Area of Interaction Environments: Transcendentalism considers how we shape and affect our environments and how we fit into the world

Significant Concepts We have an impact on our environment, and our environment impacts us We have our own ideas and need to nurture and act upon those Individuals are unique and those ideas should be respected

MYP Unit Question What constitutes my environment and what are my responsibilities within that environment?

Transcendentalism Walden Pond

(trans – en – dent – al – ism) Transcendentalism

Definition Transcend: to go beyond or rise above Transcendentalism: the belief that knowledge of life is derived from intuitive sources rather than reason (logic) and experience.

The movement was from the 1830s to the 1860s in Boston. Transcendentalism is an attempt to gain civil liberties and literary freedom from England. The first “American” literature.

Transcendental Roots Philosophical concept of transcendence developed by Plato Affirmed existence of absolute goodness beyond description, knowable only through intuition Religious philosophers applied this to divinity Doctrine that God is transcendent is a fundamental principle in the orthodox forms of Christianity, Judaism and Islam

Metaphysical Idealism German philosopher Immanuel Kant split Transcendent and Transcendental Transcendent=entities that exist outside of human experience (God and soul) Transcendental=Metaphysical Idealism, how the mind forms its perceptions, the study of pure mind and its forms.

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau --the main authors

Ralph Waldo Emerson Emerson is mostly given credit for the movement, although Henry David Thoreau was his disciple, of sorts. This knowledge is based upon faith in a higher intuition, inner light, and divine intellect.                                         

Henry David Thoreau Thoreau (1817-1862), a member of Emerson's Transcendentalist circle in Concord, advocated a life of simplicity in an age of increasing technological complexity.

Basic Beliefs 2. Individuality and self-knowledge are essential 1. There is a Divine bond between man, God, nature called the Oversoul 2. Individuality and self-knowledge are essential 3. One’s spiritual well-being ignites intellectual activity 4. Divine intuition comes from God (follow your gut, it is God talking) 5. Humans are inherently good 6. All people have access to divine inspiration (there are no “chosen ones”); therefore, all people can become social reformers

Two Major Works “Self Reliance” Walden by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Henry David Thoreau