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American Transcendentalism
Radical Romantics
Roots of Transcendentalism Romanticism
New attitude toward nature, humanity and society that emphasizes individualism and freedom.
A celebration of individualism A reverence for nature The rebel (individual vs. society) A concern with the impact of new technology A fascination with death and the supernatural An impulse toward reform
TranscendentalismA literary movement, associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson, says the existence of an ideal spiritual reality that transcends the scientific is knowable through intuition.
Inspirations Kant Mysticism: the belief in realities or
truths beyond the present reach of reason. direct communication or spiritual intuition
of divine truth; A transcendental union of soul or mind with the divine reality or divinity
Reaction to Locke Empiricism: sense experience is the only source of knowledge.
Catalysts Erosion of Puritanism Secularization--Science/Tech Industrialization European Influence Access to Spiritual Ideas
Transcendentalism “Basic truths of the universe lie
beyond the knowledge we obtain from our senses, reason, logic, or laws of science. We learn these truths through our intuition, our “Divine Intellect.”
Concepts of Transcendentalism Natural State of Man Divinity Within Oversoul Nature Intuition Individualism “Carpe Diem” Technology
Transcendental Beliefs
NATURAL STATE OF MAN--MoralSociety pollutes man.
Transcendental BeliefsThe Divine Intellect—part of God in
each man; intuition; innate understanding of what is right and good; direct line of communication between God and man
Divinity within Man
Transcendental BeliefsOVERSOUL:
man, universe, and nature are intertwinedUniversal soul that permeates all beings—”the force”
“I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.”- Nature
Transcendental Beliefs
INTUITION over ReasonIndividual Intuition: highest form of
knowledge: the creative insight and interpretation of one's own inner voices
Plato’s World of Forms
Natural world is symbolic of the spiritual world
Transcendental Beliefs Reverence of NATURE
Nature is inherently good—symbolic “The foregoing generations beheld God and Nature face to face;
we—through their eyes. Why should we not also enjoy an original relation to the universe?”- Emerson
Transcendental Beliefs INDIVIDUALISM:
True to own inner perception or intuitionDivinity of each individual, but this divinity could be discovered only if the
person had the independence of mind to do so”Self-RelianceNonconformity
If I know it is truth, then it is truth.
Transcendental Beliefs
“Carpe Diem” Death “Transcend”
Criticism of Technology
“Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end…We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.” (19)—Thoreau
TranscendentalismBasic belief: “By meditating, by communing with nature through art, man transcends his senses and finds beauty, goodness, and truth”
References
http://www.jesuitcp.org/facultypages/rmcghee/American%20Literature/Transcendentalism/Transcendentalism%20notes.htm
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/4intro.html
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/ideas/introduction.html
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