Ralph Waldo Emerson - Essay Example

Ralph Waldo Emerson (Ralph Waldo Emerson) “Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on 25 May 1803 in the Puritan New England town of Boston, Massachusetts to Ruth née Haskins (d.1853) and Unitarian minister William Emerson (d.1811)” (Ralph Waldo Emerson). Even though he had four other brothers and sisters three of them faced unexpected deaths during childhood because of different reasons. At the age of eight, Emerson lost his father and forced to face single parenthood at an early stage of his development. His schooling started at the age of nine and d at the age of fourteen, he accepted a messenger job in a college in order to meet his education expenses. Even though he was graduated at the age of 18, he was only a normal student and has shown no exceptional talents during his studies. In 1827 he married Ellen Louisa Tucker. However, less than two years from their marriage, Ellen suffered death due to tuberculosis. It was a shocking incident for him. After the death of his wife, he started to question some of the traditional customs and beliefs of the church. He started to develop his famous theories of individualism during this period. In 1835, he remarried another girl called Lydia Jackson. He died on April 27, 1882 because of pneumonia. This paper analyses the contributions of Ralph Waldo Emerson to the development of individualism s and Transcendentalism theories. Emerson remained throughout his lifetime the champion of the individual and a believer in the primacy of the individual’s experience. In the individual can be discovered all truths, all experience. For the individual, the religious experience must be direct and unmediated by texts, traditions, or personality (Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)). Even though Emerson was a strong believer in churches in the past, after the death of his first wife, he started to question some of the established principles of the church. He started to argue that both good and evil are present in the minds of the individual and church has nothing to do with it. In his opinion, beliefs should come out of the individual’s mind rather than teaching it as a principle or custom. It should be noted that Christians during this period had adamant beliefs in the teachings of the church. Emerson has pointed out that church is actually preventing people from enhancing their thoughts by cultivating some preconceived notions in the minds of the individuals. In Emerson’s opinion, many of the principles of the church were formulated by some individuals who proclaimed to be the prophets or the representatives of God. He has argued that an individual should formulate his moral principles based on his experience rather than relying on churches for it. Emerson was a strong believer in Jesus Christ throughout his life even though he became a strong critic of the church later. Church always tried to portray Jesus as God instead of labeling him as a human. In other words, church gave more importance to the miracles performed by Jesus. Emerson on the other hand, dismissed the Biblical miracles, and argued that church was misinterpreting many of the incidents in the Bible. Emerson argued that people should listen to the inner calls and thoughts to become self- reliant in life. To be self-reliant, in Emersonian terms, was to listen to and heed the still, small voice of God within. Therefore, self-reliance also meant to him self-mastery, especially of the passions and temper. He regarded the true self, or the ideal self, as innately capable of a natural experience of and knowledge of the Divine, present in all creation (Schulman) “Emerson believed in individualism, non-conformity, and the need for harmony between man and nature. He was a proponent of abolition, and spoke out about the cruel treatment of Native Americans” (Ralph Waldo Emerson). It should be noted that church did nothing to abolish slavery. In fact church encouraged slavery in many ways by misinterpreting the biblical words in different ways. Emerson has realized that the church’s stands with respect to slavery is not so encouraging and need through modifications in it. Influenced by the Eastern philosophy of unity and a divine whole, emphasizing God Immanent, to be found in everyone and everything, Emerson sowed the seeds of the American Transcendentalist movement. He realized the importance of the spiritual inner self over the material external self through studying Kantianism, Confucianism, Neo-Platonism, Romanticism, and dialectical metaphysics and reading the works of Saint Augustine, Sir Francis Bacon, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Shakespeare among many others (Ralph Waldo Emerson). Transcendentalists believed that individual intuitions are much more important than principles of Christianity. In their opinion, it is unwise to define God for each religion or culture. God is present everywhere and church is trying to bring the God under their control. Emerson has argued that the teachings of the church were intended for the wellbeing of the church alone; not for the individual. He has seen spirituality in the minds of all the people irrespective of their religion. The above teaching was against the traditional beliefs and teachings of the church. Church taught the public that people may get salvation only through the church. On the other hand, Emerson argued that church is a symbol of collectivism which has nothing to do with an individual’s morality or ethical principles. According to Emerson, "Natures dice are always loaded." "The corruption of man is followed by corruption of language" (Liukkonen). In other words, man has a habit of hiding his inner thoughts while speaking to somebody. It is a habit of human being to speak something against their inner thoughts in order to commit sins. It is a fact that whenever a person tries to do something wrong, he may develop a thought against it. However, he will deliberately hide those thoughts and say something exactly against it. Emerson has pointed out that the moral worth of the individual is much higher than the social or family worth. In his opinion, an institution like church or society will always argue for the wellbeing of the group at the expense of the wellbeing of the individual. According to Emerson, the general tendency of the people is to look at others more and more rather than looking at their inner minds. He has argued that when an individual looks at others, he may develop a feeling of jealousy over the other’s achievement. He may not bother much to think about his own achievements at this juncture. In his opinion imitation is suicidal since it is not necessary that other’s ideas and activities may suite and individual while dealing with life situations. It should be noted that only a patients needs medication whereas others do not need it. In Emerson’s opinion, people are doing many unwanted things because of their increased reliance over other’s activities. To conclude, Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the prominent poet, philosopher and intellectuals of the nineteenth century. He was a strong advocate of individualism and he questioned many of the traditional teachings of the church. He taught the public to become self- reliant in every aspect of their social life rather than looking at others for help. In his opinion, institutions such as family, society, church etc were misleading the public in many ways and prevent the public from looking at their inner hearts for answers. In short Ralph Waldo Emerson was succeeded in creating new waves of thoughts in America in the nineteenth century. Many of the social reformation processes started in America because of the contributions of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Works Cited Liukkonen, Petri. “Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)”. 2008. Web. 12 November 2011. “Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)”. Web. 12 November 2011. “Ralph Waldo Emerson”. 2011. Web. 12 November 2011. Schulman, Frank. “Ralph Waldo Emerson”. 2011. Web. 12 November 2011. Read More