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 A literary movement in the 1830’s that established a clear “American voice”. The idea that a person must go beyond everyday human experience in the physical world in order to determine the ultimate reality of God, the universe, and the self Suggests that every individual is capable of discovering this higher truth through intuition. Emerson first expressed his philosophy in his essay “Nature”.
Unlike Puritans, they saw humans and nature as possessing an innate goodness. “In the faces of men and women, I see God” -Walt Whitman Opposed strict ritualism and dogma of established religion.
Transcendentalism: The tenets: Believed in living close to nature/importance of nature. Nature is the source of truth and inspiration. Taught the dignity of manual labor Advocated self-trust/ confidence Valued individuality/non-conformity/free thought Advocated self-reliance/ simplicity
The First Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson Margaret Fuller Henry David Thoreau Bronson Alcott
“Self-reliance” -Emerson “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation in suicide…” “Trust thyself…” “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think…” “…to be great is to be misunderstood”
Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862 If Ralph Waldo Emerson was the philosopher of Transcendentalism, Thoreau was its most devoted practitioner. While Emerson wrote and lectured about Transcendentalism, Thoreau tried to live as a transcendentalist. Thoreau grew up in a middle class family with significant wealth. Attended Harvard University
Career and Early Life Worked as school teacher Contracted Tuberculosis, a disease he fought the rest of his life As an independent thinker, Thoreau became the head of the Concord Lyceum organizing lectures where he met Ralph Waldo Emerson; they followed one another on Twitter and became besties at the Concord Lyceum after party.
“Walden” Thoreau began “essential” living Built a cabin on land owned to Emerson in Concord, Mass. near Walden Pond Lived alone there for two years (1841-1843), studying nature and seeking truth within himself. His cabin was built of materials found on the shores of Walden pond and he lived on food that he grew himself.
“I went into 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 has to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”
A modern reader of Thoreau in the historic cabin
“Still we live meanly like ants “Still we live meanly like ants.” “Our life is frittered away by detail.” “Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?” “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. I say, let your affairs be as two or three and not a hundred or a thousand.”
Individuality “How deep the ruts of tradition and conformity.”
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away.”
“Civil Disobedience” Thoreau’s essay urging passive, non-violent resistance to governmental policies to which an individual is morally opposed. Influenced individuals such a Ghandi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Cesar Chavez
“[If injustice] is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be the friction to stop the machine.”