Transcendentalism

• He was born to a cultured but poor family.
• His father, a minister, died when Ralph was 8.
• He became a Unitarian minister, despite being uncomfortable with it.
• After leaving the church in 1832, he went to Europe where he met many of the Romantic thinkers and writers of that time who influenced his thinking.

Thoreau

• Thoreau's stay at Walden was perhaps his most formative experience and his most well-known work.
• He was also an outspoken member of society: he refused to pay his poll tax at one time and spent a night in jail as a result.
• His work "Resistance to Civil Government" influenced the thinking of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1803-1882

Thoreau

• Thoreau and Emerson knew each other and were both members of the movement.
• Emerson came up with the philosophical ideas, and Thoreau put them into practice.
• Look for this relationship to develop as we read works from them both.

The American Renaissance & Transcendentalism

1849-1855

Emerson

• Emerson is one of the most well-known members of this group.
• He drew ideas from Asia and Europe as well as Puritan beliefs to create his view of Transcendentalism.
• He was very optimistic in his views of God.
• He wrote Nature and Self-Reliance, two important texts in Transcendentalism.

Emerson

• He finally settled in Concord, MA in 1833 and married Lydia Jackson.
• He found "a new pulpit" through giving lectures which supplemented his income.
• During this time, he developed his idea of the "Over-Soul."
• At this point, he was a strong influence in the Transcendentalist movement.

Questions?

Thoreau

• He was born in 1817 in Boston, MA to a pencil maker and a housewife.
• He entered Harvard in 1833, graduated four years later, and was know for breaking the rules.
• He taught for a short time in New York but eventually returned home.
• In 1845, he made his famous sojourn to Walden pond.

Emerson

• He drew ideas from Europe and Asia as well as Puritanism to develop his version of Transcendentalism.
• He relied heavily on intuition to understand the world.
• His ideas about God were intensely optimistic.
• He believed that all people were a part of the Divine Soul.

Transcendentalism: True Reality is Spiritual

• Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that came about during a period called the American Renaissance.
• Renaissance means "a rebirth."
• During this time, America was finding its own cultural and intellectual identity.

Henry David Thoreau

1817-1860

Beliefs of Transcendentalism

• They believed that intuition is more important than reason.
• Intuition is the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.
• Transcendentalism itself means that in order to fully understand God, a person has to go beyond his humanity.

Thoreau

• He stayed at Walden for two years and then moved in with Emerson and his family, eventually resettling in his parents' home until his death.
• He supported himself by taking on odd jobs in the community but kept a reputation as a source of knowledge in the community.
• He caught a cold which eventually turned into tuberculosis in 1860.
• An acquaintance of Thoreau's said that he "never saw a man dying with so much pleasure and peace."

3 Main Beliefs of Transcendentalism

• God is in every aspect of nature, including humans.
• Everyone is capable of apprehending God through intuition.
• Nature is a reflection of divine spirit.

Emerson

• In 1842, Emerson's son died, an event which took a toll on his spiritual optimism.
• In the years to come, Emerson's health declined.
• Ultimately, he suffered from a severe memory loss.
• Upon being asked how he felt, he is quoted as saying, "Quite well; I have lost my mental faculties, but am perfectly well."
• He died in April 1882.

The Lyceum

History of the Movement

• The growth of the Transcendentalist movement was supported by the Lyceum, an intellectual movement.
• This movement supported educating adults, training teachers, establishing museums, and instituting social reform.
• Examples of social reforms during this time: improved public education and conditions for the mentally ill, an end to slavery, and an increase in women's rights.

• Transcendentalism can be traced back to Plato and his idea of Idealism.
• Transcendentalists believed in human perfectibility, and they worked to achieve this goal.
• Transcendentalism is also related to the Romantic movement that occurred previously.

Emerson

• He settled in Concord, MS and married in 1833.
• He began to give lectures to support his income, calling this opportunity his "new pulpit."
• His theories of Transcendentalism began to develop, and he created the concept of the "Over-Soul."

Agenda

• Emerson's "Nature"
• Emerson's "Self-Reliance"
• Thoreau's _Walden_

Emerson

• He famously delivered "The Divinity Harvard School" address in 1838 which called for a rejection of institutional religion.
• Instead, Emerson thought that people should seek a personal relationship with God.
• Emerson thought that religious truth was "an intuition. It cannot be received at second hand."