Ralph Waldo Emerson · Philosophy

Compensation: The Moral Law of Balance

Emerson’s doctrine that a law of justice is woven into the very structure of the universe - that every act rewards or punishes itself, that nothing can be gained without a corresponding loss, and that the moral order is as exact and inescapable as the laws of physics.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Emerson’s doctrine of compensation holds that a moral law of balance runs through all of nature - ‘every act rewards itself,’ cause and effect cannot be severed, and for everything gained something is lost - so that justice is structural, not accidental. Explain these ideas in your o…

Leads to Immanuel Kant.

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