The Scholar as a Transcendentalist in Emerson’s
The American Scholar
Born Born in Massac Massachus husett etts, s, in 1803, 1803, lectur lecturer, er, poet, poet, and essayi essayist st Ralph Ralph Waldo Waldo Emerson became one of the most outstanding figures of American literature of the 19 th Century. Being the son of a Unitarian minister and sharing the Anglican background of her mother’s family, Emerson grew to become an ordained minister and was deeply involved in the religious practices during his youth. As a grown man, he started to questi question on the religious religious teaching teachingss and left church church in order order to attain attain a more more certain certain conviction of God than that granted by the historical evidences of miracles. He wanted his own revelation. After travelling widely and reading intensively, he came to grips with his own philosoph philosophy y of life that was largely reflected reflected in Nature. This work helped him get acquainted with group of contemporary thinkers and writers that shared his ideas; a group that came to be known as the Transcendentalists. In his 1837 speech at Cambridge—“The American Scholar”—Emerson pinpoints what are the influences that the the new new gene genera rati tion on of Amer America ican n scho scholar larss shou should ld respo respond nd to, to,
to beco become me “Man “Man
Thinking”—the ideal transcendentalist scholar. Transcendentalism was a 19th century movement of writers and philosophers in New England who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation, the innate goodness of man, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths. Under this influence was that Ralph W. Emerson Emerson wrote “the American Scholar.” Throug Throughou houtt “The “The America American n Schola Scholar”, r”, Emerso Emerson n makes makes a strong strong distin distincti ction on between being a mere thinker—who is characterized by encyclopaedic erudition—and being a “Man Thinking.” This comparison is made primarily by analyzing the main influences influences in the formative formative stages of the scholars. scholars. The first influence influence that he signals as important is that of Nature. In Nature, the scholar should find and understand the interconnectedness of all creation and realize that everything under the sky comes from “one root” (Emerson; 2.). Once this takes place, the scholar can understand better himself by observing Nature and vice versa. The second influence is that of the past, mainly present in books. Emerson advocates for critical reading of the works of the past, and a reading only to enlighten oneself with the ideas of the past, but not to be memorized or even learnt—a clear attack
against encyclopaedism—as he claims that the truths one should strive for are those one can come to grips by studying nature. In the Past, the scholar can find some kind of blueprint of his own knowledge, but the actual building of the edifice of his sageness is a task that the scholar should undertake with new erudition and wisdom. The last influence is that of Action, which for Emerson is where experience springs. He goes against the idea that a scholar should lead a secluded life in which there is no space for action. He admits that action is only second to thinking, but a primary component for the later to take place. “The mind now thinks; now acts; and each fit reprod reproduce ucess the other” other” (7), (7), by statin stating g so, Emerson Emerson clearly clearly highli highlight ghtss how how important is action for the building of knowledge; going further he also asserts that action is the womb from whence experience is born, and the equation of experience plus meditation equals knowledge is central to the formative process of the “Man Thinking.” All in all, in his address to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at Cambridge, Ralph W. Emerson clearly put forward how the principles of Transcendentalism should be applied to the formation of scholars, and how by putting those into action, the traditional encyclopaedic formation of scholar could be radically modified. This modification sits on three pillars—the influence of Nature, the Past, and Action— deeply inspired in Emerson’s Transcendentalist philosophy. Works Cited Emerson, Ralph W. “The American Scholar”. Digital Version
