Emerson and Inner Knowledge

Ralph Waldo Emerson seems to think that for a person to be truly knowledgeable, they have to look internally first. In his speech to that one college…hmmm….Harvard? yes, that sounds right, I guess I’ve heard of that one before.... he quotes Epictetus, saying that “All things have two handles. Beware of the wrong one.” If you’ve ever encountered this Epictetus dude, you’ll know that he’s a philosopher, and these philosophers like to ponder things. One of their favorite things to think about was what good was and where it came from. Well, old Mr. Epictetus here thought that pure good came from within oneself. I think that it’s safe to say that Emerson agrees with this. When Emerson talks about the degenerate state, he says that “when the victim of society, [man] tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking” (Baym 1139). The worst thing that can happen in Emerson’s mind is when a man becomes a parrot of other men and cannot speak for himself. Thoughts come from the inside, and when you just use other people’s thoughts, you’re not using that internal good that Epictetus talked about. Shame shame.
But don’t just think that you can go get on with your bad self just because you’ve got the good inside of you. Emerson thinks that we need to humble ourselves before God and nature. Emerson says that “Ever the wind blows, ever the grass grows. Every day, men and women, conversing, beholding and beholden. The scholar must stand wistful and admiring before this great spectacle. He must settle its value in his mind” (Baym 1139). When you’ve torn yourself away from Emerson’s amazing anaphora and cute little rhymes, you see that he understands that there are powerful forces internal and externally that shape a person. We all know that he loves nature (see his book Nature), and he connects this closely with God. Emerson writes “What is nature to [the American scholar]? There is never a beginning, there is never an end to the inexplicable continuity of this web of God, but always a circular power returning into itself” (Baym 1139). He then connects nature to knowledge, saying, “So much of nature as [the schoolboy] is ignorant of, so much of his own mind does he not yet possess. And, in fine, the ancient precept, “Know thyself,” and the modern precept, “Study nature,” become at last one maxim” (Baym). Oh snap, Ralphie. I guess this means to understand the good in oneself to achieve knowledge, one has to look to nature first. Then nature will help you understand yourself.


Cool.