Ralph Waldo Emerson's later "Self-Reliance" far more likely to be appealing to American college students today than his early "American Scholar"-ship

Ralph Waldo Emerson's Transcendentalist philosophy shifted and changed over the course of his life. Much as Emerson's idea that consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds embraces the idea that contradiction is not something to be feared within the hearts and minds of human beings, nor that ideological consistency and doctrinal rigor is something to be aspired to, Emerson's ideas between "Self-Reliance" and "The American Scholar" show profound shifts in judgment, and what a human being and a thinker should aspire to be. There were, over the course of his life, many Emersons. However, the Emerson that is most likely to be amenable to the sensibilities of college students today is likely to be that of his later essay upon "Self-Reliance," rather than his earlier "The American Scholar," which...
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