American Transcendentalism approximately 1836-1860
Beginnings Reform movement in the Unitarian church that focused on God’s influence in every individual and emphasized intuition
Influences Reaction against New England Puritanism Reaction against the Enlightenment/ rationalism Romanticism German philosophy Eastern philosophy (Hinduism)
Transcendental Authors Ralph Waldo Emerson Lived 1803-1882 Unitarian Minister (7th generation) Death of his first wife from T.B. caused him to question traditional Christianity Focused on personal experience rather than historical Christianity
Emersonian Philosophy Brahma If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and pass, and turn again. Far or forgot to me is near, Shadow and sunlight are the same, The vanished gods to me appear, And one to me are shame and fame. They reckon ill who leave me out; When me they fly, I am the wings; I am the doubter and the doubt, And I the hymn the Brahmin sings. The strong gods pine for my abode, And pine in vain the sacred Seven; But thou, meek lover of the good! Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.
Emersonian Philosophy America needs an original, uniquely American philosophy “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide…” –from “Self Reliance”
Emersonian Philosophy “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds… Speak what you think now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today.” -from “Self-Reliance”
Emersonian Philosophy “Standing on the bare ground—my head bathed in 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 parcel of God” -from “Nature”
Emersonian Philosophy “An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man” –”Self-Reliance” Every man must discover the truth for himself. Simply parroting the wisdom of the past shows no real wisdom. Only the individual search, discovery and expression of truth matters.
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Hi, I’m Emerson and I think… Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
He’d have bigger muscles if not for society… Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.
The virtue that most request is conformity. I could use a snack… The virtue that most request is conformity.
Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist.
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Don’t go too far… Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature.
Do not tell me, as a good man did today, of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations.
My life is for itself, and not for a spectacle.
It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion…it is easy in solitude to live after our own…but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
With consistency, a great soul has simply nothing to do.
Let a man then know his worth and keep things under his feet
Traveling is a fool’s paradise.
Our minds travel when our bodies are forced to stay at home.
Insist on yourself…never imitate.
Society never advances.
The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.
They measure their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is.
Transcendental Authors Henry David Thoreau Lived 1817-1862 Thoreau is best known for experimenting in self reliance by living at Walden Pond
Thoreau and Emerson Thoreau was Emerson’s protégé Friendship developed after Thoreau graduated from Harvard 1850s…Thoreau eventually resented Emerson’s patronage, and Emerson viewed Thoreau lacking ambition
Walden Pond