Question: Discuss the value of the action as Emerson conceives it.
Or, What is the value of action for the American Scholar?
Or, What value does the action have for the American Scholar?
Or, What is the necessity of action for the American Scholar?
Or, What is the role of action for the American Scholar? Explain with reference to The American Scholar?
Answer: The most important aspect of the American Scholar is his actions. Before Emerson scholarship was regarded as a mere intellectual pursuit, devoid of any action. Such a scholar can only provide thoughts, ideas, and philosophies, but no action. But the progress of a country is impossible without action, and such a scholar is totally ineffective in bringing about the progress of a country. So, in order to effect a cultural revolution, Emerson conceives of a scholar who is given to both intellectual pursuit and physical action. Not only that, Emerson thinks that action gives us new ideas, a new language, and a new vocabulary. Thus, the American Scholar, according to Emersonian conception, is a unique human being-a combination of thought and action, of body and mind, of which action forms the more important ingredient. The cultural revolution of America is possible only by such a unique being.
According to Emerson, action gives the richest wisdom. So, it is an essential element of a scholar. He puts forth his total strength in fit actions and gets the richest return in terms of wisdom. Life is our dictionary. Actions give us a language by which to illustrate and embody our perceptions. The knowledge that a man acquires is expressed through his speech, which in turn, gives out how much he has been a man of action. The amount of his action gives us an idea of how much action he has been involved in, his life up to that point. His action gives poverty or splendour to his speech.
Action is a resource, and that is its final value. It is better than books, as a source of knowledge. There is the great principle of undulation in nature. It shows itself in the inspiring and expiring of the breath; it shows itself in desire and satiety, in the ebb and flow of the sea, in day and night, in heat and cold. It is deeply ingrained in every atom and every fluid. It is known to us under the name of polarity. Newton has called them the "fits of easy transmission and reflection.” They are the law of nature because they are the law of the spirit. In the same way, thoughts and actions alternate. Each fit thought produces its corresponding action, and each fit action produces its corresponding thought or knowledge. When the artist has exhausted his materials, when the fancy no longer paints, when thoughts are no longer apprehended and books are a weariness, he has always the resource to live. He has acted as the prime source of his knowledge. To quote Emerson, "... the final value of action, like that of books, and better than books, is that it is a resource. That great principle of undulation in nature, that shows itself in the inspiring and expiring of the breath; in desire and satiety; in the ebb and flow of the sea; in day and night; in heat and cold; and as yet more deeply ingrained in every atom and every fluid, is known to us under the name of polarity.
The mind now thinks ... when the artist has exhausted his materials when the fancy no longer paints when thoughts are no longer apprehended and books are a weariness he has always the resources to live.”
Emerson points out that it is wrong to think that the scholar should be a recluse, a kind of invalid unfit for any handiwork or general labour. The so-called practical men mock a scholar, as if a scholar can only speculate or see, but can do nothing practically. This view needs to be corrected. A scholar must also be a man of action. Action may have secondary importance for him, but it is essential. Without action, the scholar is not yet a man. Without action, his thoughts can never ripen into truth. Inaction or inactivity is a sign of cowardice, but there can be no true scholar without a heroic mind. The true scholar never misses an opportunity for action. To him, every opportunity of action that is lost means a loss of power. Action is the raw material out of which the intellect moulds its splendid products. He who devotes his total strength to action obtains the richest return of wisdom. The scholar must be eager to perform the action, for actions are the sources of vocabulary he needs. Action is a kind of diction. Action and events of childhood are the raw materials for future creation. His time is well spent, if it is spent in village labours, in town, in a study of trades and manufactures, in frank conversations with many men and women, in science and in art. The object in all these cases is to master a language through which to express his perceptions. The preamble of thought, the transition through which it passes from the unconscious to the conscious, is action.
For the American, Scholar action is of prime importance. When all the other sources of knowledge become exhausted, stale or boring, action gives him new impetus, new inspiration and new knowledge. Moreover, the main objective of an American scholar is to bring about a cultural revolution in which all men, from the men of the highest rank to the men of the lowest status, will get their just value and appropriate status in the scheme of the society, in the total universal scheme of God.
Thus action will bring about profound changes in the political, moral and philosophical spheres of mankind. Before Emerson, philosophers and thinkers thought about action and contemplation as incompatible entities. But Emerson has effectuated a union of these age-old opposites. In his compromise, action is more important than contemplation or thinking. In his conception of the American Scholar, action has been given the most vital role. It is the more basic of the two components of scholar-thinking and action--in the sense that action is a better source of knowledge than studying books. Action has even so much power of revitalizing things that it continues to serve as the source of knowledge when other sources of knowledge have been worn out, or become extinct. Even the actions of long past--the actions of our childhood and youth continue their influence throughout our life. “The actions and events of our childhood and youth are now matters of calmest observation. They lie like fair pictures in the air.” All actions, after a period of hibernation, so to say, in the mind, become transformed into beautiful thoughts and deep knowledge. The American Scholar should, therefore, be brought up on the action. Through action, he can achieve his objective of materializing the cultural revolution.
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