A Liberal Reading Of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Among the very important thoughts in America, liberalism has played a leading role in America's politics, religion, economy and even life. Ralph Waldo Emerson, with his philosophical speech and literature works, undoubtedly, has exerted profound impacts on the United States. Very often, scholars have studied a lot in his transcendentalism or individualism. Nonetheless, his ideas of liberalism have been suggestively and implicitly mentioned in his most works though he himself rarely elaborates them and few studies have been carried on this perspective. Based on a thorough reading of Emerson's philosophical and literature works, this thesis aims at arguing the connotation or essence of Emerson's liberalism, which are his critical attitude toward tradition, his suspect of government and his respect for natural rights.To begin with, mentioning Emerson's liberalism through his critical attitude towards tradition especially in religion, he, basically, advocated religious reform and summoned preachers to open a new chapter of praying and preaching with no discrimination or limits. Besides, the political elements in Emerson's liberalism cover with his suspect of government, particularly his support of antislavery and women's equality. Emerson again and again, in his essays, demands human's natural rights whatever his gender or race is. Furthermore, Emerson's liberalism concerned with individual beings, especially their natural rights of being an independent man, striving to be hero and preserving rights of property.This thesis, on the basis of a thorough reading of Emerson's essays, poems or lectures and also others' comments and books on his ideas, attempts to argue that Emerson reveals his connotations of liberalism,namely his critical attitude toward tradition, suspect of government, and respect for natural rights, while inculcating his liberalism in politics, religion and in private life.