Transcendentalism

 

The publication of R. W. Emerson's Nature, an essay, in 1836 was the manifesto of a new movement, that was soon called "Transcendentalism". This text had a tremendous influence on many thinkers of the time. Transcendentalism inaugurated the American Renaissance, giving it both a necessary impulse as well as its foundations. It gave birth to many texts, essentially philosophical essays, which analyzed the intellectual, but also moral, social, religious and political situation of the USA in the 1830s, 40s and 50s, and advocated a resolutely independent spirit. Even if the Transcendentalists were essentially philosophers and thinkers, novelists such as Hawthorne or Melville, and poets such as Walt Whitman or Emily Dickinson also felt profundly indebted towards Transcendentalism which deeply influenced them in many different ways. The American Renaissance, which started in 1836 with Nature, lasted for several decades, until the beginning of the Civil War, in 1861, which made the USA enter another period.

Unitarianism, first, was a movement that appeared in the beginning of the 19th century, and which developed in Harvard (New England), a university, by the way, in which most Transcendentalists were students. It came as a revolt against Calvinism, a religious doctrine at the heart of American Protestantism. Calvinism was based on very austere beliefs, such as man's original fall (man was conceived as a sinner, with no possible redemption) or man’s predestination (no personal freedom nor progression). Unitarianism started as a reaction against the deep influence of Calvisnism on American religious and also intellectual life. What the Unitarians believed in was — the Unity of God (all religions was the expression of the same faith), — the divinity of man (man was good, guided by an immanent spirit in himself) — and the sanctity of Nature.

Unitarianism offered, therefore, an optimistic conception of religion, very much influenced by the philosophy of the Enlightenment, as you can realize : to sum up, just as the philosophers of the Enlightenment had written it, man was now seen as good and perfectible, God was benevolent, and Nature was the place where He (God) could be found. The second movement that deeply influenced Transcendentalism was Romanticism, which developed first in Europe and then in the USA at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. The main characteristics of Romanticism were : — the glorification and celebration of the individual — a belief in the goodness and perfectibility of mankind — a celebration of nature, harmonious and benevolent, which is seen as the main inspiration for society and the arts — an emphasis on emotions, feelings and intuition which are both the sources and the subjects of artistic expression — an emphasis on imagination, which is described as a creative force much stronger than education or reason — an optimistic belief in a social and political system that is conceived both as protections and as stimulations for the development of the individual

In Nature, Emerson first expresses his pantheistic view of the world : Nature is the place where God can be found, he writes. Nature is thus sacred ; it is a source of nourishment, of beauty and inspiration. It is in Nature, therefore, and in Nature alone, that man can find what he needs : it is where God speaks to him ; it is where man can regenerate himself, without the help of traditional, institutional religion— since his only religion, indeed, is Nature. Man, therefore, must turn to Nature in order to discover what Emerson calls his true « self »— a key-word in this work, and in Emerson’s whole work. Emerson, therefore, firmly repudiates his former Unitarian Church, in spite of the influence that Unitarianism first had on his thought, and chooses Nature as his new religion. In Nature, Emerson also advocates the necessity for a new way of looking at the world : man, just like him, must learn to open his eyes, as if for the first time in his life, and must learn to look at the world differently, getting rid of his preconceptions and of his moral or educational influences. "I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. I see all", he writes. The "I", therefore, becomes the "eye", and Emerson explains that it is thanks to this new and fresh way of looking at the world that the self is going to discover itself. Although Nature was only read by a few intellectuals, it had an incredible influence : many thinkers who recognized their preoccupations in Emerson's essays came to join him in Concord ; Transcendentalism was born and the "transcendental club" was founded. The members even created their own newspaper, Dial, in which they expressed their ideas. Ironically, the word « Transcendentalism » was first used by people who laughed at the new movement and wanted to mock the members’ philosophical pretentions. But it finally came to design a philosophical movement that advocates the immanence of the divine in the world (immanence means that the divine is to be found everywhere, naturally), as well as man’s capacity to regenerate himself, to find himself, thanks to Nature and without the help of conventional and traditional religions or Churches.

Emerson had a tremendous influence on his period. First because he firmly repudiated the past, and advocated a national culture and literature, of course, but more than that, he celebrated the self, the individual, and he urged every American to discover their true self, to become self-reliant, to free themselves from too rigid traditions and taboos. Emerson, therefore, advocated an intellectual revolution, and dealt with new issues, suggesting new ideas as well as a new future. At the very heart of his works, one finds a notion that hasn't been mentioned yet : the "Oversoul" ("la sur-âme"). The Oversoul, in Emerson’s work, is the divine spirit of the universe, and is present both in Nature (you remember that the all-loving God is present everywhere in Nature) and in man (it is what can be called the Transcendent Self, that is the sacred dimension of man). By developing his self, by discovering it, man aims at merging it with the Oversoul, thus reaching self-knowledge and harmony. The Oversoul, therefore, is the universal spirit that men share ; but it is also the promise for self-discovery, and thus a most private and personal achievement. In searching for a new, spiritual identity and way of life, Emerson came to distrust society and its rules— educational rules, religious, moral rules etc… He thought that the USA was becoming too interested in money and commerce, material success, and he saw the growing expansion and industrialisation of the country as a major danger jeopardizing the original US ideals. He therefore ceaselessly urged people to develop their individuality and to resist the uniformisation of society. In many essays, he sometimes bitterly expressed his doubts about the future of the USA if a profound intellectual and moral revolution did not take place. Emerson was nicknamed "The Great Awakener", and this expression perfectly conveys his influence on mid-nineteenth century America : he tried, indeed, to make people open their eyes on a new era, and new possibilities for all. He had many followers, among whom his main disciple was Henry David Thoreau.