Transcendentalism

[Equality72521]

Heys guys. Correct me if I am wrong, by all means, but I'd like to open up a discussion referring to three exerpts from texts that we have read in my English class. One excerpt being from Emerson's Nature, the other from Self-Reliance (also Emerson) and the last Walden (Thoreau). From the excerpts and from class study, Transcendentalism seems rather philisophical to me so I was wondering if we could get something going on this forum about those three texts. Becasue I have only read exerpts and I intend to read the actual literature itself but have nto gotten around to it. But from what I have read I am almost inspired by what they say. I enjoy reading it. I was just wondering what feeling people had towards it and what everyone else gets from it. Just something to get going that may also help me in class :p

Love ya guys,
Kimmers

[mono]

Ah, transcendentalism, one of my favorite subjects!
I would like to think it began with Ralph Waldo Emerson, but, from his quotations from such thinkers as Immanuel Kant and Michel de Montaigne, as we all gain influence from others, its roots appear slightly deeper than how they appear to embed themselves in the mid-19th century; Nature and Transcendentalism, two of Emerson's essays, definitely got the ball to begin to roll, so to speak, yet others like Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and William Channing kept it going.
How much and how little can we rely upon our senses, logic, and empiricism? How much and how little can we learn and gain from an organized religion as opposed to our own innate ideas? Lastly, how much can we get from giving heed to our own intuition? Transcendentalist thought posed these questions.
I find it interesting that Emerson attended Harvard Divinity School and worked as a Unitarian preacher for a number of years, and later he debated against organized religion and the intellectualism associated with pompous universities like Harvard. Henry David Thoreau attended Harvard, as well; years later, such works as Walden and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers hit the ink presses.
In other words, I consider transcendentalism one of the greatest branches of philosophy to grace my eyes, and so few writers and thinkers have impacted me so strongly. Unfortunately, I have not gone far from the shore, only having read Emerson, Thoreau, Channing, and Fuller (and lots of Kant and Montaigne), but feel free to share any quotations, or samples, Equality72521, and I will look some up as well. :nod:

[billyjack]

Ah, transcendentalism, one of my favorite subjects!
I would like to think it began with Ralph Waldo Emerson, but, from his quotations from such thinkers as Immanuel Kant and Michel de Montaigne, as we all gain influence from others, its roots appear slightly deeper than how they appear to embed themselves in the mid-19th century;

ah, so emerson was influenced by Kant. another poster mentioned that to me, but we weren't positive on it. thank ya

funny you should mention these new englanders. walden is one of my all time favorites and i'm in the midst of emerson's nature right now. both of em have views that are very applicable to this day. speaking of which, i don't know if i've read another philosopher who's writing are as immediately gratifying in their life applicability as Thoreau

[NikolaiI]

Emerson is very inspiring to me. I would like to read all of his essays one day. Currently I'm reading the Over-Soul, but I was looking at Self-Reliance earlier and it looked good as well.

Here's an excerpt from Over-Soul, which I also put on a thread I created called "Supersoul" in the RT forum. Anyway it is one of the best paragraphs I've ever read, just to read it and understand it is to appreciate its beauty and depth.


The Supreme Critic on the errors of the past and the present, and the only prophet of that which must be, is that great nature in which we rest, as the earth lies in the soft arms of the atmosphere; that Unity, that Over-soul, within which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all other; that common heart, of which all sincere conversation is the worship, to which all right action is submission; that overpowering reality which confutes our tricks and talents, and constrains every one to pass for what he is, and to speak from his character, and not from his tongue, and which evermore tends to pass into our thought and hand, and become wisdom, and virtue, and power, and beauty. We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist, and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are the shining parts, is the soul. Only by the vision of that Wisdom can the horoscope of the ages be read, and by falling back on our better thoughts, by yielding to the spirit of prophecy which is innate in every man, we can know what it saith. Every man's words, who speaks from that life, must sound vain to those who do not dwell in the same thought on their own part. I dare not speak for it. My words do not carry its august sense; they fall short and cold. Only itself can inspire whom it will, and behold! their speech shall be lyrical, and sweet, and universal as the rising of the wind. Yet I desire, even by profane words, if I may not use sacred, to indicate the heaven of this deity, and to report what hints I have collected of the transcendent simplicity and energy of the Highest Law.

http://www.emersoncentral.com/oversoul.htm

[billyjack]

a profound quote, NikolaiI...a thank you.

reminded me of allan watts' observation, "the soul isnt in the body, the body is in the soul."

[NikolaiI]

a profound quote, NikolaiI...a thank you.

reminded me of allan watts' observation, "the soul isnt in the body, the body is in the soul."

wow, you are more than welcome billyjack... and I agree with alan watt's statement.

have a great day, see you around the forums.

[billyjack]

yeah, allan watts is good NikolaiI. he talks philosophy in a way that an atheist or a theist can appreciate

a tasty quote from emerson's "self-reliance":


What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude

bolding mine.... cuz aint it the truth

[NikolaiI]

I've not read the whole essay yet, but I was looking at it Tuesday and saw this at the end...


It is only as a man puts off from himself all external support and stands alone that I see him to be strong and to prevail. He is weaker by every recruit to his banner. Is not a man better than a town? Ask nothing of men, and, in the endless mutation, thou only firm column must presently appear the upholder of all that surrounds thee. He who knows that power is in the soul, that he is weak only because he has looked for good out of him and elsewhere, and, so perceiving, throws himself unhesitatingly on his thought, instantly rights himself, stands in the erect position, commands his limbs, works miracles; just as a man who stands on his feet is stronger than a man who stands on his head.

(also from self-reliance)

It is also somewhat similar to your Alan Watts quote. I am somewhat interested in Alan Watts, although the only thing he wrote I've read all through is "The Joyous Cosmology."