But one hand, while Emerson's statements are supposed to be true for all human beings, it is hard not to wonder -- isn't this the type of total self-confidence that can lead to tyranny? How can a nation exist, composed entirely of such complete individualists, with no common background, sense of history, or tradition -- or, most importantly, no sense of responsibility to society? What if every human being is convinced that his own inherent genius gives him the right to rule -- would not society be at war, or at very least, fragmented and unable to govern itself? Emerson, as evident in his other writings did not really seem to believe that all human beings were inherently equal at philosophy. Showing if nothing else his belief that consistency is the "hobgoblin" of little minds, in his earlier essay "Nature" he proclaims: "The wise man shows his wisdom in separation, in gradation, and his scale of creatures and of merits is as wide as nature. The foolish have no range in their scale, but suppose every man is as every other man. What is not good they call the worst, and what is not hateful, they call the best." In other words, Emerson seems to wish 'the best' to be true to themselves and eschew societal influence, if it hampers their...
He is unlikely to be equally supportive of the self-reliant thoughts of someone he considers "foolish."
Self-Reliance....Thoughts on the Frontier in American History. Reaction paper: Self-reliance The concept of self-reliance is extremely important in the discourse of politics today, as people argue that self-reliance from the federal government is a very important value. For Ralph Waldo Emerson, however, the world had a different meaning and resonance. First and foremost, self-reliance for Emerson meant the citizen was true to his or her ideals, versus conforming to the ideas
Yet through his explorations of order, Franklin admits that it is "extremely difficult to acquire" as a virtue (p. 88). Franklin further claims that of all the virtues, "my scheme of order gave me the most trouble; and I found that, tho' it might be practicable where a man's business was such as to leave him the disposition of his time, that of a journeyman printer, for instance, it
Like Emerson, Whitman found beauty symbols of American future progress, even in industrial America and standardized and homogenized modern progress like the "Locomotive in Winter": "For once come serve the Muse and merge in verse, even as here I see thee," cries Whitman, celebrating the terrible, beautiful, awesome power of the moving train cars. Whitman finds inspiration in the man-made device, as well as terror. He optimistic, like Emerson, in
Emerson believed that the broader culture could rid itself of slavery through moral persuasion. At the beginning of the renaissance, Emerson "maintained that reform was best achieved by the moral persuasion of individuals rather than by the militant action of groups," (Lowance, 2000, 301). but, in the years immediately leading up to the Civil War, Emerson's philosophy collided with reality. In 1855, he wrote and delivered his Lecture on
Consistent with Emerson and Fuller's beliefs regarding transcendentalism, Justice Holmes' emphasis was on the achievement of a higher level of knowledge, wherein he explicated on the importance of transcendentalist belief when interpreting and understanding the rudiments of law. In "Common Law," he argued that understanding the law would entail the avoidance of "two errors" by the "writer and reader" (of law): "One is that of supposing, because an idea seems
American thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Winthrop developed cogent visions of their new nation, promulgating utopian ideals and encouraging their readers to actively create an idealized society. As Peyser puts it, both Emerson and Winthrop were "deeply suffused with a sense of America's missionary destiny, of the new nation's emancipatory message to the rest of the world," (13). However, Winthrop and Emerson held two divergent visions of
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