Transcendentalism
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Transcript of 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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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 a “religion”(per Emerson)—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.
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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.
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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 G-d, 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 self—all 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-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.
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Extra Credit
• For 10 extra credit points, you can visit this cabin at Furman Lake and bring in pictures of your visit!
• Write a paragraph comparing this cabin to Thoreau’s.
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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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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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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, 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
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Ellery Channing
• 1818-1901• Poet and especially
close friend of Thoreau
• Published the first biography of Thoreau in 1873—Thoreau, The Poet-Naturalist
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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