Faculty of Humanities and Social Science > English

Emerson, Thoreau, and Transcendentalism

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Gopa B. Caesar:
Transcendental Beliefs

-A Universal Soul or Energy
-Essential Goodness of Humans
-Corrupting nature of society
-Perfectionism and Optimism
-Symbolic aspect of nature

Gopa B. Caesar:
Emerson’s Major Ideas

-Transparent Eyeball (Refers to the idea that one must empty oneself of previous ideas and 
 experiences in order to “see” the proper nature of the universe.(Nature, 1836)

-Demand for original American thought and art. (The American Scholar, 1837)

Gopa B. Caesar:
-Rejection of traditional values and ideas, in favor of one’s own empirical knowledge about the world.
 This includes religious beliefs. (Self-Reliance, The Divinity School Address)

Gopa B. Caesar:
Symbol, Nature, and language

Emerson’s dictum on the nature of nature and language. (Nature,1836)
1.Words are signs of natural facts
2.Particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts.
3.Nature is the symbol of the spirit
How are these ideas the dominant philosophy in American Romantic writing? 

Gopa B. Caesar:
Henry David Thoreau: Major Works and Ideas

Civil Disobedience--States that the only law men are bound to is the law of their own conscience. Also states that citizens have the right to peacefully rebel against unjust laws.

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