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Basic Transcendentalism

The American Expression of Transcendentalism

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Transcendentalism

                                                                               
                                                                                  Elements of Transcendentalist Belief:

    The transcendentalist "transcends" or rises above the lower animalistic impulses of life (animal drives) and moves from the rational to a                      spiritual realm.

    The human soul is part of the Oversoul or universal spirit to which it and other souls return at death.

    Every individual is to be respected because everyone has a portion of that Oversoul (God).

    This Oversoul or Life Force or God can be found everywhere.

    God can be found in both nature and human nature.

    Jesus also had part of God in himself - he was divine as everyone is divine - except in that he lived an exemplary and transcendental life
           and made the best use of that Power which is within each one.

    More important than a concern about the afterlife, should be a concern for this life - "the one thing in the world of value is the active soul." -
          Emerson

    Death is never to be feared, for at death the soul merely passes to the oversoul.

    Emphasis should be placed on the here and now. "Give me one world at a time." - Thoreau

    Evil is a negative - merely an absence of good. Light is more powerful than darkness because one ray of light penetrates the dark.

    Power is to be obtained by defying fate or predestination, which seem to work against humans, by exercising one's own spiritual and moral
           strength. Emphasis on self-reliance.

    Hence, the emphasis is placed on a human thinking.

    The transcendentalists see the necessity of examples of great leaders, writers, philosophers, and others, to show what an individual can
           become through thinking and action.

    It is foolish to worry about consistency, because what an intelligent person believes tomorrow, if he/she trusts oneself, tomorrow may be
           completely different from what that person thinks and believes today. "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." - Emerson

    The unity of life and universe must be realized. There is a relationship between all things.

    One must have faith in intuition, for no church or creed can communicate truth.

    Reform must not be emphasized - true reform comes from within.


                                                                                                                                                                                                           Courtesy of The University of Arizona
                                                                                                                 
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  • Home
    • What is STORY
    • The Elements of Fiction
    • What Is A Short Story
    • Literary Theory Guide
  • Lit. 214
    • Class Presentations
  • Colonial Period
    • Native American >
      • Red Jacket's Speech
      • Story Collections
      • Lyrics, Poems and Chants
    • Spanish Explorers
    • Early Colonial >
      • New England Primer
      • Anne Bradstreet
      • Mary Rowlandson
      • John Smith
      • John Winthrop
      • Colonial Song Lyrics
    • Colonial and Revolutionary >
      • Readings >
        • Ben Franklin >
          • Advice on the Choice of a Mistress
          • Excerpts from The Autobiography
          • A Tale
        • Phyllis Wheatly >
          • Poems
        • Thomas Paine >
          • Common Sense
        • Philip Freneau >
          • Freneau Poems
        • Thomas Jefferson >
          • Writings
        • Jupiter Hammon >
          • An Evening Thought
      • Lyrics
  • Romantic Period
    • Elements of American Romanticism
    • Authors >
      • Washington Irving >
        • Irving's Place >
          • Irving's Place2
        • Irving on the Tale
        • Rip Van Winkle
        • Rip 2
        • Rip 3
        • Poetry
      • James Fenimore Cooper >
        • LOTH Silent Movie
        • Chapter 32
        • Chapter 32 B
      • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. >
        • Selected Poems
      • Ralph Waldo Emerson >
        • Selected Writings
        • Transcendentalism
      • Edgar Allen Poe >
        • Poe's Approach to Fiction
        • Life of Poe
        • Selected Poems
        • "The Raven"
        • The Black Cat
        • The Tell-Tale Heart
      • William Cullen Bryant >
        • Bryants Poems
      • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow >
        • Selected Poetry
      • Margaret Fuller
      • Fanny Fern
      • Herman Melville >
        • Moby Dick
      • Nathaniel Hawthorne >
        • Scarlett Letter Excepts
        • Young Goodman Brown
      • C. Clement Moore
    • Lyrics >
      • Folk / Gospel
      • Parlor Music
      • Music Hall
      • Stephen Foster >
        • Music
      • George Root
  • Civil War Period
    • 1850 - 1861 >
      • Harriet Anne Jacobs
      • Francis Harper
      • Frederick Douglass
      • Songs of Protest, Freedom, Sadness
    • 1861 - 1866 >
      • Julie Ward Howe
      • Emily Dickinson
      • Walt Whitman >
        • Excerpts
      • Abraham Lincoln
      • Louisa May Alcott
      • Misc. Poets
      • Warriors & Memoirs
    • Civil War Songs