Transcendentalism was a philosophical and literary movement that originated in the 1830s among New England intellectuals who believed in the inherent goodness of both people and nature. Key figures included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. They emphasized non-conformity, self-reliance and intimacy with nature. Thoreau's Walden documented his two years living simply in a cabin to gain spiritual insights through solitude and close observation of nature.

1. American
Transcendentalism
“ It was a high counsel that I once heard
given to a young person, always do what
you are afraid to do.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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2. What does
“transcendentalism” mean?
• There is an ideal spiritual state which
“transcends” the physical and empirical.
• A loose collection of eclectic ideas about
literature, philosophy, religion, social
reform, and the general state of American
culture.
• Transcendentalism had different meanings
for each person involved in the movement.

3. Transcendentalism
• Relationship between man
and nature. Heightened
awareness of this
relationship would cause a
“reformation” of society
away from materialism and
corruption.
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4. Transcendentalism
• A literary movement that established a
clear “American voice”.
• Emerson first expressed his philosophy in
his essay “Nature”.
• A belief in a higher reality than that
achieved by human reasoning.
• Suggests that every individual is capable
of discovering this higher truth through
intuition.
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7. Where did it come from?
• Ralph Waldo Emerson gave German
philosopher Immanuel Kant credit for
popularizing the term
“transcendentalism.”
• It began as a reform movement in the
Unitarian church.
• It is not a religion—more accurately, it
is a philosophy or form of spirituality.
• It centered around Boston and
Concord, MA. in the mid-1800’s.

8. What did Transcendentalists
believe?
The intuitive faculty, instead of the
rational or sensical, became the
means for a conscious union of the
individual psyche (known in Sanskrit
as Atman) with the world psyche also
known as the Oversoul, life-force,
prime mover and God (known in
Sanskrit as Brahma).

9. Basic Premise #1
An individual is the spiritual
center of the universe, and
in an individual can be found
the clue to nature, history
and, ultimately, the cosmos
itself. It is not a rejection of
the existence of God, but a
preference to explain an
individual and the world in
terms of an individual.

10. Basic Premise #2
The structure of the
universe literally
duplicates the
structure of the
individual self—all
knowledge, therefore,
begins with selfknowledge. This is
similar to Aristotle's
dictum "know thyself."

11. Basic Premise #3
Transcendentalists
accepted the
concept of nature as
a living mystery, full
of signs; nature is
symbolic.

12. Basic Premise #4
The belief that individual virtue and
happiness depend upon self-realization
—this depends upon the reconciliation of
two universal psychological tendencies:
1. The desire to embrace the whole world—
to know and become one with the world.
2. The desire to withdraw, remain unique
and separate—an egotistical existence.

13. Transcendentalism
• Believed in living close to
nature/importance of nature. Nature is
the source of truth and inspiration.
• Taught the dignity of manual labor
• Advocated self-trust/ confidence
• Valued individuality/non-conformity/free
thought
• Advocated self-reliance/ simplicity
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14. Ralph Waldo Emerson
•
•
•
•
1803-1882
Unitarian minister
Poet and essayist
Founded the
Transcendental Club
• Popular lecturer
• Banned from Harvard for
40 years following his
Divinity School address
• Supporter of abolitionism

15. “Self-reliance” -Emerson
• “What I must do is all that concerns me,
not what people think…”
• “…to be great is to be misunderstood”
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16. Henry David Thoreau
• 1817-1862
• Schoolteacher, essayist,
poet
• Most famous for Walden
and Civil Disobedience
• Influenced environmental
movement
• Supporter of abolitionism

17. “Nature”
• Thoreau began “essential” living
• Built a cabin on land owned to Emerson in
Concord, Mass. near Walden Pond
• Lived alone there
• for two years studying
• nature and seeking
• truth within himself
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18. “I went into the woods
because I wished to live
deliberately, to front only
the essential facts of life
and see if I could not learn
what it has to teach, and
not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not
lived.”
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19. “Still we live meanly like ants.”
“Our life is frittered away by detail.”
“Why should we live with such hurry and waste of
life?”
“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. I say, let your
affairs be as two or three and not a hundred or a
thousand.”
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20. Walden
Individuality
• The surface of the earth is soft and impressible
by the feet of men; and so with the paths which
the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then,
must be the highways of the world, how deep
the ruts of tradition and conformity!
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21. • “If a man does not keep pace with his
companions, perhaps it is because he
hears a different drummer. Let him step
to the music he hears, however measured
or far away.”
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22. “Civil Disobedience”
• Thoreau’s essay urging passive, nonviolent resistance to governmental policies
to which an individual is morally opposed.
• Influenced individuals such a Ghandi, Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr., and Cesar Chavez
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23. Amos Bronson Alcott
• 1799-1888
• Teacher and writer
• Founder of Temple
School and Fruitlands
• Introduced art, music,
P.E., nature study, and
field trips; banished
corporal punishment
• Father of novelist Louisa
May Alcott

24. Margaret Fuller
• 1810-1850
• Journalist, critic, women’s
rights activist
• First editor of The Dial, a
transcendental journal
• First female journalist to
work on a major
newspaper—The New
York Tribune
• Taught at Alcott’s Temple
School

25. Ellery Channing
• 1818-1901
• Poet and especially
close friend of
Thoreau
• Published the first
biography of Thoreau
in 1873—Thoreau,
The Poet-Naturalist

26. Resources
• American Transcendental Web:
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/index.html
• American Transcendentalism:
http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/amtrans.htm
• PAL: Chapter Four
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/4intro.html