The (Im)possibilities of Immanence: American Pantheism and the Ethics of Democracy
Video Arts & Humanities 2025 Graduate ExhibitionPresentation by Yafang Luo
Exhibition Number 532
Abstract
My dissertation examines American Romantic pantheism, a speculative metaphysics that equates God with Nature, mind with matter. Inspired by Spinoza’s naturalism and German idealist philosophy, American pantheists, including Emerson, Thoreau, Melville, and Poe, envisioned a democratic world where everyone, being part of nature, share equal access to divinity and intimacy with each other. Such pantheistic democracy, however, poses a dilemma. As Tocqueville observes, dissolved along with individuality is the subject’s agency for ethical responsibilities. Through case studies, my project explores how these authors grapple with such a tension at the core of pantheism. Specifically, by combining intellectual history with literary analysis, I situate American pantheism within transatlantic philosophical and scientific discourses and examine how American romanticists reworked pantheism in response to social injustice and moral uncertainty in the pluralistic antebellum America. While Emerson and Thoreau present a promising yet ambiguous vision where a vibrant nature inspires resistance against deadly institutions of injustice, Melville and Poe portray a universe of darkness where ethical chaos overwhelms individual agency. Such a comparison illustrates American pantheism's promise of democratic equality as well as its risk of ethical paralysis.
Importance
This study reframes American Romanticism’s role in reimagining liberal democracy. Political philosophers have long drawn inspiration from the Romantic tradition to invigorate liberal democracy. While some celebrate Romanticism’s focus on individual creativity as an ideal of liberal rights, others embrace its attunement to nonhuman matter as a challenge to anthropocentric democracy. My analysis of American Romantic pantheism, through Emerson, Thoreau, Melville, and Poe, illuminates such a central paradox: a democratic vision of radical equality that both inspires and frustrates ethical agency. By situating these authors within transatlantic intellectual currents, I show how their reworking of pantheism in face of antebellum political concerns demonstrates democracy’s promise and pitfall. This perspective enriches contemporary rethinking of Romanticism and its implication for liberal democracy.
DEI Statement
My dissertation, The (Im)possibilities of Immanence: American Pantheism and the Ethics of Democracy, explores how American Romantic pantheists—Emerson, Thoreau, Melville, and Poe—reimagined democracy through a pantheistic metaphysics equating God with nature. By blending intellectual history and literary analysis, I examine their vision of radical equality, where all beings, as part of nature, share divinity and connection, challenging hierarchies like race, class, and authority. Yet, this pantheistic democracy risks ethical paralysis as it dissolves individual agency amid an impersonal nature. Situating these authors in antebellum America’s struggles for an ethics of pluralism, my work explores pantheism's ethical implications for liberal democracy, highlighting its promise for inclusivity and its ethical dilemmas—insights vital to our rethinking of diversity, equity, and inclusion.