Emerson's upbringing played a substantial role in the formation of his philosophy and thought. The son of a Unitarian minister, Emerson was trained for the pulpit, but he found the church to be far too "confining." Emerson instead chose to proclaim his views on God, the soul, and Nature through his writing.

Emerson can best be described as a "poet philosopher" rather than a "technical" one. Emerson's philosophy can be viewed as "romantic individualism" or transcendentalism with special emphasis on romantic notions, such as that of the 'individual' (1).

In "American Scholar" Emerson presents his view of man. Man is not a part of the whole, or even the sum of his parts, but rather man is "all." Emerson frowns on society's development of the individual. Instead of creating originality and genius ("Man Thinking"), society has created a class of "victim[s]" who can only "parrot other men's thinking" (2a).

For Emerson the most important influence upon the mind was that of "nature," and he felt that the true scholar should be actively engaged in the "spectacle" of the nature around him. The supreme power of nature is the major recurring theme in Emerson (and most transcendental literature). I

The most interesting Emersonian principle lay in his command to "speak what you think now," while being prepared to speak tomorrow a whole other set of ideals if you feel differently (5b). This concept is very pragmatic; it demonstrates the variability of the belief process and the movement from belief to doubt that would later be explored by Peirce. The statement also extols the pragmatic maxim of using 'whatever works'.

This concept is echoed in Emerson's description of the "total act." He declares thinking and living to be "partial," but combined they form the totality of our existence (2g). Again, here an emphasis is on unity rather than on fragmentation.

(b) Quotation from Emerson's "Nature" as cited by Woodlief:

Some common words found in the essay are:
God Emersonian, Reliance Emerson, Scholar Emerson, American Scholar, Philosopher Emerson's, University Press, Emerson Nature, Emerson's Nature, God Nature, Emerson Individualist, ralph waldo, american scholar, philosophy ed john, york oxford university, instead creating, university press, stuhr york, oxford university, john stuhr, press 2000, stuhr york oxford, ed john stuhr, emerson ralph, philosophy ed, oxford university press,
Approximate Word count = 1082
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)