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Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism. Emotion Supernatural Atmosphere. Nature Individual Subjectivity. Romanticism. Transcendentalism. Gothic. American Transcendentalism began in the 1830’s and started to die down around 1860 Many of the Transcendentalists resided in Concord , Massachusetts

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Transcendentalism

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  1. Transcendentalism

  2. Emotion Supernatural Atmosphere Nature Individual Subjectivity Romanticism Transcendentalism Gothic

  3. 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 • Members included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau • The Dial, a Transcendental magazine, flourished from 1840-1844

  4. Transcendentalists believed that through intuition the individual could go beyond everyday experiences and arrive at higher truths • Placed emphasis on self-reliance • Required deep faith in the individual

  5. To Go Beyond • Transcendentalists wanted “to go beyond” the limitations of the senses and everyday experience • “I have never seen a man who was quite awake” (Thoreau). • People do not see the roots of things or get to the heart of the matter

  6. How Do We Go Beyond Everyday Experience? • By depending on upon our intuition rather than reason and logic

  7. What Happens When, by the Use of Intuition, We Go Beyond Everyday Human Experience? • People discover higher truths and insights

  8. Emerson’s Ideas • 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

  9. Emerson’s Ideas • God can be found in every aspect of nature • God is good and works through nature • Everyone is capable of understanding God through intuition • Nature is a reflection of the Divine Spirit

  10. Emerson’s Ideas • Believed in an Over-Soul (Divine Soul) • A large entity that all individual humans were a part of • Everything in the physical world is a reflection of the Divine Soul

  11. Emerson’s Ideas • His outlook was optimistic • Everyone should follow his own path • Believed that God is good

  12. Characteristics of Transcendentalism • 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

  13. Similarities between Puritanism and Transcendentalism • 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

  14. Differences between Puritanism and Transcendentalism • 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

  15. Born Bad or Good? Puritans Sinful Enlightenment Blank Slate Transcendentalists Good

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