Emerson insists upon trusting one's own thoughts and not copying anyone. He believes that by copying others we are conforming to others and in the process, we lose the courage to have our own thoughts. I have always adhered to this concept of his. "Self Reliance" is one of my favorite essays because it got me into believing in original thought. The concept of originality is appealing, although, I doubt something can be completely original. Even the "saints and sages" must have gotten inspiration from somewhere. It's difficult not to imitate when we consider how people learn. We learn by imitation. In our early stages, we learn by copying our parents and other people who are around us. This is just a natural tendency that young children have. This takes Emerson's words literally, which is probably skewed from his original meaning. However, I believe we learn by imitation and that there isn't any way to to avoid it. There are ways to teach people to think for themselves, but to be truly self reliant is nearly impossible. I find it profoundly ironic whenever I think of Emerson's "Self Reliance" to promote originality. Emerson probably got as many original thinkers as he did conformists to his philosophy.
Moving on, Emerson says in one part of his essay that God is inside us. The reasoning is that because imagination is infinite and God is infinite, then the two must be linked or the same things. By using our imagination and originality to generate thought, we are closer to God ( or something to that effect). This explanation explained Transcendentalism to me. I didn't understand the connection to the universe or the reach of the movement until I heard this. There are parts in Emerson's essay that he shuns institutions such as churches for their corruption. He believes in God within oneself and not in any institutionalized, man-made form.
As for Emerson's view on charity and helping other people, I have to partially agree. Some people take advantage of charity , and because charity exists, they don't work as hard. I do a plethora of volunteer work. In over 200 hours of volunteer work, I have never thought I was being taken advantage of, but even these people I was helping didn't completely rely on volunteers. They actively sought to better there lives and help themselves. Concern about others isn't a terrible thing, and I think Emerson is also talking about charity in terms of helping other people think. Helping others think is the same as thinking for them.
I would agree that as small children we learn by copying but as our brains develop, we choose to continue learning in this manner or take the given information and expand our own original thoughts and meanings. It is those who fail to branch off on their own that lack self-reliance. They continue through life "copying" or following others who are paving the road for them. I do believe,however, that it takes all kinds. We can't all be leaders. It takes someone to follow, but if one is to live to his full potential, he must break free of his own prison.
ReplyDeleteI thought your post was interesting and had not considered the doubt of originality aspect in refutation with Emerson's writings, although I definitely do agree. I think it is inspiring to read Emerson's ideals on being our own person and not conforming to others as well however, but I also think you can't read him too literally. As I said, I do agree that nothing truly can be "original" if you want to be purely factual and literal, but I don't think Emerson is meant to be read in strictly that fashion. I don't think he means that to be original means to not be inspired by someone or something, but to instead not be suppressed by someone or something or feel as though you must adhere to "norms" of influence.
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