TRANSCENDENTALISM

SPIRITUAL PERFECTION THROUGH DETACHMENT FROM ORGANIZED SOCIETY

Beginnings

Founded by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1832, in Concord, Massachusetts

The Dial, a transcendentalist journal, was founded in 1836 with Margaret Fuller as its editor, and Emerson himself for its last two years.

Transcendentalism is a religious and intellectual movement with roots stretching into New England’s past. The movement gains inspiration from Romanticism. The transcendentalists reject the orderly, organized world and try to find spiritual and intellectual enlightenment through the individual self.

Fundamental Principles

Individualism. Freedom from constraints imposed by organized religions.

The possibility to achieve infinite enlightenment through individualism

Everything is self-existent and your impression of the world derives from you.

 Religious Beliefs and Ideals

There is an abstract world of ideas and concepts behind the tangible world of the senses

Industrialism and commercialism will bring about a decline in the spirit of man

Individual revelation through Nature

Unity with the “Universal Being”

Individual intuition is greater than religious doctrine

Morality lies within the person.

God saturates himself through out nature, a place which “transcends” the scope of man

Establishments and Structures of Transcendentalism

American Lyceum-A popular place of knowledge where Emerson frequently gave lectures         

Utopias were designed to help individuals realize their true spiritual and moral potential.

Brook Farm-The most famous of utopias, founded in 1841 with the principle that freedom from the constraints of society would help residents develop their mind and soul.

Government

Simplicity of government results in self-dependence.