Transcendentalism

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.

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 (America’s intellectual hub at the time) and Concord, MA in the mid-1800’s. Emerson first expressed his philosophy of transcendentalism in his essay Nature.

What did Transcendentalists believe? One way to look at the Transcendentalists is to see them as a generation of well educated people who lived in the decades before the American Civil War and the national division that it both reflected and helped to create. These people, mostly New Englanders, mostly around Boston, were attempting to create a uniquely American body of literature.

Another way to look at the Transcendentalists is to see them as a generation of people struggling to define spirituality and religion (our words, not necessarily theirs) in a way that took into account the new understandings their age made available. God gave humankind the gift of intuition, the gift of insight, the gift of inspiration. Why waste such a gift?

Most of the Transcendentalists became involved as well in social reform movements, especially anti-slavery and women's rights.

Metaphorically, think of the Transcendentalists as looking at the world through rose-colored glasses, seeing the possibilities rather than the limitations

Basic Premise #1 An individual is the spiritual center of the universe, and in an individual can find clues to himself in 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.

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."

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

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.

Transcendentalism is the offspring of European Romanticism Highly emotional Personal experience Excess and extremes Non-scientific – based on intuition and instinct Individual concerns matter most Extremes, indulgence Stresses the individual over conformity Subjectivity over objectivity Values reason over emotion Social concerns over personal Moderation Science Practical approach to problems Balance and objectivity Restraint Observance of form and structure RomanticismClassicism

To Transcend = to rise above Strives to find perfection, beauty, excellence Love of landscape, atmosphere Liberal, democratic Joy of life Nurtures artistic, creative imagination God, the world, and the spirit exist in symbolic union Transcendentalism

American Transcendentalism Reform of church – church as living entity, not a memorial of a series of historical events Reform of government – government as servant of the people, not people as servants of the government Reform of society – anti-slavery and pro women’s rights

Who were the Transcendentalists? Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Amos Bronson Alcott Margaret Fuller Ellery Channing

Ralph Waldo Emerson 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

Ralph Waldo Emerson, American “Atheist” Lecturer, not preacher – his sold-out lectures began pointed toward possibility in America, focused on education, nature, and self-reliance Banished from Harvard for disagreeing with tradition and labeled an Atheist by Dean of Divinity School – Emerson accused formal religion of worshiping myth and ritual rather than experiencing God as an active entity involved in the day to day lives of people. He claimed that American churches enacted rituals as if God were dead. Social reform advocate; against slavery and the Mexican- American War

Satiric cartoon of Emerson’s Transparent Eyeball… “Standing on the bare ground, my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball - I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me-I am part or particle of God.The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be brothers, to be acquaintances-master or servant, is then a trifle, and a disturbance. I am a lover of uncontained and immortal beauty.” -from “Nature:

In 1835 Emerson married Lydia Jackson and subsequently commissioned the building of this house.

Concord: Suburban Boston Emerson’s Concord home lay just west of Boston, an easy ride by horse or stagecoach. Boston, as a principle port city and cradle of the revolution, still maintained its status as New England’s chief city. Harvard, located in nearby Cambridge, established Boston as the new nation’s intellectual center.

Henry David Thoreau Schoolteacher, essayist, poet Most famous for Walden and Civil Disobedience Influenced environmental movement Supporter of abolitionism

Born to a modest family *family business: pencil making He made pencils too sometimes He found pencil making boring and wrote a single entry in his journal summing up his entire 27th year: “made pencils in 1844.” Met Emerson after graduating from Harvard

Opened a school with his brother, John, on Staten Island School closed when brother died of lockjaw Got restless when brother died Geturned to pencil making

“Many Lives to Live…” Land SurveyorDay LaborerGardener CarpenterPublic LecturerAuthor Tutor School Teacher House Painter

In 1845, after a year of making pencils, the now 28 year old Thoreau was given another suggestion by Emerson that would secure not only their friendship, but would secure Thoreau a lasting place in American literary history

Thoreau later wrote in Walden, “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.”

Thoreau spent two years, two months, and two days at Walden –was not in seclusion –visited Concord frequently during those years

On one of Thoreau’s walks into town, he was arrested for failure to pay his poll tax – He refused to pay the tax on the moral grounds that the government allowed slavery and engaged in an imperialist struggle for territory with Mexico –Thoreau believed that the government failed to represent his views, and therefore he could not morally support governmental policy through taxes

–Thoreau was willing to stay in jail indefinitely, but someone (most scholars suspect Emerson, but it may have been his aunt) paid his tax –After one night in jail, Thoreau returned to Walden Pond

Being a land surveyor previously, he surveyed the entire lake

Admired and supported John Brown (raid at Harper’s Ferry) John Brown: America’s First Terrorist

HERE LIE BURIED WITH HIM TWELVE OF HIS FOLLOWERS

Amos Bronson Alcott Progressive American social idealist 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 (Little Women)

“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men – that is genius.”

“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.”

Margaret Fuller 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

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

Resources American Transcendental Web: American Transcendentalism: PAL: Chapter Four