爱默生RalphWaldoEmerson.ppt

Transcendentalism(1) The major features Firstly, they placed emphasis on spirit, or the Over soul, as the most important thing in the Universe. 首先，超验主义者强调精神，或超灵，认为这是宇宙至为重要的存在因素。 Secondly, they stressed the importance of the individual. To them, the individual was the most important element of society. 其二，超验主义者强调个人的重要性。他们认为个人是社会的最重要的组成部分。 The major features Thirdly, they offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was, to them, alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. 其三，超验主义者以全新的目光看待自然，认为自然界是超灵或上帝的象征。在他们看来，自然界不只是物质而已。 Main requires： 1.至善 【absolute good】 2.纯洁无暇 【unspotted innocence of nature】 3.人具有神性 【humanity was godlike and that evil was nonexistent appeared to be an optimistic folly 】 We will work with our own hands. We will speak our own minds. We will walk with our own feet. -Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Life Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on the same street as the birth home of Benjamin Franklin. His father was a famous minister who encouraged young Ralph to pursue philosophy at a young age. His father passed away when he was 8 and Emerson is left to support his four other brothers. Ralph was asked to share a coat with his brother Edward to save finances. Despite the hardships, all the Emerson boys, except one, graduated from Harvard University. life After graduation, Emerson became a school teacher in suburban Boston. In 1823, he graduated from seminary school and became a priest神父 to follow in the footsteps of his father. * In New England, an intellectual movement known as transcendentalism developed as an American version of Romanticism. The movement began among an influential set of authors based in Concord, Massachusetts, and was led by Ralph Waldo Emerson, like romanticism, transcendentalism rejected both 18th-century rationalism and established religion, Transcendentalists celebrated the po