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American Transcendentalism

American Transcendentalism. “It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘Always do what you are afraid to do.’” – Ralph Waldo Emerson. Transcendentalism. Belief in . . . Spirituality in ordinary experiences Life is not all about REASON and LOGIC

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American Transcendentalism

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  1. American Transcendentalism “It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘Always do what you are afraid to do.’” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

  2. Transcendentalism • Belief in . . . • Spirituality in ordinary experiences • Life is not all about REASON and LOGIC • Every individual can find higher truth on his or her own.

  3. The Beginnings "We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds...A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul " -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1837 Harvard Commencement • Americans need their own culture • A “rebirth of intellectual and artistic life” • Desire for spirituality, emotion

  4. Transcendentalism • “American Renaissance” • Featured literature, poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture, and music • 1835-1880 • Concentrated in Boston

  5. After Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes by Emily Dickinson After great pain, a formal feeling comes The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore, And Yesterday, or Centuries before? The Feet, mechanical, go round Of Ground, or Air, or Ought A Wooden way Regardless grown, A Quartz contentment, like a stone This is the Hour of Lead Remembered, if outlived, As Freezing persons recollect the Snow First-Chill-then Stupor-then the letting go

  6. Transcendentalists vsPuritans • Transcendentalists saw humans and nature as possessing an innate goodness. • What did Puritans believe? • Transcendentalists opposed ritualism and strict theology of all established religions • What did the Puritans believe?

  7. The Role of Romanticism • Reject modern technology • Celebration of individualism • Beauty of nature, humankind • The belief in the divine, divinely inspired

  8. Nature and the “Over Soul” • Divinity permeates all objects, animate and inanimate • We should seek convergence of the individual, God, and Nature

  9. “In the faces of men and women I see God” – Walt Whitman “The groves were God’s first temples” – William Cullen Bryant

  10. Main Beliefs • Intuition over reason • Materialism is bad • Simplicity is the path to spiritual greatness • Nature is a source of truth and inspiration • Non-conformity, individuality and self-reliance are the most important virtues

  11. Important Transcendental Works • Ralph Waldo Emerson • “Nature” 1836 • “Self-Reliance” 1841 • Henry David Thoreau • Walden 1854 • “Civil Disobedience” 1849

  12. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) • Abolitionist • Champion of Native American rights • Crusader for peace and social justice • Supporter of educational reform • Champion of other creative geniuses around him, like Thoreau

  13. Emerson • “Self-Reliance” • “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide…” • “Trust thyself…” • “Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.” • “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”

  14. Henry David Thoreau(1817-1862)

  15. Walden: Life in the Woods • On July 4th, 1845 Thoreau began his experiment in “essential” living—living simply, studying the natural world, and seeking truth within himself. • Thoreau built a cabin by Walden Pond and lived there for more than two years, writing and studying nature.

  16. Thoreau’s Beliefs • “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

  17. More of Thoreau’s Thoughts . . . • “Still we live meanly, like ants.” • “Our life is frittered away by detail.” • “Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?” • “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”

  18. Non-conformity • If a law is unjust or will cause negative consequences, it is a law that should be broken • If a law is immoral, it should be broken • Question everything • Led to the concept of “Civil Disobedience” • It is not “civil disobedience” if you are not willing to admit your opinion and take consequences for your actions • Democracy = Responsibility

  19. Examples of Civil Disobedience

  20. Civil Rights Movement: 1950s/1960s • Gandhi • Anti-war protesters • Tiananmen Square (China): June 7, 1989 • Fall of Communism: 1989/1990

  21. Other Important Issues to Thoreau • Criticism of technology • “But lo! Men have become the tools of their tools” • “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us.” • Critique of business • Advocacy of vegetarianism • “…I have no doubt it is part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals…” • Animal rights • “The hare in distress cries like a child.”

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