1. Transcendentalism   

2. Why it happened....
1. In REBELLION of the rigid way of life of Puritanism

3. Why it happened...
2. Change in LIFESTYLE: development of science and industry- introduction of machine to New England farm 

4. Why it happened...
3.  A REJECTION of Realism and Rationalism (the idea that all knowledge comes from scientific fact and reason, not from feelings and emotions).  
Chemistry Teacher: Quite an unusual class you had today...    
Keating: ...funny, I never pegged you as a cynic. 
Chemistry Teacher: I'm not a cynic. A realist. 

5. Why it happened....
4. The INFLUENCE of the American Revolutionary War         

6. Why it happened... 5. INFLUENCE of other cultures and religions:
Hinduism and Buddhism 
European ideas/Romantic Movement: 
John Locke- when we are born our minds are a blank slate (a "tabula rasa") and we fill them with knowledge from ourselves, not from facts from science
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau- men are born good, but man-made institutions make them wicked

7. Where it happened...
Began in New England around Concord, Massachusetts. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson thought the Unitarian Church's doctrine and laws were becoming too conservative 

8. Major Beliefs... the importance of the individual Emotion Imagination
Intuition= "gut feeling"
Still a belief in God, the afterlife, etc. However, the emphasis should be on the here and now, not the past or the future
NOT a rejection of God, but a preference to explain the world in terms of the individual  
DENIAL of Original Sin 

9. Major Beliefs...
The human soul is part of The Oversoul (God/universal spirit) to which it and other souls return at death
Therefore, every individual is to be respected because everyone has a portion of that Oversoul (God) within them
we have to try to strike a balance between being connected to others while still remaining unique and separate.  
there is a relationship between all things

10. Major Beliefs we must be self-reliant
All knowledge begins with self-knowledge
we are evolving thinkers- it is okay to change our minds 
love of nature  

11. "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 which he hears, however measured or far away."  -Henry David Thoreau

12. What it is... Transcendentalism is...
A Literary Movement (books and essays)
A Philosophy
A state of mind
a form of spirituality

13. Transcendentalists wanted to 'rise above' logical reason to find truth
What it is....
Transcendentalism: 
'Transcend'= to rise above, go beyond the limits of
      trans= across (transfer, transport) 
          scend= climb (descend, ascend)     
    Transcendentalists wanted to 'rise above' logical reason to find truth 

14. What it is...
Transcendentalism- A philosophy of individualism, aimed at the creation of the new American, the self-reliant man, complete and independent.