My post is in response to Mohammed Uddin’s post that can be found here.

In your post, I found many similar thoughts I had about Emerson’s views shown in “The American Scholar.” You first mention nature and how Emerson believes that nature is essential to man. I also agree with this theory. Nature is the only thing we hold to, when we are born. It is the “first in time and the first in importance of the influences upon the mind (Emerson, page 2).” When we allow nature to take control, we allow ourselves to gain more knowledge that the world holds. Nature has no “beginning [and] there is never an end” instead it follows a “circular power returning into itself (page 2).” Nature is ongoing which is why the knowledge we can gain from it, is boundless. We should allow ourselves to experience nature and gain from what it has to offer. When we don’t use nature, our “minds does not yet possess (page 3)” all that it can attain.

I especially agree with you on Emerson’s similarities to Rousseau and Locke. Rousseau believed that our education comes from “nature, from men, or from other things.” Emerson believes that nature, the past, and action help build an education. They both have an organized and strategic view on education. Like Emerson, Rousseau relied on nature and “freedom, not power (Rousseau 5).” He comes up with the idea that “nature provides for the child’s growth in her own fashion (Rousseau, 6).” While experiencing nature at young age, we allow push ourselves to think more thoroughly and divert from any other influence on our ideas. These are ideas expressed in both Emerson’s and Rousseau’s views.

Locke’s beliefs can be summed up “in one word, from experience (Locke, 5).” He believed in experiencing the world on our own, leaning towards sensations and reflections. Emerson also believed in experiencing and taking action. The world, which lies all around us, holds the key “to unlock [our] thoughts (Emerson, 6).” When we apply ourselves, we are only allowing ourselves to gain more wisdom. Both Locke and Emerson realized that books and teachers aren’t the essentials to learning but rather experience, which also connect to Rousseau’s thoughts on nature.

I agree with everything Uddin expresses in his post. Sometimes we focus on just learning in school, through teachers and books. However, in order to expand our knowledge and gain as much as we can, we must allow nature and experience to take part. Books are not enough.