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Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism. An important American Literary and Philosophical Movement (though NOT a religion) 1830s to 1860s. Transcend (v). to go beyond a limit or range, for example, of thought or belief So, TRANSCENDENTALISM, at its core is about “moving beyond” common experience and understanding.

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Transcendentalism

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  1. Transcendentalism An important American Literary and Philosophical Movement (though NOT a religion) 1830s to 1860s

  2. Transcend (v) • to go beyond a limit or range, for example, of thought or belief • So, TRANSCENDENTALISM, at its core is about “moving beyond” common experience and understanding.

  3. So who were a few Transcendentalists? • Ralph Waldo Emerson (former Unitarian minister from Massachusetts who became the most well known Transcendentalist.) • Henry David Thoreau (his pupil, the son of pencil maker who dropped out of society to live a solitary and transcendent life). • Margaret Fuller (teacher and renowned literary critic who wrote on women’s issues, indians, and a wealth of other subjects.)

  4. Pics… • Margaret Fuller Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau

  5. Why did Transcendentalism become popular? • As with Romanticism, Americans felt that there must be more to life than logical, rational experience. • The Transcendentalists sought to regain a spirituality that they thought was missing from current thought and philosophy.

  6. Major Premises of Transcendentalism • 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. • EACH PERSON HAS ALL OF THE DIVINE ASPECTS OF GOD WITHIN THEMSELVES.

  7. Premises cont… • 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." • TO KNOW THE UNIVERSE, YOU CAN LOOK AT YOURSELF.

  8. Premises cont… • 3. Transcendentalists accepted the neo-Platonic conception of nature as a living mystery, full of signs - nature is symbolic. • JUST LIKE IN ROMANTICISM, NATURE HOLDS THE KEY TO DEEPER UNDERSTANDING.

  9. Premises cont… • 4. The belief that individual virtue and happiness depend upon self-realization - this depends upon the reconciliation of two universal psychological tendencies: • a. the expansive or self-transcending tendency - a desire to embrace the whole world - to know and become one with the world. • b. the contracting or self-asserting tendency - the desire to withdraw, remain unique and separate - an egotistical existence. • THESE TWO IDEAS HAVE TO EXIST TOGETHER; TRANSCENDENTALISTS SOUGHT TO UNDERSTAND AND JOIN IN WITH THE WHOLE WORLD, BUT THEY ALSO STROVE TO REMAIN INDIVIDUALISTS AT ALL TIMES.

  10. Major works… • Emerson’s essays “Nature,” “Self Reliance” • Thoreau’s book Walden. Essay “Civil Disobedience” • Fuller’s book Women in the 19th Century.

  11. Source • Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 4: Early Nineteenth Century - American Transcendentalism: A Brief Introduction." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. URL: http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/c hap4/4intro.html (10 January, 2007) 

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