Transcendalism Lecture notes

Transcendentalism

• Theory of thought fathered by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
• 1840-1855 is known as a "New Reinassance" in American literature and thought.
• This era in literature above all others has a clear American voice though there are definite foreign influences.

Although transcendentalism is hard to define, there are some important tenets

• Based on Plato's philosophy
• Dependence on self (intuition)
• Innocence regained
• Sieze the Day or Carpe Diem
• Individuals "transcend" to a higher spiritual state
• Individuals seek spiritual not material greatness
• Essential truths of life through intution.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Young Boston Pastor
• Lost his wife in the early 1830's after being married for less than two years.
• Her loss caused him to question his beliefs (Crisis of Confidence)
• Society in the 1830's made little of the individual.
• The Industrial Revolution was in full swing and replacing people with machines

Emersonian Philosophy

• The individual is at the center of the universe
• No institution, religious or political, is as powerful as the individual
• The human mind is so powerful it can unlock any mystery, from the intricacies of nature to the wonder of God.
• Every being is a part of the mind of God.