About this episode
The episode discusses Thomas Carlyle's admonition to Ralph Waldo Emerson about engaging with one's generation and its relevance today.
In an 1842 letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle chastised Emerson, saying, "A man has no right to say to his generation, turning away from it, 'Be Damned!' It is the whole past and the whole future, this same cotton-spinning, dollar-hunting, canting and shrieking, very wretched generation of ours. Come back into it, I tell you." What did he mean by this? And what importance does Carlyle's admonition have for us today? We discuss.
People in this episode
Host: Quintus Curtius
Topics covered
- philosophy
- literature
- society
- historical context
- self-reflection
Keywords
- Carlyle
- Emerson
- admonition
- society
- philosophy
- literature
- historical context
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