Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. Emerson is known as the first Motivational speaker. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.


Emerson gradually moved away from his contemporaries' religious and social beliefs, formulating and expressing the philosophy of transcendentalism in his 1836 essay "Nature." Following this work, he gave a speech entitled "The American Scholar" in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. considered to be America's "intellectual Declaration of Independence." Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures first and then revised them for print. His first two collections of essays – Essays: First Series (1841) and Essays: Second Series (1844) – represent the core of his thinking. They include the well-known essays "Self-Reliance," "The Over-Soul," "Circles," "The Poet," and "Experience." Together with "Nature," these essays made the decade from the mid-1830s to the mid-1840s Emerson's most fertile period.


Emerson's "nature" was more philosophical than naturalistic: "Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul," he wrote in Nature; "Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate from us, all which Philosophy distinguishes by the name Object, and considers as outside Nature and incapable of mutual influence with her, is relatively nothing for us. That is to say, it is soul or spirit." Emerson believed that divinity manifested itself in nature, constantly revealing God to humanity through creation. Consequently, he wrote that Christianity had its origins not in miracle stories or in revealed truth from on high but rather in human experience:

Conclusion

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He advocated for individualism over society's countervailing pressures. Emerson expressed his thoughts through dozens of published essays and over 1500 public lectures across America. Many consider him one of America's most influential thinkers.

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