Transcendentalism!

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Transcendentalism!
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Transcendentalism

• Historical Perspective
• Sought to create literary independence.and
  spiritual independence
• Westward Expansion prevalent
• Social reforms prioritized (abolition of slavery,
  education, womens rights)
• Movement during the American Renaissance which
  included educated people.
• Population movement from rural to urban areas
• Time of Social Reforms ( peaceful)

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TranscendentalismMajor Elements

• The Individual
• The structure of the universe literally
  duplicates the structure of the individuals self
• Know Thyself!!!!!!!!!!
• An individuals virtue and happiness depends upon
  Self Realization.
• Power is to be obtained by defying
  fate/predestination
• It is foolish to worry about consistency

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TranscendentalismMajor Elements

• The Individual..Self Reliance
• For completion of Self..must have full
  understanding of emotional, sexual and
  psychological to achieve freedom/liberation.
• Mandala self is most accurately itself when all
  four parts in equal balance
• Ego Ego-emerging self
• Anima Animas Animafemale Animusmale
• Shadow Shadowdarker side of self

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TranscendentalismMajor Concepts

• Nature
• Nature is symbolic..pantheistic
• Oversoul
• Chathonic of the earth born of dust, return
  to dust
• God can be found in nature and human nature
• Transcendentalism is a form of Idealism
• Evil is NegativeLight (goodness) is more
  powerful than dark

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TranscendentalismMajor Elements

• Spiritual
• The intuitive faculty(not rationality or sensory)
  becomes the means of conscious union of the
  individual psyche ( Oversoul)
• An individual is the spiritual center of the
  universe
• Individual may transcend lower animalistic
  impulses of life..moving from the instinctual or
  rational to the spiritual realm
• The human soul is part of the oversoul/universal
  spirit
• Oversoul/Life Force/God can be found everywhere
• God can be found in nature and human nature
• Focus on this life..not aferlife
• Know God through intuitionnature
• Death is a part of the cycle of life

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Transcendentalism

• Oversoul
• Source of all good
• Atma each individual soul is made of the same
  stufffrom the same stuff..univeral, world soul.
• She did not go someplacenot away. She went
  outeverywhere.
• Interconnection of all humanity

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Oversoul

• Jungian Collective Unconscious
• Experiences that all humans share regardless of
  time, culture, religion (archetypes).
• Goes beyond human experience...
  Transcend!!!!!!!!!!

• Freud (just to compare)

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Transcendentalism

• Influences
• Plato idealism according to which reality
  subsists beyond the appearances of the
  world..that the world is an expression of spirit
  or mind..and IS GOOD.
• Immanual Kant belief in the native spontaneity
  of the mindrather than the passivity of John
  Locke
• Puritanism ethical seriousness and (Edwards)
  suggestion that one can receive divine light
  immediately and directly.
• Eastern Philosophy (Hinduism)
• Impersonal, universal god who is omniscient, but
  not judgmental
• no good or bad.just is ( no Original Sin)
• Consciousness (not physicality) is focus
• Use intuition
• Cannot have spiritual experience through
  another..must obtain individually throught the
  self

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Transcendentalism

• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Expressed the advantages of a young land with its
  freedom, innocence, and access to laws directly
  through nature, not books.
• Appealed to both intellectuals and the general
  public
• Emphasized the connections between humans, nature
  and higher order
• Emersons work is plain on surface, yet has
  depth and substance
• Set up as collection of thoughts and memories,
  not organized essays
• I am a poet
• Born into cultured, but poor family who were
  religiously based.
• Studied to be minister, but felt disbelief at
  central doctrines
• Traveled to Europeenlightened
• Formed the Transcendental Club
• After death of his son, Waldo, Emerson shrank
  from society

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Emerson

• Transcendental beliefs
• Denied the importance of the past on present and
  future situations
• Individual men and women were part of the idea
  of man
• Since all things are connected to a larger whole,
  even the commonest matters could open a door to
  the eternal
• Rejection of institutional religion in favor of a
  personal relation with God
• God always close and reveals Self everywhere and
  at all times
• Within each individual lies a divinity that
  allows human intuition to behold Gods spirit in
  nature
• Correspondence between natural law and moral law
  by use of intuition allows humans to see Gods
  laws revealed ( in nature).

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Transcendentalism

• Henry David Thoreau
• Self un-made man
• Born in Concord, Mass. In 1817 to a successful
  family
• Grew up hiking through the woods of Concord
• Graduated from Harvard as an above average
  student with a rebellious streak.
• Stayed at Walden Pond for nearly two years to
  reflect upon his life and live it simply and
  close to nature.
• Helped fugitive slaves make their way to Canada
• Protested the Mexican Warrefused to pay his
  taxes (which would support it)
• spent night in jail
• Moved back to family house to live the rest of
  his life.
• Supported himself by doing odd jobsmasonry,
  carpentry, etc
• Died of Tuberculosis
• Henry, have you made peace with God? Why,
  Aunt, I didnt know we had quarreled.

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Thoreau

• Transcendental Beliefs
• Believed that the epic journey of his day was
  inwardto live close to nature and live simply to
  rediscover integrity and greatness.
• Looked to nature for a model of life and writing
  because it contained spiritual truth and reality
• Possessed by a vision of perfect freedom in which
  one is their own master
• Life, as much of his writing, is Paradoxical.
• One needed conscience and the need for action to
  maintain it
• Disliked hyprocisy