1. Transcendentalism

2. “… When every voice is raised for a new road or another statue or a subscription of stock; for an improvement in dress or dentistry; for a new house or a larger business; for a political party, or the division of an estate; -- will you not tolerate one or two solitary voices in the land, speaking for thoughts and principles not marketable or perishable?” Emerson

3. Transcendentalism: The Basics
Originated in 19th century New England
Included a group of ministers, educators, and social reformers
More of a mindset than an actual philosophy

4. Principle Thinkers Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau
“Nature” (1836) Walden (1854)
“The Transcendentalist” Civil Disobedience (1849)
(1842)

5. Principles of Transdendentalism
The individual is paramount.
Emphasis on self-perfection.
The human mind can figure out anything.
Nature is valued.

6. Emphasized the spiritual over the rational.
Nature is a manifestation of a divine yet impersonal Power.
Each person is part of the Power; the Power is in all things.

7. The cosmos are viewed as a vast, all-embracing whole, a universe (Oneness) in which every individual forms a part of an intricate and larger harmony.
The Over-Soul is the ting to which all humans return after death.

8. Important Transcendentalist Writers
Bronson Alcott
Louisa May Alcott
Orestes Brownson
Margaret Fuller
Walt Whitman

9. Questions?