Mottos
• ''The world shrank itself into a drop of dew.'' 世界将其自身缩小成为一滴露水
"Believe yourself"
"A person must be able to become what he wants to be "
The major features of Transcendentalists
4.东方神秘主义 【Oriental mysticism】
Weaknesses
The transcendentalist movement had a smafor a few years.
The transcendentalism was never a systematic philosophy. It borrowed from many sources.
“American Scholar”: American’s declaration of intellectual independence.( to develop American’s own culture)
Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862
He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.
2. the importance of the individual
3. nature is the symbol of Spirit or God
Creeds
• 1.至善 absolute good • 2.纯洁无暇 unspotted innocence of nature • 3.人具有神性 humanity was godlike and
The failure of transcendentalism as a moral force in American life was its denial of its real spiritual origin.
爱默生 Ralph Waldo Emerson
梭罗 Henry David Thoreau
a prescient（有先见之明的） critic of the countervailing（对抗性的） pressures of society.
Emerson's work
Nature. It is the Bible of transcendentalists. It contains almost everything Emerson wants to say in the rest of his life. His later works were mostly to illustrate the book.
that evil was nonexistent appeared to be an optimistic folly
Sources
1.欧洲浪漫主义文学 【the romantic literature of Europe】
2.新柏拉图主义 【neo-Platonism】
3.德国理想主义哲学 【German idealistic philosophy】
American Transcendentalism 美国超验主义
Ralph Waldo Emerson 爱默生
Henry David Thoreau 梭罗
Historical background
• A broad, philosophical movement in New England during the Romantic era（peak：1836-1855） the first American intellectual movement.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
philosopher, lecturer, essayist, and poet,
leading the Transcendentalist movement
a champion（拥护者） of individualism
1. emphasis on Spirit or the Oversoul
---Oversoul is a unitary（统一的） power of goodness， omnipresent（无所不在的） and omnipotent（无所不能的）， from which all things came and of which everyone was a part。
• Started by a group of people in the Transcendental Club in the 1830s who published their views in the journal The Dial
Brief Introduction
Transcendentalist believed instinct or intuition is the deepest level of man’s soul. They tried to find truth through feeling, rather than through logic. So they write not in a logical way. We can say they formed a movement of feelings & beliefs rather than a system of philosophy.