Ben Ramirez

Mrs. Storer
English 3 Hnrs Blk 1
21 January 2020
Socratic Seminar Reflection
I must say that I tried incredibly hard to prepare for this Socratic seminar. While reading
the stories, I paid careful attention and looked for the small details. When I did not understand
something, then I reread the whole story or that particular section. I tried incredibly hard to
understand the stories. Unfortunately, Transcendentalist are highly confusing. For the questions,
I chose only two for each section rather than more to focus on the most interesting topics and to
conserve time. I worked very hard to prepare for this seminar. However, in the end, it was still
hard to understand the lessons and deeper meanings imparted by the authors. I provided textual
evidence for all of the times that I spoke, except for the portion where our group went off onto a
tangent involving something outside the readings. I do not particularly remember any of my
answers or the things that I had said, but I tried to add in new ideas each time I spoke. There
were times where I stopped speaking to just listen and try to understand the stories in the way
that the other group members had. For the question on Nonconformity that we discussed, I had
something that I had wanted to say about Emerson intending that nonconformity is something we
owe to God in recompense for him giving us the ability to be creative. Unfortunately, I had never
gotten a chance to say because people kept speaking when I planned on it, but then when I did
get the chance, we were already past the question and at that point it seemed to be out of place.
In terms of building off of other’s ideas, I believe I had tried to add onto one of Miguel’s ideas,
but that would be the only point at which I tried to build off someone else’s ideas. One of the
better things I had said was when I mentioned natural revelation while we were discussing the
relationship between God and Nature. We were talking about how God is seen and reflected in
his natural creations. I primarily spoke closer to the beginning of the discussions and so at that
point, there were not as many ideas to build off of. For more time than I would have preferred, I
spent time listening to other viewpoints to better understand the stories. Next time, I am going to
have to try and speak more. The preparations that I need to change are relatively few. I need to
speak more, and I need to be more assertive in taking my time to share my point.
The focus of our group was on the relationship between God and Nature. A good portion
of our time was spent discussing how God is related to Nature. A large number of us argued that
God was most easily found in nature. Sophia mentioned National parks as being a prime example
of nature being a sign of God, something I agreed with strongly. Someone had mentioned
something about prayer in nature being a strong link to God. We spent a large portion of our time
on this question about Emerson’s faith and the question about Nature. We also discussed the
question about conformity and nonconformity. I do not remember all of the discussion from that
question, but it was focused on the subject that living your life without conformity brings a sense
of peace to someone. When you do not conform, you become less anxious and paranoid of what
others think of you. I felt that as a group we all helped each other to be able to understand the
passages that we read more clearly. I think we were all able to better comprehend what we had
read by hearing the opinions and the viewpoints of the others.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature and Self Reliance reveal that human nature compels men
to live peacefully by taking in the beauty and majesty of God’s creation, loving and fulfilling
yourself as part of God’s creation and by ignoring the worries of others’ perceptions of you.
Human nature compels men to live peacefully by taking in the beauty and majesty of
God’s creation seen through Ralph Waldo Emerson’s advice in Nature. This is revealed through
his emphasis on appreciation of nature’s beauty. Human nature compels men to live peacefully
by loving and fulfilling yourself as part of God’s creation which is revealed in the lesson of Self-
Reliance. This is seen in the way he encourages men to go against conformity and be who they
are and inevitably, live more peacefully. Human nature compels men to live peacefully by
ignoring the worries of others’ perceptions of you as advised by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-
Reliance. This is shown in how he focuses on the value of a man who goes against society and
remains peaceful in others’ viewpoints of him.
After reading Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson, I was forced to reflect on my own
experiences with Nature. I thought a great deal about my memories in National parks. I have a
lot of experience with my family at National parks, such as Yosemite, Zion, Sequoia, and Kings
Canyon. All of those parks are fantastic, but a park near and dear to my heart is hilltop park. It is
a small park that was a great part of my childhood. However, I also found that park to be one the
most beautiful parks that I know. When I think about it, sitting under the trees in that park, I feel
very close to God, just as we had discussed. I now realize why Ralph Waldo Emerson had talked
about appreciating nature’s beauty.