What are the duties of the American Scholar?

What are the duties of the American Scholar?

The scholar’s first and most important duty is to develop unflinching self-trust and a mind that will be a repository of wisdom for other people. This is a difficult task, Emerson says, because the scholar must endure poverty, hardship, tedium, solitude, and other privations while following the path of knowledge.

Who is the audience of The American Scholar?

The American Scholar is Emerson’s intended audience for the essay. The American Scholar is a collective term for post-Revolutionary War college students who are capable, according to Emerson, of finally breaking away from European influences and pioneering new forms of art and philosophies that are uniquely American.

What is the nature of the American Scholar?

In “The American Scholar,” Emerson emphasizes the particular role that nature has in a scholar’s development. Emerson believed that man was one with nature, and that by studying nature man could learn more about himself and all of mankind.

What was Emerson’s view on the role of a scholar?

Emerson believed that, for the scholar, realizing the connection between humans and nature was a primary gateway to understanding: “And, in fine, the ancient precept, ‘Know thyself,’ and the modern precept, ‘Study nature,’ become at last one maxim” (1611).

What is a mere thinker?

Scholars who were once thinking men (what Emerson likes to call the “Man Thinking”) have become “mere thinkers,” lacking the ability to act upon their thoughts. In making clear the scholars’ current status in society, Emerson hopes to influence them to act upon their duties as scholars.

What is the definition of self reliance?

: reliance on one’s own efforts and abilities.