Emerson

Quick biographical note: Emerson's lectures and writings suggest that he looked on life as good, in fact very good, as he consistently offered exhortations to "Self-Reliance" and self-awareness. Emerson's perspective seems to hold that we can "touch the Divine." Thus it is very important that we note Emerson was not some lucky and privileged individual extolling the virtues of a life that was for him easy. He held to his optimism in the face of more than his fair share of life's adversities. He lost his first wife to tuberculosis, a disease that also debilitated his father, and sent three of his brothers to their deaths. He endured scorn and hatred for daring to offer his revolutionary views in various of his lectures (I believe it was his "Divinity School Address" that led to his being "dis-invited" to Harvard for some time).

He was seen by many (including friends) as cool and emotionally distant, as might be expected from one individually battling life's harshest turns. One of his finest lines must be, "I grieve that grief can teach me nothing," [from "Experience'] suggesting that if there is something to learn from so much pain, the lesson cannot be found for the horrible, fully-felt pain. If I can suggest (and I will) that Emerson was at root a happy man, the happiness was hard earned; his spiritual resiliency was sorely tested.

"The American Scholar"

This piece discusses knowledge and the route to Truth. [Capital T mine, reflecting my distinction between that which purports to be higher, or universal Truth and that which stands as empirical, pragmatic, or earthly truth.]

Premise: man has many functions;

• Point 1: from necessity or convenience, mankind divides his tasks and functions among men;
• Point 2: this has the effect of reducing many to truncated pieces of men, as matching their tasks (some fingers, some stomachs, etc.);
• Point 3: man is thus reduced from a being or person to a thing (or a number of men are a number of things); dignity of task is lost.

Second premise: the scholar reflects the intellect; it is the obligation of the scholar to be Man Thinking (human) rather than the thinker (thing or object);

• Source of genuine thinking 1: Nature (parallel this to Thoreau's "experiment" at Walden Pond);
• Source of genuine thinking 2: the Past, including books (see the caveat on the top of 852: man thinking vs. man parroting books);
• Source of genuine thinking 3: earthly effort, toil, and action.

Duties of the Man Thinking

• include a willingness to detach himself from the issues of the day and think on the greater issues of human existence (top 857);
• the scholar must be free and brave (free to think as he will; willing to confront error);
• must understand (top 858) "that the world [is] ... plastic and fluid ..."; that Truth or at least knowledge changes with time and progress.

Concludes (862) with very individualistic notion of knowledge and judgment: "We will walk with our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak with our own minds."