Download Emerson Slide Show

Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”
HMXP 102
Dr. Fike
Question
• Did you find “Self-Reliance” difficult to
read? If so, why?
Vocabulary
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piquant (par. 3)
éclat (par. 4)
titular (par. 6)
ephemeral (par. 6)
sot (par. 6)
aversation (par. 9)
Monachism (par. 11)
apologue (par. 12)
impertinence (par. 12)
American Romanticism
• Emerson was part of the Romantic
movement in literature.
• In particular, this movement emphasized
two important things:
– Humans’ connection with nature
– The importance of emotion and imagination
over reason
Major Concept: Transcendentalism
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"A reliance on the intuition and the conscience.... The group [of transcendentalists]
seemed to agree that within the nature of human beings there was something that
transcended human experience--an intuitive and personal revelation."
"Transcendentalists believed in living close to nature and taught the dignity of
manual labor. They strongly felt the need of intellectual companionships and
emphasized spiritual living. Every person's relation to God was to be
established directly by the individual rather than through a ritualistic church. They
held that human beings were divine in their own right, an opinion opposed to the
doctrines held by the Puritan Calvinists in New England. Self-trust and self-reliance
were to be practiced at all times, because to trust self was really to trust the voice of
God speaking intuitively within us. The transcendentalists believed in democracy
and individualism."
"The transcendentalists were among the early advocates of the enfranchisement of
women."
"Ultimately...transcendentalism was an epistemology—a way of knowing—and what
tied together the frequently contradictory attitudes of the loosely formed group was
the belief that human beings can intuitively transcend the limits of the senses
and of logic and directly receive higher truths denied to more mundane methods
of knowing."
Source: Harmon and Holman's A Handbook to Literature, my emphasis
The Main Points
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We should rely on intuition and the conscience.
The importance of intuition and personal revelation.
Living close to nature is good.
There is dignity in manual labor.
Intellectual companionships are important.
Spiritual living is key.
Every person's relation to God can be established directly.
Human beings are divine.
Self-trust and self-reliance are important virtues.
So are democracy and individualism.
Women should be able to vote.
“Human beings can intuitively transcend the limits of the senses and
of logic and directly receive higher truths.”
Writing in Class
• Write for 5 minutes in response to these
two questions:
– What is YOUR definition of self-reliance?
– Identify an example of self-reliance or its
opposite from your personal experience.
Group Work: 10 minutes
• Share your definition in 5 small groups of 4-5
people apiece.
• Then do the following three things:
– Come up with a definition of "self-reliance" to share
with the class.
– Fill out the chart on the Emerson handout (use
arrows to indicate which column each item
belongs in).
– Consider how what you just discovered about
Emersonian self-reliance relates to
Transcendentalism. Mark the items on the handout
that best illustrate Transcendentalism.
Whole-class Discussion
• What is your group’s definition of “selfreliance”?
• Let’s go over the chart and make sure that
your arrows are correct.
• Which items on the chart best illustrate
Transcendentalism?
Large-group Discussion
• Do you advocate Emersonian self-reliance or
not?
• Do you really think that your own “inner voice” is
more important than thinking, for example, what
the Christian church—or some other faith—tells
you to believe?
• If you agree with Emerson, what does this imply
about your inner resources?
• For an opposite view, see the next slide.
John Locke
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An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689): “This I take to be
properly enthusiasm, which though founded neither on reason, nor divine
revelation, but rising from the conceits of a warmed or over-weening brain,
works yet, where it once gets footing, more powerfully on the persuasions
and actions of men, than either of those two, or both together: Men being
most forwardly obedient to the impulses they receive from themselves; and
the whole man is sure to act more vigorously, where the whole man is
carried by a natural motion. For strong conceit like a new principle carries
all easily with it, when got above common sense, and freed from all restraint
of reason and check of reflection, it is heightened into a divine authority, in
concurrence with our own temper and inclination.” [Note: “Self-Reliance”
appeared in 1841, 152 years after Locke’s text.]
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He associates enthusiasm with laziness, ignorance, and vanity. Enthusiasts
“are sure, because they are sure.” Thinking makes it so.
Connections to Other Texts
• Plato: Truth is transcendent.
• Lakoff & Johnson: Truth is a social
construct.
• Emerson: Truth is a matter of individual
conscience.
• Mill: Truth is something that persons work
toward as a society via free thought and
discussion.
Connections to Other Texts
• Plato: "his shadow on the wall" (Emerson, par. 10).
– Plato and Emerson are both opposed to false appearances.
– But Plato thinks that Truth is transcendent; Emerson thinks that truth is
whatever one thinks it is.
– Emerson, par. 1: "To believe your own thought, to believe that what is
true for you in your private heart is true for all men—that is genius."
