Transcript TRANSCENDENTALISM - Illinois State University

TRANSCENDENTALISM
Belief in a higher
kind of knowledge
than can be
achieved by
human reason
Can you
pronounce
it?
Can you spell it?
TRANSCENDENTALISM
TRANSCENDENTALISM


In philosophy and literature, belief in a
higher reality than that found in sense
experience
or
belief in a higher kind of
knowledge than that achieved by
human reason
TRANSCENDENTALISM
 God
gave humankind the gift of
intuition,
 the gift of insight,
 the gift of inspiration.
Why waste such a gift?
TRANSCENDENTALISM

Began in Germany
– Immanuel Kant, philosopher
– 1700’s

Developed in United States in 1936
– Transcendental Club
– Boston
– 1936
– led by Ralph Waldo Emerson
RALPH WALDO EMERSON

author

essayist

lecturer

philosopher

Unitarian minister
TRANSCENDENTALISM
Emerson and the Transcendentalists led the
search for truth
– in nature
– through self-reliance
• “No law can be sacred to me
but that of my nature.”
Emerson
ROOTS OF
TRANSCENDENTALISM

Puritanism
–belief in God as a powerful force
–belief that each individual can
experience God first-hand
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
TRANSCENDENTAL BELIEFS

OVERSOUL:
– man, universe, and nature are intertwined
TRANSCENDENTAL BELIEFS

RELATIONSHIP:
–all has its place
TRANSCENDENTAL BELIEFS

OPTIMISTIC:
–all is good
evil is an illusion
TRANSCENDENTAL BELIEFS

INDIVIDUALISM:
–be true to one’s own inner
perception or intuition
If I know it is truth, then it is truth.
TRANSCENDENTAL BELIEFS
 UNLIMITED
POTENTIAL OF
EACH INDIVIDUAL
–set high goals to
improve
TRANSCENDENTAL BELIEFS

NATURE IS TRUTH
– it can be a guide to
higher understanding
Nature symbolizes
God
or the inner life of
human beings
HENRY DAVID THOREAU


Lived the philosophy
of Transcendentalism
that Emerson
espoused
Spent 26 months at
Walden Pond to “live
deliberately - to front
only the essential
facts of life . . .”
TRANSCENDENTALISM



Transcendentalism began with a few and
grew.
This philosophy lasted for several years
in New England
It ended as the Civil War began.
TRANSCENDENTALISM

Now study the primary resources
from the Library of Congress that
have been collected from among
Walt Whitman’s possessions and
prove that he was a
transcendentalist.
THE END