Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Philosophy Essay, Research Paper

Emerson s Philosophy

Ralph Waldo Emerson, nineteenth century poet and writer, expresses a philosophy of life, based on our inner self and the presence of the soul. Emerson regarded and learned from the great minds of the past, he says repeatedly that each person should live according to his own thinking. I will try to explain Emerson s philosophy, according to what I think he is the central theme in all his works.

Do not seek answers outside yourself (self reliance)

This is the main idea of Waldo s philosophy. He thinks that a man should learn to express himself. Being yourself will help you to solve the problems of your life. We need to trust ourselves in order to improve our life, like all great men have done. Self-reliance stems from within deep in our soul which is the pillar of our personal power and self-respect. This source of all greatness, sets us free form the ego and helps us to transcend through the ideals of love, truth and justice; some people call this the moral sense . The soul cannot be completely defined or described but it is the only thing we can be absolutely sure of, since all other facts are temporary. Being ourselves allows us to obtain many more answers and to understand our unconscious intentions. Humans may exceed their limited ideas by realizing that God does exists and that in Him, we will find many answers if we open ourselves to Him.

The soul is the creative essence, while all of creation, including art which is human unity with natural things, is said to as Nature. In Nature the soul sees the picture of its own pure essence manifest, seeing beauty, truth, and justice in its laws. Nature in life teaches the understanding, is a practicing for the intellect in learning how to deal with life s problems. From Emerson s transcendental (a word I had to learn its meaning in order to understand Waldo s theory) view the natural figures are also symbols of spirituals facts or philosophy. That by interacting with nature people learn not only what is practical but also what is good; for Emerson the nature and the soul are perfectly complementary.

Waldo says that is good to learn from the books as long as the reader keeps his creativity and way of thinking; that by practical experience we learn quickly and well.

A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from with in, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages.

He tries to makes us realize our own virtues by calling our internal means, that s the way to answers to many questions, and even answers for the question we haven t even shape. To keep the integrity of one s internal evolution.

When people begin to realize that autonomy and the expression of your thoughts is right for them, then many good changes will happen in society. Emerson s, not only poems, leads the facts of extended view of progressive learning, but also offers insights into age-old or natural method as better than new technology based on experimentation. In many of his poems he compares the beauty of the nature, and expresses, with nature and natural process we can find the answers to all challenges.