What is transcendentalism?

Ralph Waldo Emerson, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

Ralph Waldo Emerson answers

What is popularly called Transcendentalism among us is Idealism — Idealism as it appears in 1842, though the thought itself is as old as the first man who looked inward and found there something that the senses could not have given him.1 The light is always identical in its composition; it falls on a great variety of objects and ages, and by so falling is first revealed to us — not in its own form, for it is formless, but in theirs.2

This way of thinking, falling on Roman times, made Stoic philosophers; falling on despotic times, made patriot Catos and Brutuses; falling on superstitious times, made prophets and apostles; and falling on Unitarian and commercial times, makes the peculiar shades of Idealism which we know.3 The division is ancient and simple. Mankind have ever split into two sects, Materialists and Idealists: the first class founding on experience, the second on consciousness.4

The materialist insists on facts, on history, on the force of circumstances; the idealist perceives that the senses are not final, and says that what the senses give us are representations of things, not the things themselves.5 But the idealist goes further: he affirms facts not affected by the illusions of sense, facts which are of the same nature as the faculty which reports them, and not liable to doubt — facts which it only needs a retirement from the senses to discern.6

Every materialist will be an idealist; but an idealist can never go backward to be a materialist.7 What this means for the soul is this: our being is descending into us from we know not whence.8 Man is a stream whose source is hidden, and the most exact calculator has no prescience that somewhat incalculable may not balk the very next moment.9

Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual — yet there is a depth in those brief moments which constrains us to ascribe more reality to them than to all other experiences.10 The senses collect the surface facts of matter; the intellect acts on these brute reports and obtains from them results which are the essence or intellectual form of the experiences — comparing, distributing, generalizing, uplifting them into its own sphere.11

And so Transcendentalism is not a party, not a creed, not a programme. There is no pure Transcendentalist; history has afforded no example of a purely spiritual life.12 We have had many harbingers and forerunners, but of a man who leaned entirely on his character and ate angels' food, who trusting to his sentiments found life made of miracles — of such a man we have as yet no finished specimen.13

Call it, then, the Saturnalia or excess of Faith: the presentiment of a faith proper to man in his integrity, excessive only when his imperfect obedience hinders the satisfaction of his wish.14 Nature is transcendental — it exists primarily, necessarily, ever works and advances, yet takes no thought for the morrow — and Transcendentalism is simply man's attempt to claim the dignity of the life that throbs around him in chemistry, and tree, and animal, and in the involuntary functions of his own body.15

Sources

  1. What is popularly called Transcendentalism among us, is Idealism; Idealism as it appears in 1842.
    Nature, Addresses, and Lectures
  2. The light is always identical in its composition, but it falls on a great variety of objects, and by so falling is first revealed to us, not in its own form, for it is formless, but in theirs.
    Nature, Addresses, and Lectures
  3. This way of thinking, falling on Roman times, made Stoic philosophers; falling on despotic times, made patriot Catos and Brutuses; falling on superstitious times, made prophets and apostles; on popish times, made protestants and ascetic monks, preachers of Faith against the preachers of Works; on prelatical times, made Puritans and Quakers; and falling on Unitarian and commercial times, makes the peculiar shades of Idealism which we know.
    Nature, Addresses, and Lectures
  4. As thinkers, mankind have ever divided into two sects, Materialists and Idealists; the first class founding on experience, the second on consciousness.
    Nature, Addresses, and Lectures
  5. The materialist insists on facts, on history, on the force of circumstances, and the animal wants of man; the idealist on the power of Thought and of Will, on inspiration, on miracle, on individual culture.
    Nature, Addresses, and Lectures
  6. I affirm facts not affected by the illusions of sense, facts which are of the same nature as the faculty which reports them, and not liable to doubt; facts which in their first appearance to us assume a native superiority to material facts, degrading these into a language by which the first are to be spoken; facts which it only needs a retirement from the senses to discern.
    Nature, Addresses, and Lectures
  7. Every materialist will be an idealist; but an idealist can never go backward to be a materialist.
    Nature, Addresses, and Lectures
  8. Our being is descending into us from we know not whence.
    Essays, First Series
  9. Man is a stream whose source is hidden. The most exact calculator has no prescience that somewhat incalculable may not balk the very next moment.
    Essays, First Series
  10. Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual. Yet there is a depth in those brief moments which constrains us to ascribe more reality to them than to all other experiences.
    Essays, First Series
  11. The senses collect the surface facts of matter. The intellect acts on these brute reports, and obtains from them results which are the essence or intellectual form of the experiences. It compares, distributes, generalizes, and uplifts them into its own sphere.
    Letters and Social Aims
  12. You will see by this sketch that there is no such thing as a Transcendental party; that there is no pure Transcendentalist; that we know of none but prophets and heralds of such a philosophy; that all who by strong bias of nature have leaned to the spiritual side in doctrine, have stopped short of their goal.
    Nature, Addresses, and Lectures
  13. I mean, we have yet no man who has leaned entirely on his character, and eaten angels' food; who, trusting to his sentiments, found life made of miracles.
    Nature, Addresses, and Lectures
  14. Shall we say, then, that Transcendentalism is the Saturnalia or excess of Faith; the presentiment of a faith proper to man in his integrity, excessive only when his imperfect obedience hinders the satisfaction of his wish.
    Nature, Addresses, and Lectures
  15. Nature is transcendental, exists primarily, necessarily, ever works and advances, yet takes no thought for the morrow. Man owns the dignity of the life which throbs around him in chemistry, and tree, and animal, and in the involuntary functions of his own body.
    Nature, Addresses, and Lectures