American Transcendentalism Radical Romantics

Roots of Transcendentalism Romanticism New attitude toward nature, humanity and society that emphasizes individualism and freedom. A celebration of individualism A reverence for nature The rebel (individual vs. society) A concern with the impact of new technology A fascination with death and the supernatural An impulse toward reform

Transcendentalism A literary movement, associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson, says the existence of an ideal spiritual reality that transcends the scientific is knowable through intuition.

Inspirations Kant Mysticism: the belief in realities or truths beyond the present reach of reason. direct communication or spiritual intuition of divine truth; A transcendental union of soul or mind with the divine reality or divinity Reaction to Locke Empiricism: sense experience is the only source of knowledge.

Catalysts Erosion of Puritanism Secularization--Science/Tech Industrialization European Influence Access to Spiritual Ideas

Transcendentalism “Basic truths of the universe lie beyond the knowledge we obtain from our senses, reason, logic, or laws of science. We learn these truths through our intuition, our “Divine Intellect.”

Concepts of Transcendentalism Natural State of Man Divinity Within Oversoul Nature Intuition Individualism “Carpe Diem” Technology

Transcendental Beliefs NATURAL STATE OF MAN--Moral Society pollutes man.

Transcendental Beliefs The Divine Intellect—part of God in each man; intuition; innate understanding of what is right and good; direct line of communication between God and man Divinity within Man All people can access god (spirituality) through themselves--

Transcendental Beliefs man universe nature Transcendental Beliefs OVERSOUL: man, universe, and nature are intertwined Universal soul that permeates all beings—”the force” “I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.”- Nature "Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism vanishes.

Transcendental Beliefs INTUITION over Reason Individual Intuition: highest form of knowledge: the creative insight and interpretation of one's own inner voices

Plato’s World of Forms Natural world is symbolic of the spiritual world

Transcendental Beliefs Reverence of NATURE Nature is inherently good—symbolic “The foregoing generations beheld God and Nature face to face; we—through their eyes. Why should we not also enjoy an original relation to the universe?”- Emerson

Transcendental Beliefs INDIVIDUALISM: True to own inner perception or intuition Divinity of each individual, but this divinity could be discovered only if the person had the independence of mind to do so” Self-Reliance Nonconformity If I know it is truth, then it is truth.

Transcendental Beliefs “Carpe Diem” Death “Transcend”

Criticism of Technology “Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end…We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.” (19)—Thoreau

Transcendentalism Basic belief: “By meditating, by communing with nature through art, man transcends his senses and finds beauty, goodness, and truth”

References http://www.jesuitcp.org/facultypages/rmcghee/American%20Literature/Transcendentalism/Transcendentalism%20notes.htm http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/4intro.html http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/ideas/introduction.html