Thursday, February 23, 2012
Am I a transcendentalist?
I would say that I am a transcendentalist because I do think that everyone is their own independent self, and it should stay like that. Everyone should be themselves; if they're not, they keep living a lie because they seem as something they're not to other people. In Emerson's "Self-Reliance", he states, "To believe your own thought, to believe what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, --that is genius." Although I think this applies to women as well, I think that this statement is true for everyone. People should know what they believe is true and what is not in their own heart, and they should follow their heart.
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ReplyDeleteI completely agree. People aren't going to be happy if they aren't themselves and they are indeed living a lie when they pretend to be something they're not.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the fact that people need to be themselves and depend upon themselves, but I feel that there is more to transcendentalism than just being who you are. You also have the institution aspect and finding the inner God. Both Emerson and Fuller use the idea of finding that divine within yourself, something of which changed my thinking of whether I was a trascendentalist or not. Although the point that you made was something I found myself in agreement with too, I also realized that there is more to transcendentalism that just being self-reliant, and I feel that we should all understand that transcendentalism isn't soley based on Emerson's passage of being who you are.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that people need to depend on themselves and find the inner God. However, I feel that sometimes this can lead into selfish things like what Emerson says about "I do not wish to please him; I wish that he should wish to please me." Generally, living for yourself seems like it would be a good thing, I just feel like it sometimes is somewhat selfish.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with what you're saying about needing to be yourself in order to be happy. But I don't always think it is necessary for a person to be completely independent. If everyone was totally independent, we wouldn't need churches, or schools, or welfare, or relationships. While I can see some benefit in that, I think that the dependency that humans have on each other can be a truly beautiful thing. Relationships with others can open your mind up to things you would never know before by just looking within yourself. So I disagree that "[n]othing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." (Self-reliance, page 2).
ReplyDeleteI agree that people shouldn't be reliant on others, but look at history; did any single person ever accomplish anything without the help of others? People should be capable of standing on their own, but not eager to reject the help of others solely on the basis of promoting one's self-worth and independece.
ReplyDeleteEmerson says that "imitation is suicide," but most of the greatest innovations of our time were based off some other piece of work. I don't believe that the sincerest form of flattery is suicide.