Own Philosophy

During the last couple of weeks in class we have been leaning about Romanticism and Transcendentalism which are philosophy that deal up close with the individual soul and not conforming. I believe that there is truly no way for an individual not to conform to its surroundings. I also believe that for a society to run smoothly and safely, a government figure is needed. We as individuals are capable of doing good, but some bad as well and that is why we need government to lead us and keep control over us. I'm not saying I prefer government to completely rule over the people, what I'm saying is we need some type of leader to keep society in a good path. I do believe people are one with nature and that great things come from nature since our world did start from just that, but the idea of rebelling from society is not particularly a very smart one. Our society should have individual freedoms but also some type of government.

Thoreau

Thoreau is a new author that we learned this week while studying transcendentalism. To me Thoreau went to the extreme with his beliefs on transcendentalism. He respected and followed Emerson's ways and beliefs, then decided to do put it all to practice by living on his own within nature. He depended on himself by living outside of society's rules and regulations. He felt that by living on his won withing nature he wouldn't find himself conforming, but in the end he say that he was and decided to move on as he realized he had not accomplished what he wanted to in life. He lived "to find purpose, simplicity, and a life away from society." He also suggested to limit affairs to two or three instead of 100 which would limit complexity. Nowadays Thoreau would think of our modern lifestyle as a nightmare since it goes against all his beliefs because we are about more speed and technology.

Emerson/Transcendentalism

This week we have been introduced to transcendentalism which is an extreme side to Romanticism and was an intellectual movement that took place during the romantic period. Transcendentalist basically believed that all people are good and that individuals could all experience God first hand, which is the complete opposite of what the puritans believed. Transcendentalism based their beliefs of the individual and highly believe on intuition, "the highest power of the soul." They were very close to nature and believed it reflected the ideal world. Nature was a way for the soul to teach itself and not conform to society's ways. It taught to follow personal beliefs other than society's beliefs. Emerson, a transcendentalist, believed that the "soul's emphasis is always right." He focused on his own thought the seeked for religion outside of the church instead. He gave many speeches which helped into the leading of the abolishment of slavery. Nowadays we don't see many of these thought around since out society is strictly influenced by the government.