Question

Read this excerpt from Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance” and decide whether it is biased. Explain your answer as well as what you can conclude from this excerpt.
To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,—that is genius. . . Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribeto assign; credit to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naughtnone; no books and traditions, and spoke not what men, but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within. . . . Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

Answer 1

Answer:

Hi! I don't think this excerpt from Emerson's essay Self-Reliance is biased. I think it is his opinion that people usually don't pay much attention to their own thoughts, for being of their own, and they should because they are usually good, meaningful thoughts.

Explanation:

In this passage, Emerson explains how well known geniuses like Moses, Plato and Milton sat at naughtone, with no books, nor traditions, and spoke what they thought inside them, their truth, without dismissing it for the fact that there were their own. They gave a place to those thoughts, they believed in them and gave them importance. That, Emerson says, we should copy. We should pay more attention to our thoughts and give them importance because they are the voice of our hearts, the real voice of our souls. We dismiss them very quickly and we shouldn't. I, personally, agree. I think that we pay more attention to what other, wiser in our heads, people say we should or should not do, but no one knows better that us what is correct in our lives. We, therefore, should address those feelings and confront them. Analyze whether it is a good or a bad thought, but embrace it because having born inside of us is not reason enough to dismiss it, on the contrary, it gives it more importance.

Answer 2

In this excerpt, Emerson is in favor of, and stresses the importance of, individual intellect and moral development. He urges readers to look within—into their inner selves to seek inspiration and attain self-reliance rather than imitating others or adopting age-old ideas, which society has practiced over time. He uses examples of great thinkers such as Moses, Milton, and Plato, who thought for themselves and didn’t let society and established ideas influence them. Emerson further stresses that people should not dismiss their own ideas, only to discover them in others’ works, but learn to nurture and accept their potential. When people are able to accept and trust their own thoughts, they will be able to come up with ideas as brilliant and original as those of any wise man.