Transcendentalism

Why it happened....

1. In REBELLION against the rigid way of life of Puritanism

Why it happened...

2. Change in LIFESTYLE: development of science and industry- introduction of machine to New England farm 

Why it happened...

3.  A REJECTION of Realism and Rationalism (the idea that all knowledge comes from scientific fact and reason, not from feelings and emotions).   Chemistry Teacher: Quite an unusual class you had today...    Keating: ...funny, I never pegged you as a cynic. Chemistry Teacher: I'm not a cynic. A realist. 

Why it happened....

4. The INFLUENCE of the American Revolutionary War         1775-1783

Why it happened...5. INFLUENCE of other cultures and religions: 

• Hinduism and Buddhism 

• European ideas/Romantic Movement: o John Locke- when we are born our

minds are a blank slate (a "tabula rasa") and we fill them with knowledge from ourselves, not from facts from science

o  Jean-Jacques Rousseau- men are born good, but man-made institutions make them wicked

Where it happened...

1840-1855

Began in New England around Concord, Massachusetts. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson thought the Unitarian Church's doctrine and laws were becoming too conservative 

Major Beliefs...

• the importance of the individual • Emotion• Imagination• Intuition= "gut feeling"• Still a belief in God, the afterlife, etc. However,

the emphasis should be on the here and now, not the past or the futureo NOT a rejection of God, but a preference to

explain the world in terms of the individual  o DENIAL of Original Sin 

Major Beliefs...

• The human soul is part of The Oversoul (God/universal spirit) to which it and other souls return at deathoTherefore, every individual is to be

respected because everyone has a portion of that Oversoul (God) within them

owe have to try to strike a balance between being connected to others while still remaining unique and separate.  

o there is a relationship between all things

Major Beliefs

• we must be self-reliant • All knowledge begins

with self-knowledge• we are evolving thinkers-

it is okay to change our minds 

• love of nature  

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps

it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step

to the music which he hears, however measured or far

away." 

-Henry David Thoreau

What it is...

Transcendentalism is...

• A Literary Movement (books and essays)• A Philosophy• A state of mind• a form of spirituality

 

What it is....

Transcendentalism: 

'Transcend'= to rise above, go beyond the limits of

      trans= across (transfer, transport) 

          scend= climb (descend, ascend)     

    Transcendentalists wanted to 'rise above' logical reason to find truth 

What it is...

Transcendentalism- A philosophy of individualism, aimed at the creation of the

new American, the self-reliant man, complete and

independent.

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.

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 religion—more accurately, it is a philosophy or form of spirituality.

• It centered around Boston and Concord, MA. in the mid-1800’s.

• Emerson first expressed his philosophy of transcendentalism in his essay Nature.

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 G-d (known in Sanskrit as Brahma).

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 G-d, but a preference to explain an individual and the world in terms of an individual.

Basic Premise #2

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

Basic Premise #3

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

Basic Premise #4

The belief that individual virtue and happiness depend upon self-realization—this depends upon the reconciliation of two universal psychological tendencies:

1. The desire to embrace the whole world—to know and become one with the world.

2. The desire to withdraw, remain unique and separate—an egotistical existence.

Who were the Transcendentalists?

• Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Henry David Thoreau

• Amos Bronson Alcott

• Margaret Fuller

• Ellery Channing

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

Henry David Thoreau

• 1817-1862• Schoolteacher, essayist,

poet• Most famous for Walden

and Civil Disobedience• Influenced environmental

movement• Supporter of abolitionism

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

Margaret Fuller

• 1810-1850• Journalist, critic, women’s

rights activist• First editor of The Dial, a

transcendental journal• First female journalist to

work on a major newspaper—The New York Tribune

• Taught at Alcott’s Temple School

Ellery Channing

• 1818-1901• Poet and especially

close friend of Thoreau

• Published the first biography of Thoreau in 1873—Thoreau, The Poet-Naturalist

Resources

• American Transcendental Web: http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/index.html

• American Transcendentalism: http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/amtrans.htm

• PAL: Chapter Four http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/4intro.html