American Transcendentalism

Radical Romantics

Roots of Transcendentalism Romanticism

New attitude toward nature, humanity and society that emphasizes individualism and freedom.

A celebration of individualism A reverence for nature The rebel (individual vs. society) A concern with the impact of new technology A fascination with death and the supernatural An impulse toward reform

TranscendentalismA literary movement, associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson, says the existence of an ideal spiritual reality that transcends the scientific is knowable through intuition.

Inspirations Kant Mysticism: the belief in realities or

truths beyond the present reach of reason. direct communication or spiritual intuition

of divine truth; A transcendental union of soul or mind with the divine reality or divinity

Reaction to Locke Empiricism: sense experience is the only source of knowledge.

Catalysts Erosion of Puritanism Secularization--Science/Tech Industrialization European Influence Access to Spiritual Ideas

Transcendentalism “Basic truths of the universe lie

beyond the knowledge we obtain from our senses, reason, logic, or laws of science. We learn these truths through our intuition, our “Divine Intellect.”

Concepts of Transcendentalism Natural State of Man Divinity Within Oversoul Nature Intuition Individualism “Carpe Diem” Technology

Transcendental Beliefs

NATURAL STATE OF MAN--MoralSociety pollutes man.

Transcendental BeliefsThe Divine Intellect—part of God in

each man; intuition; innate understanding of what is right and good; direct line of communication between God and man

Divinity within Man

Transcendental BeliefsOVERSOUL:

man, universe, and nature are intertwinedUniversal soul that permeates all beings—”the force”

“I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.”- Nature

Transcendental Beliefs

INTUITION over ReasonIndividual Intuition: highest form of

knowledge: the creative insight and interpretation of one's own inner voices

Plato’s World of Forms

Natural world is symbolic of the spiritual world

Transcendental Beliefs Reverence of NATURE

Nature is inherently good—symbolic “The foregoing generations beheld God and Nature face to face;

we—through their eyes. Why should we not also enjoy an original relation to the universe?”- Emerson

Transcendental Beliefs INDIVIDUALISM:

True to own inner perception or intuitionDivinity of each individual, but this divinity could be discovered only if the

person had the independence of mind to do so”Self-RelianceNonconformity

If I know it is truth, then it is truth.

Transcendental Beliefs

“Carpe Diem” Death “Transcend”

Criticism of Technology

“Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end…We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.” (19)—Thoreau

TranscendentalismBasic belief: “By meditating, by communing with nature through art, man transcends his senses and finds beauty, goodness, and truth”

References

http://www.jesuitcp.org/facultypages/rmcghee/American%20Literature/Transcendentalism/Transcendentalism%20notes.htm

http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/4intro.html

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/ideas/introduction.html