Reaction Blog:Kateb

Kateb’s analysis of Emerson’s “Self- Reliance” provides a more in depth version of the essay. He expands on the points made by Emerson in a new way. Through many quotes and examples, Kateb elaborates and elaborates on the topic of self-reliance.

            “He preaches self-reliance because he thinks that all people already have self-reliant moments and could more successfully become self-reliant if they tried. Self-reliance is thus not a doctrine of superiority to average humanity. Rather it is a doctrine urging the elevation of democracy to its full height, free of the aristocratic, but also free of the demotic (Kateb)”.  I found this quote very interesting. Kateb thinks that Emerson believes that everyone is self confident, and has the potential to be the best person they could possibly be, but they have the choice of whether or not to try to reach this potential. I am not sure whether I think this is true or not. I do believe that everyone has the potential to be the best person he or she can be. However, I am not so certain that everyone can just try really hard in order to be the best they can be. It is all about finding yourself, and the struggle to get to a point in your life in which you can confidently say that you are you, and that is all you will be. When I read “Self-Reliance”, I thought that that is what Emerson intended, not the point that Kateb makes.

“Emerson aims at making his philosophy difficult and elusive. He means to disappoint the expectation that he will supply doctrinal conclusions. His belief in the possibility of truth requires him, he thinks, to commit himself only for a time to a particular value, principle or idea (or to any practice or institution derivative from them), and then to a contrasting one for a time, trying at the same time to withhold a final judgment, a definite assent, whenever possible (Kateb)”. This point, made by Kateb I agree with. While reading Emerson’s essay, many people expected Emerson to have groundbreaking solutions to finding self-reliance. Unfortunately for them, Emerson gives a very factual statement saying that the only way to truly achieve this is to make time in order to figure it out all by themselves. They can do so by using factual, intellectual reasoning in order for them to figure out just who they are and how they can manage to be themselves in their environment. Kateb makes a good point, by doing all of these steps, and after quite some time, these goals of self reliance can finally be reached.

Overall, I agree with some points of Kateb’s analysis, but at the same time I also disagree with some parts also. Emerson’s essay can be taken many ways, and Kateb’s analysis is just one example of the many points of view that can be taken from such an essay as Emersons. All in all, I thought it was a pretty good essay with some decent points. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance and the Life of the Mind." In Emerson's Transcendental Etudes. Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. 2003. Quoted as "Self-Reliance and the Life of the Mind" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Updated Edition, Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= MCVRWE011&SingleRecord=True (accessed December 10, 2012).