Describe Emerson's attempt to displace the stable and mechanistic world view of the 18th century, with its watchmaker God. Show how he attempts to substitute the dynamic organicism of transcendentalism, in which God is present in nature and evolves with

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Ralph Waldo Emerson and Pantheism

During the 17th century the people were preoccupied with the belief that the world has a grand design and behind it is a designer who knows and sees all things . This belief was the mechanistic world view in which the designer being pertained to is God . God is the omniscient being supreme in intellect as well as other aspects . Thus , everything that takes place has a reason and will ultimately lead to something of great lengths

While this theme

was popular in the said era , it has been found that even earlier philosophers have already considered seeing a supreme being as the biggest decision maker for all the occurrences and existence This supreme being is the unmoved mover as stated by Aristotle and the uncaused cause as according to St . Thomas Aquinas ' theory . One of the most popular analogies for this world view is the Watchmaker God analogy

The watchmaker God analogy is used for explaining the existence of God . In this analogy , the watchmaker is God and the watch being created is the world and all who inhabit it . The analogy states that as it is with making clocks , everything in the world was systematic . People exist in places because just like a missing piece , the clock will not function without it . Furthermore , just like a watch , thee world works by combined effort of the parts . Everything is mechanical and based on an intelligent design (Paley

Many people immediately accepted...