Ralph Waldo Emerson Was More of a Term Paper

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Ralph Waldo Emerson was more of a pragmatic and realistic thinker than a philosopher in the true sense of the term. His views on life and existence and human thinking are therefore realist without being influenced by any religious dogma or creed. There are two underlying concepts in all his works- firstly the admiration and discussion of nature, its ways leading to the discussion of being. We can understand that with the view of Emerson that "life consists of constant movement and that we must never stand still lest we be crushed by the ceaseless barrage of life. Life only avails, not the having lived." (Emersoncentral, 2009)

This is with relation to the uniqueness of man -- in our times we can take it to be the human race -- both genders included. Thus Emerson feels that while other things have no differentiation-He claims that the ocean is the same very where, animals have the same traits, but man is superior in the sense that the entire faculty of the universe is housed in each individual. Man thus is the 'form of the formless, the concentration of the vast, the house of reason, the cave of memory.' (Emersoncentral, 2009)

Thus the life of the individual man is valuable in the sense that he or she ought to prize it and exist in every moment and not squander it on needless actions or worry. That is why he warns mankind that for the person, a life is something that the being can avail, it can be cherished and lived fully with forethought and universal wisdom, but the life must be lived in full. It is up to the individual to live the life of clarity without being crushed by the superfluous burdens and being under the weight of worries altogether stops moving forward.

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These two concepts of movement and the utmost care of choice of the individual regarding his or her direction therefore sums the philosophy of life from the viewpoint of Emerson. The second concept of stillness and motion are to be understood in this context. According to him, motion is change, and identity is the still ness and is the secrets of nature. (Bartleby, 2012b)

The entire universe is made thus of the same stuff, motion and still ness. Motion brings about continuous change and often transformation of our identities which we are afraid of. If we accept that motion is change, and then it is true too those changes occur always and that would never accept the existence of consistency. Change and consistency are polar opposites. That is why he says "foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," The duality of the assertion can be seen in modern times, in a really sophisticated system like the network. A good navigation system for example is based on absolute consistency. Because the system has to be reliable and moreover it has to repeat the same processes over and over again and thus it is consistent. Emerson, it is argued, did not object to consistency but foolish consistency. That would apply to networking and any system we have. (Sanders, 2010)

Nature appears to be….....

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