1. Transcendentalism
Hippies of the 1800s

2. Definition of Transcendentalism
A philosophical movement that sought to have individuals ‘transcend’ to a higher spiritual level.
To achieve this goal, the individual had to seek spiritual, not material, greatness and the essential truths of life through intuition.

3. Principles of Transcendentalism
1. Self-Reliance and Individualism -The goal was to liberate individuals and to free
themselves from the blind hold of custom and tradition. People were to disregard
external authority.
2. Identity of Moral Laws -The movement was stimulated by moral idealism.
3. Rejection of Sensuous Experience -The movement criticized the dependence of knowledge based on empirical and scientific facts. Such knowledge was only probable and ended in skepticism. Transcendentalists believed in a realm over and beyond the phenomenal appearances. Poets and seers who proclaimed truth as they saw it were not interested in rational proofs. There were two worlds. The unreal world of sensation was the object of physical science. The unseen world – a religious, moral and aesthetic universe – could be described only by poetry and philosophy.

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4. Importance of and Reverence for Nature -The movement emphasized the importance of nature and the natural world as a tool of education. The nature they worshipped was not the machine world of Newtonian physics. Transcendental nature was alive, full of growth and surprises. Nature provided a setting to bring out the best of human ability.
5. Absolute Optimism -Transcendentalists believed in the possible perfection of humankind and the attainment of a higher form of living.

5. (European Romanticism)
2. Transcendentalism
(European Romanticism)
Liberation from understanding and the cultivation of reasoning.”
“Transcend” the limits of intellect and allow the emotions, the SOUL, to create an original relationship with the Universe.

6. Transcendentalist Thinking
Man must acknowledge a body of moral truths that were intuitive and must TRANSCEND more sensational proof:
The infinite benevolence of God.
The infinite benevolence of nature.
The divinity of man.
They instinctively rejected all secular authority and the authority of organized churches and the Scriptures, of law, or of conventions

7. Resistance to Civil Disobedience (1849) “The American Scholar” (1837)
Transcendentalist Intellectuals/Writers Concord, MA
Ralph Waldo
Emerson
Henry David
Thoreau
Nature (1832)
Resistance to Civil Disobedience (1849)
Self-Reliance (1841)
Walden (1854)
“The American Scholar” (1837)
R3-1/3/4/5

8. The Transcendentalist Agenda
Give freedom to the slave.
Give well-being to the poor and the miserable.
Give learning to the ignorant.
Give health to the sick.
Give peace and justice to society.

9. Transcendentalism Songs

10. A Transcendentalist Critic: Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
Their pursuit of the ideal led to a distorted view of human nature and possibilities: * The Blithedale Romance
One should accept the world as an imperfect place: * Scarlet Letter * House of the Seven Gables

11. 3. Utopian Communities

12. John Humphrey Noyes (1811-1886)
The Oneida Community New York, 1848
Millenarianism --> the 2nd coming of Christ had already occurred.
Humans were no longer obliged to follow the moral rules of the past.
all residents married to each other.
carefully regulated “free love.”
John Humphrey Noyes ( )

13. Brook Farm West Roxbury, MA
George Ripley ( )
Brook Farm West Roxbury, MA

14. The “Burned-Over” District in Upstate New York

15. 1. The Second Great Awakening
“Spiritual Reform From Within” [Religious Revivalism]
Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality
Temperance
Education
Abolitionism
Asylum & Penal Reform
Women’s Rights