1 / 7

Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”

Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”. Background. ~35 years old Lots of flack from his speech on religion & scholarship at Harvard (“The American Scholar”) Left ministry a few years earlier Wife died after only 18 months of marriage (tuberculosis) No real career path or job (write & speak?).

keene
Télécharger la présentation

Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”

  2. Background • ~35 years old • Lots of flack from his speech on religion & scholarship at Harvard (“The American Scholar”) • Left ministry a few years earlier • Wife died after only 18 months of marriage (tuberculosis) • No real career path or job (write & speak?)

  3. Self-reliance • All we can ever know is within us • Not selfish or self-centered because all have access to truth, though few discover it

  4. Self-reliance • Innate wisdom • Projection of God within us • Few access it • Prophets and poets (artists)

  5. Self-reliance • Believe in yourself • Says this over and over and over • A new powerful idea in 1838 • In every Disney show and self-help book today • Don’t let others interpret life for you • Ophelia Syndrome

  6. Self-reliance • Weaknesses in the argument • Trusts in innate goodness • Discounts or ignores environmental pressures • Manliness of essay • Be a man • Preachers and teachers viewed a bit less masculine than others then—and now? that’s why I joined the army first! (-: • Concept of “fate” • Limitations imposed by circumstances • Imprisoned by our own wisdom? • We can’t receive truth or wisdom from the outside?

  7. Nice metaphors • “The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency.” –Emerson “Self-Reliance” • Spiral out of grief—C.S. Lewis A Grief Observed or his approaching God “wave” • The spirals of Mt. Parnassus & Mt. Purgatory

More Related