Emerson, Thoreau, and Transcendentalism

Emerson, Thoreau, & Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement developed in the mid-1800s.

It has its basis in the work of German philosophers like Kant and Idealism, which was developed by Plato in the 4th century BC.

In a nutshell, Transcendentalism is based on four ideas:

1. The world is a reflection of the divine soul, and its facts are a gateway to the spiritual world.

2. God's spirit in nature and man are revealed through intuition.

3. Individualism and self-reliance outweigh authority

4. Feelings and intuition are more important than cultivated intellectualism and rationality.

The recognized leader of the movement in the United States is Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Crisis of Faith and Finding a New Way

Lectures and Writing

1837 delivers "The American Scholar"

Encourages students to "free [themselves] from the shackles of the past...[their] apprenticeship to the learning of other lands is through."

1838 Divinity School Address

Rejects organize religion in favor of a personal relationship with God

Religious truth based on intuition

Leaders of the school disagree; he is banned from speaking at Harvard for thirty years.

1841 publishes a book of essays, including "Self-Reliance"

1844 publishes a second book of essays, including "Nature"

The Twilight Years

Failing toward Success

Became acquainted with literature and philosophy in college

After graduation, became a teacher for two weeks

Fired for refusing to whip a child

Went to New York for six months, but got homesick.

Began his "experiment at Walden Pond on July 4, 1845

Early life

Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1817

Father was a pencil manufacturer

Attended Harvard in 1833

Considered eccentric: refused to wear the regulation black coat to chapel because "it was required"

Thoreau

Walden

Built a cabin in the woods at Walden Pond

Attempting to "rediscover the grandeur and heroism of the simple life"

Spent two years there, barely two miles from his hometown

The goal: meet "the facts of life" that lead to spiritual fulfillment

Considered city life to be one-dimensional, a quest to make a living and nothing more

Tried to emulate nature in his writing

Resistance to Civil Government

Gave "Resistance to Civil Government" lecture in 1847

Supported nonviolent demonstration and civil disobedience

Not important at the time, but influenced 20th-century freedom fighters like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi.

Transcendentalism

Legacy

Early Life

Born in Boston in 1803

Father was a Unitarian minister; died when Emerson was 8

Raised by mother and aunt

Attended Harvard College at age 14

Married Ellen Tucker in 1828--she died two years later

Joined the church in 1829

Returned to Concord, Massachusetts in 1833

Married Lydia Jackson

Began lecturing to make ends meet

Became disenchanted after two years as a minister and the death of Ellen

Spent the summer of 1833 in Europe

Spent time with Samuel Coleridge and

Henry Wordsworth

Emerson

"The First in the Procession of great American poets"

Son died 1842 of scarlet fever

Emerson becomes depressed

In later years, suffered from severe memory loss

Died 1881

An introduction