1. Transcendentalism

2. What is Transcendentalism?
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This video does a fantastic job of explaining transcendentalism and will help you better grasp its overall meaning

3. Base of Transcendentalism
Believed that any individual was greater and more powerful than any institution and believed that inside every person’s head was God’s secret voice
This meant that there was no need for church, books, and learning since God was speaking to every person individually

4. Major Beliefs
Everything in the world, including human beings, is a reflection of the Divine Soul
People can use their intuition to behold God’s spirit revealed in nature or in their own souls
Self-reliance and individualism must outweigh external authority and blind conformity to tradition

5. Major Beliefs
Basic truths could be found from intuitions --- which means you don’t learn how to learn things you just know already
Nature was self-knowledge
Over-soul = Combination of every god from every religion
Individualism
Goodness of nature

6. Your mind is all you need to figure out the great mysteries of life
You don’t need someone teaching you something
You don’t have to learn something in order to figure it out
You are born knowing and have God directly speaking to you

7. Core Ideas
There is a “true” reality that transcends, or goes beyond, the physical world.
People will find truth within themselves, not through logic, religion or the senses
Nature is a doorway to the spiritual world

8. Nonconformity Self-reliance Free thought Confidence
Key Beliefs
Nonconformity
Self-reliance
Free thought
Confidence
Importance of Nature

9. Main Figures: Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson
Teacher, philosopher, lecturer
Essays- “Self-reliance” & “Nature”
“Self-Reliance” Contains the most thorough statement of Emerson’s recurrent themes: the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency and follow his or her own instincts and ideas --- It analyzes the self
“Nature”: Emerson’s division of nature into Commodity, Beauty, Language and Discipline --- distinctions that define the ways by which humans use nature for their basic needs, their desire for light, their communication with one another, and their understanding of the world

10. Emerson’s Writing Style
His sentences are clear, but when put into paragraphs he can be rather confusing
Mostly wrote about his observations in his life
Optimist
Wrote some prose pieces, but mostly poetry

11. Main Figures: Thoreau Henry David Thoreau Student, practitioner
Mostly wrote about natural history and philosophy
Book- Walden
Written about his times living alone in a shack living in shack next to Walden pond
A reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings.
The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and manual for self-reliance
Essay- “Civil Disobedience”
Argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule their consciences and that they have a duty to prevent the government from doing so

12. Romanticism vs. Transcendentalism

13. Romanticism View of God and God’s Role in the Lives of People
Romanticism had less to do with God than Transcendentalists
God, when mentioned, was seen as an external voice instead of a divine spark within each person and thing
Concerned with the grotesque as well as the beautiful
Believed in inherent darkness in human nature as well as an inherent light
Less optimistic than Transcendentalists

14. Transcendentalism View of God and God’s Role in the Lives of People
Transcendentalists: God is an internal force and that as His creations, every person and everything has within it a divine spark or an “inner light”
Therefore the ultimate goal of the human experience was to connect to that inner light and connect to God and all living things

15. Romanticism View of Human Beings
Romantics believed there was an inherent goodness and dark side of human beings
Explored the effects of guilt, sin, and misery on the human spirit
Believed there were flaws in the universe

16. Transcendentalists and Human Beings
Believed in pure goodness of people and the universe
No flaws in the universe only God
Innate goodness in the human spirit is a given due to the “inner light” and because all people carry a part of God within their soul
Therefore inherent goodness is unavoidable because we are all God

17. Romantic Writing
Stresses the use of intuition over reason and effect versus details
Uses large contrasts between good and evil, darkness and light

18. Transcendentalist Writing
Relates more to the senses than to reason and facts
Positive and optimistic writing
Every Transcendentalists writer wrote differently
Their works are grouped together due to their content not the matter in which they were written
Writing is concerned more with the journey of the spirit rather than the body or the mind

19. Goal of Every Transcendentalist
To relate all individuals to both the natural world and the world they had inside themselves (their inner world)

20. Romanticism vs. Transcendentalism in Summary
Romanticism brings out strong emotions and exemplifies significant events --- About strong motivational force that focuses on patriotism, loyalty, and allegiance
Transcendentalism is the power of knowledge to transcend intellectual growth and spirituality --- highlights the power of divinity, nature, and individualism

21. Romanticism vs. Transcendentalism
Romanticism exemplifies the importance of emotions and freedom over intellectual growth --- They believe that everyone should follow what they’re feeling
Transcendentalism draws inspiration from the beyond or external to the human perspective even beyond reasoning and normal traditions

22. Romanticism vs. Transcendentalism
Romanticism doesn’t heavily emphasize the power of God as the center of the universe
Transcendentalism strongly believes in God, divination, and the truth of miracles
Transcendentalism believed God was the center of the universe and respect should be given to him