Ralph Waldo Emerson

1. "We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds. . . . A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men." Emerson

2. Ralph Waldo Emerson • With this fiery challenge Ralph Waldo Emerson concluded his 1837 Harvard Phi Beta Kappa Address, THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR. As his words were received with great enthusiasm, Emerson argued not only for a new American culture, freed from European bondage, but also for a rebirth of an intellectual and artistic life that was inextricably bound up with the life of the spirit. Before long, Emerson and his circle of writers, reformers, and artists would christen those ideals which governed the spirit "Transcendentalism."

3. American Renaissance • The Transcendentalists stood at the heart of The American Renaissance-- the flowering of our nation's thought in literature, poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture, and music in the period roughly designated from 1835-1880.

4. Transcendentalism • The term Transcendentalism was derived from the German philosopher Emmanuel Kant (1700’s), who called "all knowledge transcendental which is concerned not with objects but with our mode of knowing objects." • According to Kant, men can know something other than the physical world around them. • In other words,transcendental refers to knowledge not known through the five senses.

5. Transcendentalism • Transcendentalism wasnot an organized system of thought but a cluster of ideas, a rather awkward composite of philosophical bits and scraps.

6. Transcendental Beliefs • Only by transcending the limits of rationalism and received tradition can the individual fully realize his or her potential.

7. Transcendental Beliefs • The essential nature of human beings is good • If left in a state of nature, human beings would seek the good • Transcendentalists taught the “green apple theory,” that men progressively ripen toward the ideal.

8. Transcendental Beliefs • Each individual possesses unlimited potential • Set high goals to improve yourself

9. Transcendental Beliefs • Self-reliance: • Be true to one’s own inner perception or intuition. • Rely on yourself to find truth. If I know it is truth, then it is truth.

10. Transcendental Beliefs • Individualism • Rejection of conformity to standard societal beliefs and traditions • “Imitation is suicide” • “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.  Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” • Fulfillment comes from knowing one’s self, not wealth, gender or education • “Envy is ignorance”

11. Transcendental Beliefs • A heightened awareness of the relationship between man and nature would lead to a “reformation” of society away from materialism and corruption

12. Transcendental Beliefs: • Oversoul: • Man, universe, and nature are all intertwined • Everything is in relationship; all is one man universe nature

13. Transcendental Beliefs • Nature is divine • Nature holds the truths of life • To communicate and be one with nature is true goodness • Nature is innocence and an escape from the evils of society

14. Transcendental Beliefs • Feelings are a priority over reason Not priority Priority

15. Transcendental Beliefs • Truth can be understood fully only through experience • You must get to nature to understand truth.

16. Transcendental Believers • Main Believers • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Henry David Thoreau

17. Ralph Waldo Emerson • From a long line of ministers (seven generations). He went to Harvard at age 14 to follow in his father’s footsteps. • His father died when he was 7, and his Aunt Moody educated him (and helped raise him) and taught him to be an independent thinker • After his first wife died of TB, he began to question traditional Christianity • He went to Europe to grieve and discover new beliefs • Greatly emphasized the importance of the individual • “Self Reliance” (Essay) Nature (Book)

18. Henry David Thoreau • From Concord, Massachusetts. • Graduated from Harvard • While there he wore a green coat to chapel because a black one was required. • The Thoreau family business was a pencil factory located behind the family’s house. They were generally recognized as America's best pencils, largely because of Henry's research into German pencil-making techniques.     • Quit teaching after only two weeks because of a dispute on how to discipline children. • Henry and his brother, John Thoreau, both became romantically interested in Ellen Sewall. Both brothers -- first John and then Henry -- proposed marriage to her. But because of her father's objections, Ellen rejected both proposals.  • Was invited to work as a live-in handyman in the home of his mentor, neighbor, and friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

19. Henry David Thoreau • In 1844, he went to some land owned by Emerson on the shore of Walden Pond. He went there to rediscover simplicity and to have time to write, and he ended up staying over 2 years (26 months). • “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” • He was a protester: he spent the night in jail because he refused to pay his poll tax because he was protesting the Mexican War. • Thoreau was an ardent and outspoken abolitionist, serving as a conductor on the underground railroad to help escaped slaves make their way to Canada.  • Called by many, “the father of environmentalism” • Lived the remainder of his life in a rented roomat his parents’ house and working in their pencil factory • Died of TB

20. ROOTS OF TRANSCENDENTALISM • Puritanism • belief in God as a powerful force • belief that each individual can experience God first-hand

21. ROOTS OF TRANSCENDENTALISM • Rationalism • Education will eradicate evil from the world. • Distrusted and rejected all religions based on books that claim to contain the revealed Word of God • Man is not a flawed, fallen creature but a being who can by his own works please God. • Everyone has the capacity to regulate and improve his or her own life.

22. ROOTS OF TRANSCENDENTALISM • Romanticism • Placed central importance on emotions and the individual • Emphasized intuition and inner perception of truth that differs from reason • Emphasized nature’s beauty, strangeness, and mystery • Emphasized individual expression and artistic freedom

23. Transcendentalism vs. Puritanism • Fundamentally anti-Christian, the movement discarded the Bible, believing is truths relevant only to the original writers, not the present readers. • To know truth, transcendentalists turned to Nature, which they believed communicates divine ideas directly to persons willing to listen. • In this communication such persons become virtually united to God. Emerson wrote in Nature, “I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God.”

25. Transcendentalism & Religion • The Biblical God is only the Jewish version of the true God and thus no different from the gods claimed by other religions in the world. • The true God, they declared, is the Over-Soul, a spiritual presence residing in every part of the universe.

26. Transcendentalism & Religion • This teaching that the Over-Soul permeates everything, that all things belong to one gigantic whole with each part as important as any other, clearly departs from the Puritan belief based upon Biblical revelation that man is the pinnacle of God's creation. • Genesis 1:26Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

27. Transcendentalism& Religion • In addition, transcendentalists believed in man’s natural goodness. • This notion of natural goodness elevated the self and disregarded the Puritan’s believe of total depravity… • "There is none good, no not one" Romans 3:12 • "No one is good, except God alone" Luke 18:19

28. Social Stance: • Anti-Aristocracy • Anti-Slavery • Pro-Women’s Rights • Quest for Utopia • Brook Farm: a utopian experiment in communal living in Massachusetts in the 1840s

29. Transcendental Summary: • By meditation, by communing with nature, through work and art, man could transcend his senses and attain an understanding of beauty and goodness and truth. • Transcendentalism espoused belief in a higher reality than that found in sense experience • And belief in a higher kind of knowledge than that achieved by human reason

30. Concluding Thoughts… • Transcendentalism began with a few and grew. • This philosophy lasted for several years in New England • It ended as the Civil War began.

31. Works Cited • About Thoreau: http://www.thoreausociety.org/_news_abouthdt.htm • About Transcendentalism: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/icon/transcend.html