• Lakoff and Johnson would argue that believing your own truth is a
prescription for discord with other people and nations. In addition,
many of Emerson’s statements contain metaphors.
• Mill: Various issues:
– Would Emerson approve of the liberty of thought and discussion?
– Would he agree with Mill on the negative (restrictive) role of the church
and of its dogmas?
– Would Emerson agree with Mill on the following: "Those who desire to
suppress it [opinion]...have no authority to decide the question for all
mankind, and exclude every other person from the means of judging"
(Mill, par. 3)?
More on Mill and Emerson
• Mill: "Those who desire to suppress it
[opinion]...have no authority to decide the
question for all mankind, and exclude every
other person from the means of judging."
• Emerson: “To believe your own thought, to
believe that what is true for you in your private
heart is true for all men—that is genius.”
• WHO IS RIGHT?
Ontological Individualism
• This is the term for what Emerson
espouses. As Robert N. Bellah states on
page 192, par. 8, it is “the belief that the
truth of our condition is not in our society
or in our relation to others, but in our
isolated and inviolable selves.”
Another Group Activity
• On the next slide are further questions for
your group. If you finish talking about your
group’s item, go on to one of the others.
Group Work: What Does Emerson
Say about Each of These?
1. Great men and institutions (first full page, left; fourth full page, left and right; fifth full page,
right; last page, left):
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How can a particular brand of thinking be great when it is fresh but then negative when it becomes an
institution?
Can't one be self-reliant in Emerson’s sense while still adhering to an intellectual tradition?
If even great men do not break wholly from tradition, is tradition really as negative as Emerson wants us
to believe?
2. Independence (first full page, right):
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Is there a problem with living “wholly from within” (par. 6)?
Doesn't society perform an important civilizing function?
3. The shadow/sinfulness (“Chaos and the Dark,” par. 2):
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Is there a problem with living “wholly from within”—i.e., in communication with “the internal ocean” (par.
15)? See also the first epigraph and par. 6.
Doesn’t Emerson’s prescription for self-reliance rest on the assumption that what is within is wholly
good?
How might Transcendentalism be fundamentally flawed?
What do YOU believe about your inner life?
Is it all “sugar and spice and everything nice”? Isn’t there also darkness?
4. History (third full page, right):
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Does Emerson have an “elitist” view of history?
Might a society that pays attention to historical lessons be able to advance?
If not, why not? Is it because of the human nature that he considers so positive?
Couldn't learning history's lessons help us avoid repeating past mistakes?
5. Travel (par. 17, right):
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Do you agree or disagree with Emerson's position on travel?
Great Men and Institutions
1. Great men and institutions (first full page,
left; fourth full page, left and right; fifth full
page, right; last page, left):
– How can a particular brand of thinking be
great when it is fresh but then negative
when it becomes an institution?
– Can't one be self-reliant in Emerson’s sense
while still adhering to an intellectual
tradition?
– If even great men do not break wholly from
tradition, is tradition really as negative as
Emerson wants us to believe?
Great Men and Institutions
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Emerson lauds Moses, Plato, Jesus, and Milton; however, he is critical of
institutions as “the lengthened shadow[s] of one man.”
Emerson simply doesn’t understand literature. He says, “Every great man
is a unique” (par. 18), and he mentions Moses, Dante, Milton, and
Shakespeare as examples. But while, say, Shakespeare and Milton did
new things, they relied heavily on previous literature.
Mention the New Historical view of authorship as collaborative.
How can a particular brand of thinking be great when it is fresh but then
negative when it becomes an institution? Can't one be self-reliant in
Emerson’s sense while still adhering to an intellectual tradition?
But he does not acknowledge that all of these men, to one degree or
another, relied on previous tradition even as they created something unique
and new.
If even great men do not break wholly from tradition, is tradition really as
negative as Emerson wants us to believe?
Authors
• “…works of art are the products not merely
of an individual writer’s genius but also of
the culture that produced that writer.”
Source: Russ McDonald, The Bedford
Companion to Shakespeare, 2nd ed., page
12.
More on Great Men
• Do you agree that the best way to cultivate the
self is to be self-reliant in the Emersonian
sense?
• What can we learn about the self from previous
writers, existing institutions, history, and
travel? Why throw out all of this and say, "It's all
up to ME"?
• “Do that which is assigned to you, and you
cannot hope too much or dare too much” (par.
18).
• If previous writers do not matter, why should
we bother to read Emerson? Isn't there
something self-indicting about his position?
Independence
2. Independence (first full page, right):
– Is there a problem with living “wholly
from within” (par. 6)?
– Doesn't society perform an important
civilizing function?
The Shadow/Sinfulness
3. The shadow/sinfulness (“Chaos and the Dark,” par.
2):
– Is there a problem with living “wholly from within”—
i.e., in communication with “the internal ocean” (par.
