Transcendentalism

Basics of Transcendentalism

Transcendentalist Beliefs

- Intuition, not reason, is the highest human faculty

- a rejection of materialism

- Simplicity is the path to spiritual greatness

- Non-conformity, individuality & self-reliance

- Nature is a source of truth & inspiration are key

- Basic Premise #1- An individual is the spiritual center of the universe, and in an individual, can be found the clue to nature, history and, ultimately, the cosmos itself. It is not a rejection of the existence of God, but a preference to explain an individual and the world in terms of an individual.

- Basic Premise #2- The structure of the universe literally duplicates the structure of the individual self—all knowledge, therefore, begins with self-knowledge. This is similar to Aristotle's dictum "know thyself."

Basic Premise #3- Transcendentalists accepted the concept of nature as a living mystery, full of signs; nature is symbolic.

- Basic Premise #4- The belief that individual virtue and happiness depend upon self-realization— this depends upon the reconciliation of two universal psychological tendencies: The desire to embrace the whole world- to know and become one with the world and the desire to withdraw, remain unique and separate- an egotistical existence.

Origins

- It is not a religion—more accurately, it is a philosophy or form of spirituality.

- It centered around Boston and Concord MA, in the mid 1800s

- Emerson first expressed his philosophy of transcendentalism in his essay “Nature” (1836)

WALDEN- Henry David Thoreau

- Walden details Thoreau’s experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord.

- THoreau compresses the time into a single calendar year and uses passages of four seasons to symbolize human development.

- By immersing himself in nature thoreau hoped to gain a more objective understanding of society through personal introspection

- Part memoir and part spiritual quest, Walden opens with the announcement that Thoreau spent two years at Walden Pond living a simple life without support of any kind. Readers are reminded that at the time of publication, Thoreau is back to living within civilization.

“Our Life is Frittered Away by Detail…Simplify, Simplify” - If Thoreau built his cabin at Walden Pond to live “deliberitly”, to front only the essential facts of life,” it’s almost certain he took along only the barest essentials, what he deemed necessary for life.

“Surely Joy is the Condition of Life” -Contrary to popular imagination, Thoreau did not live at Walden Pond as a hermit_: he went to town for dinner parties, to do odd jobs, and even to have his mother do his laundry. On one of these trips in 1849, he famously was arrested by a local constable for refusing to pay his poll tax

“In the Wildness is the Preservation of the World” - For Thoreau walking , was more spiritual exercise than physical. He walked—or, as he preferred to call it, sauntered—at least four hours per day, “absolutely free from all worldly engagements.” No wealth can buy the freedom and independence walking brings, Thoreau exhorts in his essay, “Walking,” which first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in June 1862.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

- Born in Boston; died in Concord . A New England man through-and-through.

- Believed in individualism, non-comfortifity and the need for harmony between man and nature. A proponent of abolition.

- “Nature”. (1836), influenced by a range of idealistic philosophies, confirmed his future as a prose writer – establishing him as the center of the Transcendental Movement.

- “Self-Reliance” remains his most famous collection of essays. These essays were gathered from his journals and lectures and covered a period of years. The earliest essay from 1832, the year he left the pulpit.

- Contributed to the Transcendentalists’ magazine, The Dial, serving as editor from 1842-1844.

- Known as a key figure in the “New England Renaissance” [helping American Literature find its place in world literature].

- An inspiration for many writers, especially Henry Thoreau and Walt Whitman

SELF-RELIANCE MAIN POINTS

Point #1: Not to fit into society at all- to some extent you should try to fit into society, don’t overly care but have some care as well.

Point #2: A streak of anti-intellectualism- he is wary of institutions- colleges hold people to strict guidelines and people can’t get out of them. Key example- Galileo

Point #3 Feminsim standpoint- Doesn’t mention any women. Many pieces of literature and suffrage movements came out. Focus on typically manly aspects.

Point #4: Justifies strength at the expense of empathy and reason- Humanities natural inhibition to conformity will create change in a continuous cycle but no advancement. Action over forthought.

AYN RAND

- Russian-born American philosopher, political theorist, and novelist.

- Developed the tenets of Objectivism (an aggressively capitalistic view of life and people).

-”Might Make Right”.

“The Less Government the Better”-Emerson once remarked, “the less government we have, the better” (“Politics”, 1844). Like Thoreau and other thinkers, Emerson is hard to place in any unified party or organization; his politics derive from personal responsibility and actions, rather than from any specific system of government.

Reasons for Thoreau Hatred for Government

Reason #1- Mexican American- unchecked military aggression

Reason #2- Slavery

Reason #3- exploitation of indigenous

Civil Disobedience – is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power.

- Refusal to obey laws that are unjust

- Appeals to one’s sense of justice

- Put issues on public agenda

- Draw attention to unjust laws

- Disobedience must be open, public, non-violent

Henry David Thoreau

- A self-made renaissance man who dabbled in an array of fields: essayist, historian, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, cultural critic, activist, and, of course, leading transcendentalist.

- Thoreau was an early advocate of recreational hiking and canoeing . He was an early conservationist believing in conserving natural resources on private land, and preserving wilderness on public land. He saw value in a vegetarian diet as a matter of practicality. He felt that eating animals was inefficient and unclean and that it ultimately cost the self-reliant individual more in energy than it offered in return. However, he did not keep a strict vegetarian diet.

- He was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending abolitionist John Brown.

- Thoreau’s writing has influenced several key twentieth-century political figures, such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.