Transcendentalist Doctrines in “The American Scholar” by Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American philosopher and writer and one of the representatives of transcendentalism, which is a philosophical and literary movement that puts intuition higher than reason and supports reformation in institutionalized associations of society such as traditional religion. Transcendentalism, like every movement, has its values. Transcendentalists appreciated nature, the dignity of manual labor, intuition, self-reliance, and moving away from the past to create new things. These values function at revealing humankind’s worth in nature and at improving humankind, and a person who wants humanity to thrive should follow them. In other words, as someone who plays a key role in a society’s development, the American scholar is supposed to be influenced by the values of transcendentalism, according to Emerson’s "The American Scholar."

Firstly, the scholar should look to nature to find meaning and truth, just as transcendentalists do. Nature, they believe, not only contains knowledge beyond what human capacity can contain, but it can also nourish human intellect. Nature's symbolic world and aura can provide what one seeks because nature, above all, contains one's soul, their own identity. Thus, knowing nature, or at least studying it, provides the scholar with self-knowledge and self-awareness. The scholar can start to find answers and provide reform by synthesizing them if he first investigates nature and recognizes himself as part of nature.

The second thing Emerson mentions in his writing about what influences a scholar is wriggling out of the doctrines of the past. Transcendentalists, as American scholars, should value the knowledge of the past; however, they advocate that one should not rely only on it and establish new kinds of insight suitable for his generation because old information grew out of the new ideas of their thinkers for their generations. They may be useful for succeeding generations, but relying only on them will not enable them to go forward. "They are for nothing but to inspire" (Emerson 4). Thus, even though the scholar should learn what he can from old scholars and their books because all forms of knowledge are valuable, he must get outside the borders of tradition and the past to make progress.

The third influence Emerson emphasizes is active action and self-reliance. In transcendentalism, one’s trust in himself is considered very important because if one trusts himself, his knowledge, and his ideas, he is free, as Emerson states in the following quote: "In self-trust, all the virtues are comprehended. Free should the scholar be, ⎯ free and brave" (8). A confident scholar is free from the doctrines and sayings of others and is focused on his innovations. The freedom that comes from gaining a sense of self-space motivates the scholar to act on his ideas to change society. Action, according to Emerson, is an important part of being a scholar. Thinking is a good and valuable aspect of a person, but what makes a scholar fully functional are his actions. Thus, to be a good scholar, one is supposed to act, and to act, one should set himself free by trusting himself, his experiences, ideas, and his identity.

To sum up, in "The American Scholar," Emerson defines the scholar’s influences with the values of transcendentalism. He states that a scholar sees his soul and knows himself by investigating nature; through his trust in his identity, he becomes free in his actions and thus leads the reforms of his generation by worming himself out of the lines of the past and tradition.