15)? See also the first epigraph and par. 6.
– Doesn’t Emerson’s prescription for self-reliance rest
on the assumption that what is within is wholly
good?
– How might Transcendentalism be fundamentally
flawed?
– What do YOU believe about your inner life?
– Is it all “sugar and spice and everything nice”? Isn’t
there also darkness?
The Shadow/Sinfulness
• Again, is there a problem with living “wholly from within”—i.e., in
communication with “the internal ocean”? Jung says that this
“internal ocean" is the collective unconscious, which contains a
record of all human experience both positive AND negative.
• See also Romans 7:18-20: “For I know that nothing good dwells
within me, that is, in my flesh. For I do not do the good I want, but
the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it
is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.”
• Is Emerson getting at this in par. 2 when he mentions “Chaos and
the Dark”? See also epigraph one, “fatal shadows”; and par. 6,
“from below, not from above” and “Devil.”
• Doesn’t Emerson’s prescription for self-reliance rest on the
assumption that what is within is wholly good? How might
Transcendentalism be fundamentally flawed?
• What do YOU believe about your inner life? Is it all “sugar and spice
and everything nice,” or is there also darkness?
History
4. History (third full page, right):
– Does Emerson have an “elitist” view of
history?
– Might a society that pays attention to
historical lessons be able to advance?
– If not, why not? Is it because of the
human nature that he considers so
positive?
– Couldn't learning history's lessons help
us avoid repeating past mistakes?
History
• Emerson states that “history is an impertinence and an
injury, if it be any thing more than a cheerful apologue or
parable of my being and becoming” (par. 12).
• Later he says, “Society never advances” (par. 20). Well,
maybe that is because it views history as impertinent
and does not learn anything from it. Might a society that
pays attention to historical lessons be able to
advance? If not, why not? Is it because of the human
nature that he considers so positive? Couldn't learning
history's lessons help us avoid repeating past mistakes?
Travel
5. Travel (par. 17, right):
– Do you agree or disagree with Emerson's
position on travel?
Travel
• Emerson states, “Traveling is a fool’s paradise”
(par. 17), but who we are is somewhat
dependent on our place and time. Traveling
strips away cultural accretions and enables us to
understand ourselves (our SELVES) more
clearly and fully. Yes, we are the same abroad
as we are in Rock Hill, but REALIZING that fact
is a good reason to travel, isn’t it? Why else do
you think that college students often study
abroad? Do you agree or disagree with
Emerson's position on travel?
Contrasting Views on Travel
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Emerson: “Traveling is a fool’s paradise” (par. 17).
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Emerson, elsewhere: “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful,
we must carry it with us, or we find it not.”
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Watts: “Nothing tends so much to enlarge the mind as travelling.”
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St. Augustine: “The world is a book; those who never leave home read only
a page.”
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Mark Twain: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
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T.S. Eliot:
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
Use the “Fallacy Handout” To
Identify the Following Fallacies
• Par. 6: "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own
mind."
• Par. 7: “This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars,
authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars.”
• Par. 10: "With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do."
• Par. 11: "Every true man is a cause, a country, and an age;
requires infinite spaces and numbers and time fully to accomplish
his design;--and posterity seem to follow his steps as a train of
clients."
• Par. 11: "...all history resolves itself very easily into the biography of
a few stout and earnest persons."
• Par. 16: "...I obey no law less than the eternal law."
• Par. 17: "Traveling is a fool's paradise."
• Par. 19: "All men plume themselves on the improvement of society,
and no man improves. Society never advances."
Papers
• Take a good quotation and evaluate it in
connection with your own experience.
• Here are some suggestions:
– Par. 6: Emerson’s statements against charity or the
church (“the dear old doctrines of the church”).
– Par. 10: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of
little minds, adored by little statesmen and
philosophers and divines.”
– Par. 10: “If, therefore, a man claims to know and
speak of God, and carries you backward to the
phraseology of some old mouldered nation in another
country [think the Bible], in another world, believe him
not” (62).
– Par. 17: “Traveling is a fool’s paradise.”
Summary and Implications
• What is Emerson suggesting about your
SELF?
• In other words, in what ways do you
understand your SELF better after having
read and discussed Emerson?
• Jot down a few ideas.
• What do you think about Emerson’s “SelfReliance” NOW?
Some Possible Answers
• We should think in ways that are independent of
others, history, tradition, and institutions
(especially the church).
• We should trust and cultivate our inner voice,
our intuition, and our unconscious resources.
• But please do not believe Emerson when he
suggests that we should listen only to the
“authority of the soul” (par. 12) or that we should
only be charitable to those who are like
ourselves.
END