Transcendentalism

1. Transcendentalism

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. What did Transcendentalists believe? They affirmed the individual’s ability to experience God firsthand. They believed that the ability was given to everybody, not just a select few. As they explored their inner spiritual life, the transcendentalists found their deepest intuitions confirmed by evidence of a similar spirit in nature.

5. 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.

6. 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."

7. Basic Premise #3 Transcendentalists accepted the concept of nature as a living mystery, full of signs; nature is symbolic.

8. Basic Premise #4 The belief that individual virtue and happiness depend upon self-realization—this depends upon the reconciliation of two universal psychological tendencies: • The desire to embrace the whole world—to know and become one with the world. • The desire to withdraw, remain unique and separate—an egotistical existence.

9. 2 Significant Transcendentalists • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Henry David Thoreau

10. 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

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

12. Walden • Thoreau's intention during his time at Walden Pond was "to conduct an experiment: Could he survive, possibly even thrive, by stripping away all superfluous luxuries, living a plain, simple life in radically reduced conditions?" • He thought of it as an experiment in “home economics.” Although Thoreau went to Walden to escape what he considered, "over-civilization,” and in search of the "raw" and "savage delight" of the wilderness, he also spent considerable amounts of his time reading and writing. A Thoreau used "his retreat to the woods as a way of framing a reflection on both what ails men and women in their contemporary condition and what might provide relief." Walden emphasizes the importance of solitude, contemplation, and closeness to nature in transcending the "desperate" existence that, he argues, is the lot of most people. 12

13. Thoreau regarded his sojourn at Walden as an experiment with a threefold purpose. First, he was escaping the dehumanizing effects of the Industrial Revolution by returning to a simpler, agrarian lifestyle 13

14. 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

15. 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

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

17. 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