Similarities Between Enlightenment And Song Of Myself

The Great Awakening and Enlightenment period are two movements, rather eras in the historical time of the western world. They’ve created incredible ideas as far as changing the lives of the general population. Extraordinary, excitement occurred after the Enlightenment era and some consider it a response to Enlightenment. While the two developments influenced the western world, there were several similarities and differences amongst Enlightenment and the Great Awakening. The Enlightenment period is between the late 17th century and the entire 18th century and the First Great Awakening began in the 18th century. The Great Awakening was different from the Enlightenment Era because its main purpose was to create a religious and spiritual movement. The Enlightenment Era however, was a movement that centered on scientific spirit and reasoning. The similarities between them was that they both wanted to create an innovative idea of principles which spread across the nation.

The factors contributed to the relative strengths of the British, French, and Spanish empires in North America was

While the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening seem to be opposites, it is remarkable how they are connected. The Enlightenment was a period of time from the late 1600’s through the 1700’s that saw a huge increase in knowledge and literacy but a decline in the practice of religion. People began to drift away from the church and question the leadership of pastors and priests. The Great Awakening is almost the polar opposite. It was a reaction to the Enlightenment from the church and Christians who saw the negative trend that the world was going.

The American Revolution, like any historical event, came as a result of a variety of complex influences of the time. The immediate reasons for the break from imperial rule are well understood. As the story goes, the debts incurred from the French and Indian War as well as the ongoing cost of stationing troops in the colonies put a heavy burden on the royal treasury. Thus, Parliament levied a series of taxes on the colonists. When cries for equal representation in Parliament went ignored in England, the colonists underwent a series of boycotts and protests that eventually led to declaring independence and full-on war with the royal crown in 1776. However, what occurred was nowhere near this simple. The question remains: how could the colonists

"What is man anyhow? What am I? What are you?" asks Whitman. Who we are, what our purpose is and what the meaning of life is are all mysteries that man has tried to solve from his earliest history. Whitman and Emerson explore these ideas in their works, Song of Myself and Self Reliance. Whitman, an American poet, and Emerson, an American philosopher, take different approaches in their search for self-discovery, yet within their solutions, many parallels can be found.

In “Song of Myself” Whitman attempts to speak on behalf of the entire American population. He tries to pull the reader into a world of many possibilities. Whitman makes a

There are many viewpoints of ‘being free’ and the measures it takes for these restrictions to be removed for freedom. Immanuel Kant and Mary Wollstonecraft represent a separate matter of individuals being restricted within a boundary. They both stand for a particular group of people that exists within the world. Kant believes that the human population subconsciously feel that they have no ‘reason’ to express their emotions or think independently, and as a result they develop a fear of being criticised or judged upon in society by those who hold great power. He proposes that a person needs to gain ‘courage’ that is a requirement of ‘Enlightenment’ to think and act freely, but expressing one’s

Enlightenment began as an intellectual movement in the 17th and 18th century among European philosophers. It emphasized individual reason over tradition. In other words, enlightenment is illustrated by a belief in the authority of and need for human reason, particularly in regards to politics, education, and religion. The ideas of enlightenment were explored predominately by philosophers like Kant, Goethe, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Adam Smith. Living towards the end of the age of Enlightenment, Emmanuel Kant wrote about his experiences and understandings in regards to enlightenment, the threads of these ideas can be seen through the writings of other philosophers like Hume, Schleiermacher, and Herbert of Cherbury.

After this line, Emerson goes on to tell us to “trust thyself, every heart vibrates to that iron string” (“Self-Reliance”). He believes that the foundation of Self-reliance depends on self-trust. The imagery of other vibrations being in sync with your own trust demonstrates that in order to feel harmony with the other truths we seek, it must first resonate with trust in your own reason. Similarly, in Kant’s autonomy, the only person who has a right to dictate and legislate a life is the individual himself. He states that “the concept of every rational being as one must regard himself legislating law by all his will’s maxims” (Ethical Philosophy, pg 39). Kant believes that the success of universal law depends on the self-legislation of rational beings according to his own set of maxims. This signifies that reason can only work when you believe it; in other words, when you have the self-trust outlined by Emerson. Similar to the way Self-Reliance depends on trust in our own reason, Kant’s autonomy only works when individuals follow laws that are made by their own will.

The concept of freedom has long been a popular tenet for philosophers to explore. From ancient Greek origins to the present day, many individuals have discussed the importance of freedom and the role it plays within society in an effort to define its relationship to the human condition. Two philosophers that have studied freedom in depth are John Locke and Immanuel Kant. Both philosophers viewed freedom as playing a major role in society; however, they conceptualized it in different ways, particularly in relation to its role with the nation. Perhaps the most notable aspect of these stances is Kant’s definition of the relationship between freedom, reason, and morality.

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself / and what I shall assume you shall assume” (Whitman 1-2). These lines not only open up the beginning of one the best poems of the American Romantic period, but they also represent a prominent theme of one of this period’s best poet, Walt Whitman. In Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, Whitman deals with his time period’s most prominent theme of democracy. Whitman tells readers that they must not only observe the democratic life but they must become one with it. As Whitman states, “For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (3). Democracy provides a connection with all people. It is as if Joseph Stella felt this connection and decided to depict it in his collection of paintings entitled “Americans in the Rough.” The individual is of no greater or lesser worth than anyone else. Beatrice Marovich states that, “It is a song for fellow Americans, about the American body politic” (349). An analysis of Song of Myself portrays that understanding and becoming one with democracy through political collectivity essentially sets the stage for the American democratic self. Joseph Stella does a great job of interpreting and depicting Whitman’s ideals of democracy through his illustrations representing every facet of an American democratic life.

Diamond, L. 2000, 'Promoting Real Democracy', Blueprint Magazine, January 1, 2000, viewed 16 September 2007, http://www.ppionline.orgDoyle, M. W. 1983, "Kant, Liberal Legacies,

In his first anthology of poems entitled “Song of Myself”, Walt Whitman reveals some of his views on democracy through the use of symbolism and free verse poetry. His use of symbolism and free verse poetry creates indeterminacy, giving the reader hints rather than answers about the nature of the poem. In the sixth part of “Song of Myself”, a child asks the narrator of the poem, “What is the grass?” (Whitman). Instead of simply giving an answer, the narrator cannot make up his mind, and stumbles on how to explain the grass to the child. Through the use of specific symbolisms, Whitman, as the narrator, explicates his views while remaining under the façade of explaining grass to the child. The views Whitman conveys remain indeterminate and

Kant explains that, "enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred immaturity". Immaturity is man's incompetence to have direction for oneself. In other words, enlightenment is the progress of a society through the free activity of rational thought and scholarly critique. Kant feels that if we are going to liberate ourselves from immaturity then we must be able to use our

In Kant’s writing, he discusses how someone becomes enlightened and how an individual needs to be able to escape from there self-incurred immaturity. Kant says that self-incurred immaturity is, “The inability to use ones own understanding without the guidance of another.” Immaturity, according to Kant, is being unable to make sense of things on your own, and without another person to help you make those conclusions. My