ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Emerson's philosophy of creativity is grounded in Romanticism, which he extended from Western Europe to the farthest reaches of the west he imagined the idea of America to embody. In politics, he prized democratic reform, in science and natural philosophy evolution and renewal, and in literature and philosophy subjectivity as a relational process. He found complementary grounds in the eastern texts he read such as the Bhagavad-Gita Gita and Sufi mystic poetry, discovering his affinity with Asian spirituality and a more profound appreciation of the sacredness of creation than he found in Christian monotheism. In the confluence of Romantic and eastern philosophies, Emerson recognized his own commitment to ongoing transformations as the mode of life for the organic, creative universe, for individuals, and for any true theory or philosophy. However, philosophically, poetically, and politically, that thrill is only one aspect of the creative process for Emerson.
