Before we Begin Class

1
Before we Begin Class

• Please take out your journal entry from yesterday
  over one of the discussion questions regarding
  Thoreau and Transcendentalism. Be ready to
  discuss them.

2
Trascendentalism, Emerson, and Thoreau

• The history, ideas, and two most prominent
  thinkers of a uniquely American movement

3
Historical Background

• Transcendentalist writers flourished in the
  1830s to 1840s, primarily in New England
• During the industrial revolution, individuals
  felt unimportant seeing how easily they could be
  replaced by a machine along with the downplay of
  an individuals importance by the church.
• Ralph Waldon Emerson, a pastor at the time,
  thought otherwise. He gave credit to the power
  of the human mind, thinking individuals are the
  ones that influenced society, not politics,
  religions or organizations.

4
Historical Background, continued

• Many Transcendentalist were strong abolitionists
  and opposed the American Civil War. Henry
  Thoreau, in protest of war and slavery, wrote
  Civil Disobedience and refused to pay taxes. He
  was imprisoned for not paying taxes an went to
  jail for a day.
• This display of nonviolent protest inspired many
  throughout history including Martian Luther King
  Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.

5
Philosophical Background

• As thinkers, mankind have always divided into two
  sects, Materialists and Idealists
• In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds
  that the only thing that exists is matter that
  all things are composed of material and all
  phenomena (including consciousness) are the
  result of material interactions. In other words,
  matter is the only substance.
• Any philosophy that places importance on the
  ideal or spiritual realm in its account of human
  existence may be termed "idealist". Metaphysical
  idealism is an ontology that holds that reality
  itself is essentially spirit or consciousness or,
  at least, that abstractions and laws are more
  basic to reality than the things we perceive.
  Epistemological idealism is the view that reality
  can only be known through ideas, that only
  psychological experience can be apprehended by
  the mind.

6
Intuition as a Guide Post

• The intuitive faculty, instead of the rational
  or sensual, became the means for a conscious
  union of the individual psyche (known in Sanskrit
  as Atman) with the world psyche also known as the
  Oversoul, life-force, prime mover and God
  (known in Sanskrit as Brahma).

7
Inspiration of transcendental philosophy

• The ideas for this philosophy come from the
  Greeks (Plato)
• Writers
• Dante, Shakespeare, Milton
• World religions
• Hindus, Christians
• European philosophers
• Kant (German)-understanding through
  intuition
• Pascal (French)-mathematician/moralist
• Swedenborg (Swedish)-scientist/mystic
• European Romantic literaturestressed the break
  away from rationality in favor of the emotional
  components of life truth is found in subjective
  experience

8
Transcendental Beliefs

• A Universal Soul or Energy (Oversoul)
• Essential Goodness of People
• Corrupting nature of society
• Perfectionism and Optimism
• Symbolic aspects of nature nature is a
  reflection of our inner lives
• Transcendentalist derives from "transcend, to
  rise. Meaning to rise above the primitive
  animalistic impulses of life and move from the
  normal, rational thinking to a spiritual realm.
• Meaning and value are not external, but reside in
  consciousness

9

• Individual virtue and happiness depend
• upon self-realizationthis depends upon the
• reconciliation of two universal psychological
• tendencies
• The desire to embrace the whole worldto know and
  become one with the world.
• The desire to withdraw, remain unique and
  separatean egotistical existence.

10
Transcendentalism in America

• From 1840-1855, literature in American
  experienced a rebirth call the New England
  Renaissance. Through their poetry, short
  stories, novels, and other works, writers during
  this period established a clear American voice.
  No longer did they see their work as less
  influential then that of European authors.
  Transcendentalism was part of this flowering of
  American literature (Webster, 3).

11

• The ideals of American democracy is a cornerstone
  of transcendentalism, which is tied in to the
  idea of American individuality.
• Transcendentalists question rules and laws
  presented to them, attempting to change the ones
  that they believe are unjust, including the
  validity of slavery.

12
Ralph Waldo Emerson

• 1803-1882
• Unitarian minister
• Poet and essayist
• Founded the Transcendental Club
• Popular lecturer
• Banned from Harvard for 40 years following his
  Divinity School address
• Supporter of abolitionism
• Founded The Dial, the key transcendentalist
  publication of the day

13
Emersons Major Ideas

• Emerson was the founder of the American
  transcendental movement, and its chief
  intellectual source
• Transparent Eyeball (Refers to the idea that
  one must empty oneself of previous ideas and
  experiences in order to see the proper nature
  of the universe.(Nature, 1836)
• Demand for original American thought and art.
  (The American Scholar, 1837)

14
Emersons Ideas Cont.

• Rejection of traditional values and ideas, in
  favor of ones own empirical knowledge about the
  world. This includes religious beliefs.
  (Self-Reliance, The Divinity School Address)
• Radical independence and originalitygoal was to
  restore vigor and unique nature of the American
• Wanted to inspire a unique American intellectual
  and literary identitycome out from the shadow of
  Europe
• America not yet a global superpower, thus owed
  much of culture to European forbears
• Emersons project culminates in a sense in
  Whitmans poetry as well as a sort of poetry
  native to America, originated by Americans

15
Henry David Thoreau1817 - 1862

• If Ralph Waldo Emerson was the philosopher of
  Transcendentalism, Thoreau was its most devoted
  practitioner.
• While Emerson wrote and lectured about
  Transcendentalism, Thoreau tried to live as a
  transcendentalist.

16
Early Education

• Unlike Emerson, grew up in a middle class family.
  The familys financial circumstances changed
  often.
• Attended Harvard and graduated in 1837.

17
Early Career

• Worked as school teacher.
• Contracted Tuberculosis, a disease he fought all
  his life.
• Had a short stint working in his fathers pencil
  factory.

18
The Lecturer and Rebel

• As an independent thinker, Thoreau became the
  head of the Concord Lyceum organizing lectures
  where he met Ralph Waldo Emerson.
• Thoreau eventually worked as a handyman and
  caretaker of Emersons estate while Emerson spent
  long stints studying abroad in Europe.

19
The Walden Experiment

• From 1841 1843 Thoreau decided to conduct an
  experiment of self-sufficiency by building his
  own house on the shores of Walden Pond and living
  off the food he grew on his farm.

20
Fact from Fiction

• While reading excerpts of Walden it may seem
  Thoreau wrote his novel as a diary while being
  isolated in the woods, miles from civilization.
• However
• Thoreau often went to Concord to buy supplies.
• He wrote thirteen drafts of Walden before
  publishing it.
• He often had friends visit him in the evenings.
• He house was built on Emersons property.

21
Civil Disobedience

• Another work that was a result of Thoreaus
  Walden Experiment was his essay Civil
  Disobedience.
• Thoreau wrote the essay while spending the night
  in jail after refusing to pay a tax that would
  help fund slavery in the South.
• Civil Disobedience has been a highly influential
  work that has inspired peaceful activists such as
  Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr.
• Famous Quote If... the machine of government...
  is of such a nature that it requires you to be
  the agent of injustice to another, then, I say,
  break the law.

22
Thoreaus Late Life and Death

• Though Thoreau never made a substantial living as
  a writer, his collection of writing consist of
  over twenty volumes.
• Thoreaus only trip abroad was to Canada in 1861
  where he had another lapse of Tuberculosis.
• On May 6th, 1862 Thoreau died losing his fight to
  the disease.
• Emerson later published a collection of Thoreaus
  poems in 1865.