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Explore the transcendentalist movement of the 1840s-1850s, as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau sought to transcend to higher spiritual levels. Discover the belief in the individual's spiritual center and the pursuit of self-realization. Uncover the tenets of transcendentalism, including the emphasis on intuition, self-reliance, and the rejection of societal corruption and materialism.
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History • 1840-1855 • New England Renaissance • Established a clear American voice • Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau sought to have people "transcend" to a higher spiritual level. • The individual had to seek spiritual, not material, greatness and the essential truths of life through intuition.
4 basic principles of transcendentalism include: • 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. • The structure of the universe literally duplicates the structure of the individual self- all knowledge, therefore, begins with self-knowledge. • Transcendentalist accepted the new-Platonic conception of nature as a living mystery, full of signs- nature is symbolic. • The belief that individual virtue and happiness depend upon self-realization.
In other words: • Transcendentalism is much more focused on having individuals find meaning within them self instead of looking to a higher power for guidance- such as God or the church.
Other tenets of transcendentalism • Nature= God • God is omnipresent • Man is divine • Intuition • Self-Reliance • Society is the source of corruption • Idealism • Materialism is bad • Technology is bad • Emphasis on the here and now
