R/W #7
These Dudes Wrote Some Pretty Dope Essays
(A Critique of Three Key Transcendentalism Ideas Outlined by Emerson and Thoreau)
Considered the greatest theoretical physicist in history, Albert Einstein wrote in a letter to Jost Winteler, “Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth”. Einstein refers to another physicist, Paul Drude, who dismissed Einstein’s critique of his electron theory of metals as out of hand. This quote speaks louder than just a feud between two physicists, as it also emulates the Transcendentalism period in American Literature. In the 1830’s, writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau challenged the accepted mainstream ideas. In Their essays Nature and Self- Reliance by Emerson …show more content…
Thoreau was Emerson’s protege, and lived his life to see if the ideas of transcendentalism are practical. Most famous of his exploits was his two year period living in a self- built log cabin at Walden Pond. There he wrote his journal accounting his experiences. On the subject of living so simply Thoreau writes, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand...simplicity of life and elevation of purpose”. Thoreau wants his audience to understand that with life less is more. Those who are limited in access to amenities, the rest of the population takes for granted, live with more purpose. Philip Cafaro, a philosophy professor at Colorado State University, divulges, “Thoreau’s simplicity clearly is not simplicity of thought or experience, which he seeks to complicate and enrich.... Thoreau sometimes seems to assert a necessary correlation between simple means and higher goals, on one hand, and complex means and vulgarity, on the other”. Thoreau shows that living with worry about physical objects distracts an individual from essential aspects of life, and results in a lack of sophistication. However, living with only what matters most in mind, results in achieving good and ambitious goals. As a result to living his philosophy, Thoreau is able to expand his abstract …show more content…
Emerson starts his powerful essay by writing, “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction the envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion”. Breaking this quote down, Emerson asserts that every person comes to certain conclusions about individuality. Chiefly, that jealousy of others is pointless and lacks information; as well as that one acting like another kills one’s individuality. Instead, one has to accept one’s abilities and faults. Through this, one discovers one’s individuality. Wesley T. Mott, Professor in the English at Worcester Polytechnic Institute examines, “...in "Self-Reliance," Emerson calls us not to be arrogantly self-defining or self-assertive but to be alert to our own resources, which means having the courage to accept and act out the "divine idea" in each person”. Mott explains that Emerson calls his audience to not only to accept realized truths in one’s self, but to accept the truths in other people.
Key concepts of transcendentalism are outlined by the essays of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Ancient philosopher, Socrates, once said, “An unexamined life is not worth living”. Emerson and Thoreau made their lives worth living by examining every aspect of it. Emerson declared that individuality should be held higher than conforming
These Dudes Wrote Some Pretty Dope Essays
(A Critique of Three Key Transcendentalism Ideas Outlined by Emerson and Thoreau)
Considered the greatest theoretical physicist in history, Albert Einstein wrote in a letter to Jost Winteler, “Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth”. Einstein refers to another physicist, Paul Drude, who dismissed Einstein’s critique of his electron theory of metals as out of hand. This quote speaks louder than just a feud between two physicists, as it also emulates the Transcendentalism period in American Literature. In the 1830’s, writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau challenged the accepted mainstream ideas. In Their essays Nature and Self- Reliance by Emerson …show more content…
Thoreau was Emerson’s protege, and lived his life to see if the ideas of transcendentalism are practical. Most famous of his exploits was his two year period living in a self- built log cabin at Walden Pond. There he wrote his journal accounting his experiences. On the subject of living so simply Thoreau writes, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand...simplicity of life and elevation of purpose”. Thoreau wants his audience to understand that with life less is more. Those who are limited in access to amenities, the rest of the population takes for granted, live with more purpose. Philip Cafaro, a philosophy professor at Colorado State University, divulges, “Thoreau’s simplicity clearly is not simplicity of thought or experience, which he seeks to complicate and enrich.... Thoreau sometimes seems to assert a necessary correlation between simple means and higher goals, on one hand, and complex means and vulgarity, on the other”. Thoreau shows that living with worry about physical objects distracts an individual from essential aspects of life, and results in a lack of sophistication. However, living with only what matters most in mind, results in achieving good and ambitious goals. As a result to living his philosophy, Thoreau is able to expand his abstract …show more content…
Emerson starts his powerful essay by writing, “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction the envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion”. Breaking this quote down, Emerson asserts that every person comes to certain conclusions about individuality. Chiefly, that jealousy of others is pointless and lacks information; as well as that one acting like another kills one’s individuality. Instead, one has to accept one’s abilities and faults. Through this, one discovers one’s individuality. Wesley T. Mott, Professor in the English at Worcester Polytechnic Institute examines, “...in "Self-Reliance," Emerson calls us not to be arrogantly self-defining or self-assertive but to be alert to our own resources, which means having the courage to accept and act out the "divine idea" in each person”. Mott explains that Emerson calls his audience to not only to accept realized truths in one’s self, but to accept the truths in other people.
Key concepts of transcendentalism are outlined by the essays of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Ancient philosopher, Socrates, once said, “An unexamined life is not worth living”. Emerson and Thoreau made their lives worth living by examining every aspect of it. Emerson declared that individuality should be held higher than conforming