Transcendentalism

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Transcendentalism
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What does transcendentalism mean?

• There is an ideal spiritual state which
  transcends the physical and empirical.
• A loose collection of eclectic ideas about
  literature, philosophy, religion, social reform,
  and the general state of American culture.
• Transcendentalism had different meanings for each
  person involved in the movement.

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Basic idea thanks to Wikipedia

• Transcendentalism was a religious and
  philosophical movement that was developed during
  the late 1820s and 1830s1 in the Eastern region
  of the United States as a protest against the
  general state of culture and society, and in
  particular, the state of intellectualism at
  Harvard University and the doctrine of the
  Unitarian church taught at Harvard Divinity
  School. Among the transcendentalists' core
  beliefs was the inherent goodness of both people
  and nature.

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• Among the transcendentalists' core beliefs was
  the inherent goodness of both people and nature.
• Transcendentalists believed that society and its
  institutionsparticularly organized religion and
  political partiesultimately corrupted the purity
  of the individual. They had faith that people are
  at their best when truly "self-reliant" and
  independent. It is only from such real
  individuals that true community could be formed.

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Where did it come from?

• Ralph Waldo Emerson gave German philosopher
  Immanuel Kant credit for popularizing the term
  transcendentalism.
• It began as a reform movement in the Unitarian
  church.
• It is not a religionmore accurately, it is a
  philosophy or form of spirituality.
• It centered around Boston and Concord, MA. in the
  mid-1800s.
• Emerson first expressed his philosophy of
  transcendentalism in his essay Nature.

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A Transcendentalist view of the world know
this- txt p. 212

• Everything in the world, including human beings,
  is a reflection of the Divine Soul
• The physical fact of the natural world are a
  doorway to the spiritual or ideal world.
• People can use their intuition to behold Gods
  spirit revealed in nature or in their souls
• Self reliance and individualism must outweigh
  external authority and blind conformity

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More Transcendental ideas

• Spontaneous feelings and intuition are superior
  to deliberate intellectualism and rationality

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What did Transcendentalists believe?

• The intuitive faculty, instead of the rational
  or sensical, 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).

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Basic Premise 1

• An individual is the spiritual center of
  the universe, and in an individual can be found
  the clue to nature, history and, ultimately, the
  cosmos itself. It is not a rejection of the
  existence of God, but a preference to explain an
  individual and the world in terms of an
  individual.

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Basic Premise 2

• The structure of the universe literally
  duplicates the structure of the individual
  selfall knowledge, therefore, begins with
  self-knowledge. This is similar to Aristotle's
  dictum "know thyself."

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Basic Premise 3

• Transcendentalists accepted the concept of
  nature as a living mystery, full of signs nature
  is symbolic.

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Basic Premise 4

• The belief that 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.

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Who were the Transcendentalists?

• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Henry David Thoreau
• Amos Bronson Alcott
• Margaret Fuller
• Ellery Channing

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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

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Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emersons sense of optimism and hope appealed to
audiences who lived in a period of economic
downturn, regional strife, and conflict over
slavery. Your condition today Emerson seemed to
tell his readers and listeners, may seem dull and
disheartening, but It need not be. If you
discover God within you, he suggested, your lives
will partake Of the grandeur of the universe
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Read Emersons bio p. 216-217
What kind of identity did Emerson see in himself?
Why? Why was he a rebel from what his family
expected of him? How did his message appeal to
young people? What lessened his optimism at the
end of his life?
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Henry David Thoreau

• 1817-1862
• Schoolteacher, essayist, poet
• Most famous for Walden and Civil Disobedience
• Influenced environmental movement
• Supporter of abolitionism

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Read bio of Thoreau p. 230-231
Why do you think he was misunderstood by a
majority of people? What was the purpose of his
going to Walden Pond? What was Thoreau
protesting? What modern reformers did Thoreau
influence?
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(No Transcript)
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Amos Bronson Alcott

• 1799-1888
• Teacher and writer
• Founder of Temple School and Fruitlands
• Introduced art, music, P.E., nature study, and
  field trips banished corporal punishment
• Father of novelist Louisa May Alcott

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Margaret Fuller

• 1810-1850
• Journalist, critic, womens rights activist
• First editor of The Dial, a transcendental
  journal
• First female journalist to work on a major
  newspaperThe New York Tribune
• Taught at Alcotts Temple School

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Ellery Channing

• 1818-1901
• Poet and especially close friend of Thoreau
• Published the first biography of Thoreau in
  1873Thoreau, The Poet-Naturalist

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Resources

• American Transcendental Web http//www.vcu.edu/en
  gweb/transcendentalism/index.html
• American Transcendentalism http//www.wsu.edu/ca
  mpbelld/amlit/amtrans.htm
• PAL Chapter Four http//www.csustan.edu/english/r
  euben/pal/chap4/4intro.html