Transcript Transcendentalism - Elida High School

Romanticism
Nature
Emotion
Individual
Supernatural
Subjectivity
Atmosphere
Transcendentalism
Gothic
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American Transcendentalism began in the
1830’s and started to die down around 1860
Many of the Transcendentalists resided in
Concord, Massachusetts
The Transcendental Club was formed in 1835
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Members included Ralph Waldo Emerson and
Henry David Thoreau
The Dial, a Transcendental magazine,
flourished from 1840-1844
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Transcendentalists believed that through
intuition the individual could go beyond
everyday experiences and arrive at higher
truths
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Placed emphasis on self-reliance
Required deep faith in the individual
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Transcendentalists wanted “to go beyond” the
limitations of the senses and everyday
experience
“I have never seen a man who was quite
awake” (Thoreau).
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People do not see the roots of things or get to the
heart of the matter
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By depending on upon our intuition
rather than reason and logic
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People discover higher truths and
insights
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Emerson was the
leader of the
Transcendentalists
He believed in
intuition – the
capacity to know
things spontaneously
and immediately
rather than through
our reasoning abilities
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God can be found in
every aspect of nature
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God is good and
works through nature
Everyone is capable of
understanding God
through intuition
Nature is a reflection
of the Divine Spirit
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Believed in an OverSoul (Divine Soul)
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A large entity that all
individual humans
were a part of
Everything in the
physical world is a
reflection of the
Divine Soul
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His outlook was
optimistic
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Everyone should
follow his own path
Believed that God is
good
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Everything in the world, including human beings,
is a reflection of the Divine Soul
The physical facts of the natural world are a
doorway to the spiritual or ideal world
People can use their intuition to behold God’s
spirit revealed in nature or in their own souls
Self-reliance and individualism must outweigh
external authority and blind conformity to custom
and tradition
Spontaneous feelings and intuition are superior to
deliberate intellectualism and rationality
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God could be experienced directly by each
individual and did not need to be filtered
through external authorities
Both valued self-reliance, industriousness,
education, and simplicity
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Puritans looked to the Bible for divine
revelation; Transcendentalists looked to Nature
Puritans viewed mankind in two groups, the
saved and the damned; Transcendentalists
believed that all people were connected to a
divine force
Puritans
Sinful
Enlightenment
Blank Slate
Transcendentalists
Good