Suhrawardi’s Ishraq in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Transcendentalism: A Phenomenological Reading of Knowledge and Intuition

Abstract

Among all the Transcendentalists, Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) looked forward to a more glorious state in America than history had yet recorded at a turning point in the foundation of his nation’s literature. The belief in human progress culminating in a religion of humanity is the reason that Transcendentalism came into understanding Asian religions and doctrines to which Ishraq (Philosophy of Illumination) belongs. By explicating the phenomenological ontology of Suhrawardi’s concept of light in The Discourses of Philosophy of Illumination and placing this ontology within regard for Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka’s Ontopoiesis (phenomenology of Life) and Emerson’s Transcendentalism, a descriptive framework for such an analysis can be found with an emphasis upon knowledge and intuition. This comparative reading will bring an entire range of genuine phenomenological reflections in Ishraqi philosophy to the occidental forum of Transcendentalism, looking for parallel development and cross-cultural dialogue to reflect an intellectual affinity.