Emerson's Conception Of Self

The principal concern of this thesis is to explore a multi-dimensional interpretation of Emersonian individualism and to reach a fuller and deeper view of Emerson's conception of self by extending the important reversionary work that has already been done on Emerson and individualism. In this thesis I will demonstrate Emerson's great concern with the value of self. For Emerson, self is able to achieve self-actualization through balanced and pragmatic self-transcendence and become a good-humored Emerosnian social hero by following such principles like "creative antagonism", healthy individualism and experimental self-involving circles. I will first show the multiple sources of Emerson's ideas on self. Chapter one will cover the origins of Emerson's thoughts. Emerson's intellectual origins includes: Idealism, Puritan tradition, Hinduism, Chinese philosophy and secular individualism. At the beginning of the first chapter, I will also try to give a general definition of self, since Emerson never tries to give, or more exactly tries to avoid giving, a systematic demonstration of his ideas. Following Qian Mansu's study of Emerson, especially her research work on Emersonian individualism in her book, Emerson and China: Reflection of Individualism, and some other scholars' criticism of Emerson, this paper then is in the track to demonstrate my own three dimensional reading and interpretation of Emerson's works like "Heroism", "Self-reliance", "Transcendentalists", Nature and other essays, journals and lectures. I will emphasize this new interpretation of Emerson's conception of self from the following three dimensions: the heroic self, the autonomous self and self-transcendence. Chapter two will focus on the first aspect of Emerson's conception of self--the heroic self, exploring it from its four characteristics: war-like attitude, self-trust, virtue and good-humor. It notes that Emerson, as a descendent of progressive Unitarian family, reinterprets the concept of "Heroism" by combining the spirit of the times and traditional virtues to meet the spiritual need of the era when the United States, after the political independence, is trying to prove its autonomy both economically and culturally, while traditional virtues and values are threatened and challenged by the thriving capitalist economy. A deeper exploration of the core of the Emesonian self will be done in chapter three. It covers the divinity and infinitude of self and Emersonian principles in self-reliance. It also points out the secularization of Emerson' Puritanism into a self-culture, man's divinity as the basis of his uniqueness, the infinitude of the sacred power which leads to self-sufficiency of the individual and the "creative antagonism" and healthy individualism which assures the practical achievement of self-actualization through a self-evolving circle pattern. The fourth chapter will bring out disputes on Emerson's self-transcendence. After uncovering Emerson's "Transcendentalist image", I suggest the basis of Emersonian self-transcendence is neither the goodness of God, nor the evilness of man, but "the use of power". As the "modern era's first philosopher of power", Emerson actually contends that self-transcendence relies not on idealistic existence, or the fixed environment, but the pragmatic use of power in any form. Therefore, the transcendence of the Emersonian self is limited but practical; the realization of Emersonian social hero and self-reliance has to be in the life-long self-evolving circles.