American Philosophical & Religious Traditions: A Student Guide
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38 cards
Question: What movement did Transcendentalism begin as within the Unitarian church?
Answer: A reform movement in the Unitarian church.
Question: Is Transcendentalism a religion or something else?
Answer: It is not a religion; more accurately it is a philosophy or form of spirituality.
Question: Where and when was Transcendentalism centered?
Answer: Around Boston and Concord, Massachusetts in the mid-1800s (the "New England Mind").
Question: According to Transcendentalism, which mental faculty becomes the means for union of the individual psyche with the world psyche?
Answer: The intuitive faculty (rather than the rational or sensory).
Question: In Transcendentalist terms, what Sanskrit concept corresponds to the individual psyche?
Answer: Atman.
Question: What Sanskrit term corresponds to the world psyche or ultimate reality in Transcendentalist thought?
Answer: Brahma (the Oversoul, life-force, prime mover, or God).
Question: What is the basic premise about the individual in Transcendentalism?
Answer: The individual is the spiritual center of the universe, and within an individual can be found the clue to nature, history, and the cosmos.
Question: Do Transcendentalists deny the existence of God?
Answer: No; they do not reject God's existence but prefer to explain the individual and the world in terms of the individual.
Question: How does Transcendentalism relate the structure of the universe to the individual self?
Answer: The structure of the universe literally duplicates the structure of the individual self, so all knowledge begins with self-knowledge.
Question: Which classical dictum is similar to the Transcendentalist idea that knowledge begins with self-knowledge?
Answer: Aristotle’s dictum “know thyself.”