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

2. Background? Motivated by: A push to be identified as “American”
Powerful drive for independence
Rejection of the strict religion of the previous century
Historically:
Beginning of the Industrial Revolution / End of Scientific Revolution
Rejection of the idea that everything could be explained with logic and equations

3. Transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo Emerson first expressed this 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.

4. Opposed strict ritualism of established religion.
Unlike Puritans, they saw humans and nature as possessing an innate goodness.
“In the faces of men and women, I see God”
-Walt Whitman
Opposed strict ritualism of
established religion.
God was in everyone because humans
were made in God’s likeness

5. Transcendentalism: The tenets
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