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What Is Emerson's Belief In Hyper Individualism

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Reading Note #2 “I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius calls me.” “Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.” These criticisms found in Emerson’s Self Reliance, and his essay Friendship. These criticisms of Emerson’s show his belief in hyper-individualism. Evidence of Emerson’s belief in hyper individualism can be found in his texts. For example, in Emerson’s texts he states, “It is simpler to be self-dependent. The height, the deity of man is, to be self-sustained, to need no gift, no foreign force.” (Emerson Text 4) Emerson believed that life in its simplest form is being self-dependent. Emerson believed that the height of man the highest level a man can get to in life is being …show more content…

To be able to function and live without any help from anyone and having no foreign force coming in and affecting your self dependency is what merson defined as the deity of man. Emerson is a firm believer in being highly individualistic and breaking off from society. Emerson wanted to achieve total focus on one self. Emerson believed this would make life much simpler and believed this is what man was created to be; an individual not part of a group at large or dependent on others. This quote is another perfect illustration of how Emerson believed in hyper-individualism. Another quote found in the Emerson text that supports this criticism is “Society is good when it does not violate me; but best when it is likest to solitude. Everything real is self-existent.” (Emerson Text 4) In this quote Emerson explains that society is fine as long as it does not encroach on his individualism and is best when it adds to his solitude. Everything in the world that is real in the world is able to be self existent. In comparison, something that is not able to exist on its own is not real. Throughout Emerson’s texts there is sufficient evidence that Emerson firmly believed in

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