka

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Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Foreign Languages , Faculty of Humanities, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Humanities, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

This paper investigates the convergence between Transcendentalist and phenomenological philosophies by placing the soul at the center of a shared theoretical horizon. It examines how the soul operates as a site of logoic sentience—a synthesis of metaphysical intuition and phenomenological creativity—by engaging Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poetic metaphysics alongside Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka’s Phenomenology/Ontopoiesis of Life. While Emerson envisions the soul as an illuminating and intuitive force beyond rational cognition, Tymieniecka frames sentience as the ontopoietic unfolding of life through the Imaginatio Creatrix (Creative Consciousness). Despite emerging from distinct traditions, both thinkers conceive of the soul as a dynamic and creative force essential to being and becoming. Drawing on key studies, the paper traces Emerson’s integration of Platonism, existentialism, and pragmatism, and highlights interpretive trends such as dialectical logic and comparative philosophical analysis. Scholars emphasize Emerson’s metaphors of light, darkness, and fire to illustrate a dynamic metaphysical ontology that resonates with Tymieniecka’s structured phenomenology. Methodologically, the paper adopts a hermeneutic-comparative approach, analyzing Emerson’s Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Tymieniecka’s Analecta Husserliana corpus. The analysis unfolds in five sections, addressing key motifs: sentient illumination, the dialectic of light and darkness, the poetic nature of the cosmos, the transformative virtual soul, and the creative primacy of intuition. Ultimately, the paper argues that Emerson articulates a poetic phenomenology that anticipates Tymieniecka’s philosophical framework, offering a vision of the soul as the medium through which truth, creativity, and existential insight emerge in the unfolding of life.

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References

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Critical Language and Literary studies

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Available Online from 06 June 2025

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