The transparent eyeball is a philosophical metaphor originated by American transcendentalist philosopher

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

. In his essay ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

'', the metaphor stands for a view of life that is absorbent rather than reflective, and therefore takes in all that

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

has to offer without bias or contradiction. Emerson intends that the individual become one with nature, and the manner of the transparent eyeball is an approach to achieving it.

Overview

In ''Nature'', alongside many viewpoints he considers, Emerson describes

as the closest experience there is to experiencing the presence of

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

. To truly appreciate nature, one must not only look at it and admire it, but also be able to feel it taking over the senses without biases or contradictions. This process requires absolute solitude, as he notes that "a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society" to uninhabited places like the woods where— According to Emerson, for most people, seeing is a superficial act. It is light illuminating the eye revealing what is physically evident, as opposed to how the Sun "shine into the eye and heart of the child." Emerson's argument is that outer and inner vision merge to reveal perceived symbolic connections, making the natural world into a personal landscape of freedom. Going further than this finite perception of freedom, the transparent eyeball merges with what it sees, thus making this unity immediate, especially between the self and God, losing grip of the biases and contradictions that the self previously made when within nature.

Origin

Emerson attended

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

in 1825—and by 1826, had applied for a license to preach at the Middlesex Association of Ministers. By 1832, Emerson left the Christian ministry but continued to believe in God. However, he held that God reveals his grandeur not only in scripture, but also through nature. “Emerson's reading in science soon after leaving the ministry was his effort to interpret God's natural book. As Emerson became increasingly interested in science, he eventually came to believe nature, not scripture, was the locus of

revelation In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities. Background Inspiration – such as that bestowed by God on the ...

. His desire to become a naturalist was intimately connected to his yearning to write a new bible of

's revelation in nature.” Some scholars believe that the “transparent eyeball” passage is an echo of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

. ‘In Nature, Emerson fashions himself as a new prophet of nature, believing with

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

that "prophetic vision" arises only in "slowpaced experiment." Vision arises from observing nature, where, as he writes in Nature, "All things are moral; and in their boundless changes have an unceasing reference to spiritual nature." The essay can be regarded as Emerson's attempt to make nature itself a bible. In this sense, one need not spend Sundays at church but could simply retreat to the ‘woods’ and let nature inhabit his or her consciousness. “The reconstruction of religion in Emerson’s nature works in a number of directions. First, there is an undeniable romantic- naturalism in his writings. One can and should go out into nature, into the fields and forests and be renewed. It follows, then, that Emerson’s religiosity may be read as natural and not supernatural, which may account for his centrality in a tradition of arts and letters which dates to his decisive split with organized religion.” The significance of this shift resulted in Emerson’s paradigmatic role for

transcendentalism Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in New England. "Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Wald ...

. “Transcendentalists believe that finding God depended on neither orthodox (

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

) nor the Unitarians' sensible exercise of virtue, but on one's inner striving toward spiritual communion with the divine spirit.”

Application

In photography

Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from ...

was a renowned American photographer, known for his visionary process of aligning “photography with Emerson's original desire to absorb and be absorbed into nature, to become a transparent rather than simply reflective eye.” Walker spent his career during the Great Depression trying to capture images that would be a mirror representation of Americans surrounded by both nature and man-made objects existing in total harmony. Emerson's description of the “transparent eyeball” functions as a metaphor for the artist's ability to discern the essential nature of objects and as a way to stress that the transcendental is not formless. The "transparent eyeball" reflects nature's particulars, much in the way that a

camera A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with a ...

lens exposes; and in the process illuminates… the "unrelieved, bare-faced, revelatory" facts. The transparent eyeball is about capturing and being a part of all of nature and its motion. The camera works in the same fashion. The camera exposes/illuminates all of nature in a single snapshot with more detail and visibility of nature that cannot be taken in by an unaided eye alone. To visually experience and appreciate nature, as Emerson desired, through a transparent state, an individual has to view it. This is similar to the camera. To photograph an image, the individual must first view the scene, then capture what they see. Thus, the “transparent eyeball” is not free from constraints, but is a tool that the individual needs to become one with nature. However, it is not to be understood that “Emerson did not believe in a fundamental god-driven unity underlying the worldly flux, but rather that art's role was to provide an insight into that unity.”

In literature

According to Amy Hungerford, the influence and use of the transparent eyeball in Pulitzer Prize-winning author

Marilynne Robinson Marilynne Summers Robinson (born November 26, 1943) is an American novelist and essayist. Across her writing career, Robinson has received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005, National Humanities Medal in 2012, and t ...

’s novel ''

Housekeeping Housekeeping is the management and routine support activities of running an organised physical institution occupied or used by people, like a house, ship, hospital or factory, such as tidying, cleaning, cooking, routine maintenance, shopping, ...

'' is palpable. Hungerford argues that Robinson’s protagonist Ruth narrates from the perspective of the transparent eyeball..

Notes

References

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