Social Liberals/Energetic Conservatives in the As-Good-as-New-World

Long in use, the term “energy” gained new currency in the mid-nineteenth century with the development of the science of thermodynamics, the first law of which states that “the energy of the universe is constant.”... [ view full abstract ]

Long in use, the term “energy” gained new currency in the mid-nineteenth century with the development of the science of thermodynamics, the first law of which states that “the energy of the universe is constant.” Formulated as physical law in 1865, this axiom was presupposed by earlier scientific discourses such as geology, where thinkers extended the ages of the earth into deep time while simultaneously representing the earth as ageless by presupposing that the earth’s energy was constant and self-renewing. My paper argues that Emerson’s call to foster an “original relation to the universe” depends on a similar presupposition. Echoing Thomas Paine’s claim that “we have it in our power to begin the world over again,” Emerson presupposes a universe in which the energetic conditions remain constant and stable, thereby neutralizing the passage of time and abolishing any difference between the new world and the old. In viewing the world as “as-good-as-new,” Emerson imagines an exhaustless energy supply, thereby contradicting what would become thermodynamics’ second law and potentially licensing mass energy consumption.