Transcript Transcendentalists PPP

 “And then he invented a new life for himself, taking
up residence at the ragged margin of our society,
wandering across North America in search of raw,
transcendent experience.”
~Jon Krakauer, Author’s Note of Into the Wild
The next book we are going to read—Into the Wild—is a
nonfiction work about the life a young man named Chris
McCandless who was very inspired by writings from the
American Transcendental movement.
Who Were the
New England
Transcendentalists?
(1830 - 1850)
Who were the Transcendentalists?
 Transcendentalism was
a 19th Century literary,
philosophical, and
social movement—an
offshoot from
Romanticism.
 It began as a Boston
discussion club—a
group of thinkers
sharing ideas.
Who were the Transcendentalists?
 radical scholars and
writers
 believed in the
existence of an ideal
spiritual reality that
transcends the
empirical and scientific
and is knowable
through intuition.
Who were the Transcendentalists?
• a generation of people struggling to define
spirituality and religion in a way that took into
account the new understandings their age
made possible.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
 summed up the beliefs of
Transcendentalism when he
wrote:
Philosopher/poet/writer
who got the
Transcendental ball
rolling
Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Was supposed to become a minister like his
father and entered Harvard at 14.
• Became a Unitarian minister but resigned
because of disbelief in some of the church’s
central doctrines. He left for Europe, where he
hung out with British Romantic poets.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
• 1837--gave a controversial speech at Harvard
for divinity students where he called for a
rejection of institutional religion
• He called for a personal relationship with God
and argued that religious truth “cannot be
reached at second hand.”
• Because of this radical speech, he was not
allowed to speak at Harvard for 30 years
What idea from this
excerpt from
Emerson’s speech
probably seemed
radical in 1837 (and
perhaps to some
today)?
 "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.”
~from Emerson’s 1837
Harvard Phi Beta Kappa
Address
The Over-Soul
• Emerson believed in a unifying soul--kind of a
common heart--in which every person’s
particular being is contained and made one with
all others.
• His belief has much in common with Hinduism.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
 Late 1860s - he was one of the most popular
speakers of the Lyceum program--a traveling lecture
program. He delivered more than 1000 speeches.
Emerson’s famous 1836 essay Nature
• advocates that we
should engage in an
intense, non-traditional
appreciation of nature
• suggests divinity
permeates all of
nature
• claims we can only
understand reality
through studying
nature
An allusion to Emerson that we will encounter
when reading Into the Wild
• “After piloting [his Datsun] west out of Atlanta,
[McCandless] arrived in Lake Mead National
Recreation Area on July 6, riding a giddy
Emersonian high” (Krakauer 27).
Transcendentalist Principles
• Believed that divinity was present in both nature
and the human soul
Transcendentalist Principles
• We can find God directly—not second hand—
when spending time in nature.
Transcendentalist Principles
• Society, conformity, and tradition often prevents
people from reaching a higher spiritual level.
Transcendentalist Principles
• The structure of the
universe literally
duplicates the structure of
the individual self.
• All knowledge, therefore,
begins with selfknowledge. This is similar
to the Ancient Greek
aphorism: "know thyself."
The Transcendentalists…
• argued fiercely for the end of slavery
• sought to improve public education, women’s
rights, and help for the mentally ill
The Transcendentalists…were
IDEALISTS
• formed experimental
utopian groups—
such as Brook
farm—with the hope
of creating a more
perfect society.
Brook Farm--home to a utopian
community in Boston
The Transcendentalists…were IDEALISTS