American Transcendentalism (I)

Featuring discussions of Ralph Waldo Emerson; ontological individualism and the state of nature; Alexis de Tocqueville; Immanuel Kant; philosophical idealism; Unitarianism; Transcendentalism; Lockean psychology; and Neo-Platonism.

[@fantasybarista]

Watching this in 2021 and can't believe people have been so mean in the comments section. This man is undoubtedly one of the best professors you could have. There's so much fun and interaction in his class, so glad they put up these lectures for free on KZbin!

[@haleycarter4182]

Awesome lecture. Thanks for sharing. I found you from reading Walden and going down the trancendisist rabbit hole per a recommendation from an amazing colleague 10 years after graduating with an engineering degree. I imagine you have some of Thoreau's difficulty with the modern world now as we live in idiocracy and you are so highly intelligent. This lecture feels like the medicine for the weaponization of information we are fed now. Hope your students took this to heart and you prepared them.

[@harrisonkane1288]

never been more relevant, huh?

[@donnienarko321]

À

[@brendoncampbell6457]

Loved it. Enjoyed the close reading of the texts. The lecturer's style is histrionic and mannered but don't be put off.

[@rishitaacharya9779]

Thank you. Stayed cause I read your comment. I was about to stop watching just because of the delivery style but this is a gem of a lecture.

[@brendoncampbell6457]

@@rishitaacharya9779 Thank you for the nice comment :)

[@damondrydes]

well spoken, nice performance, wasn't planning on it but ended up listening to 27mins of this. Thanks Peace Damond Rydes

[@CarissaHelmer88]

Will do. Thank you so much.

[@Bokescreek]

Does anyone know what level of course these lectures are from?

[@ezzoubeirjabrane]

Hi there, I used some information about Transcentalism from this lecture in my presentation and I need the name of the lecturer asap PLEASE !!!

[@tonycorlett2099]

Professor Cyrus Patell. If you had started watching it, you would have seen in the first seconds!

[@bokisa007]

Emerson from 8:00

[@rabbitfootbluez]

Thank you for making these videos available. But my god, please hire a subtitler who can spell! Tocqueville was spelled Topfield (despite his correct name being written on one of the slides...); Kant as Cant, and apparently they didn't know even what a daguerrotype was... Really quite distracting!

[@Doriesep6622]

Please quit whining about the subtitles and spelling. It is done with a computer.

[@Mrbonebi1]

Can I have access to the syllabus?

[@PoetryETrain]

Thank you, added to a playlist...

[@-Greetings-Earthlings-]

Dang, the professor looks like a handsome lead actor. Hopefully I can focus on the material 😅

[@CarissaHelmer88]

What is the text he is referring to?

[@hookedonafeeling100]

The subtitles person should do a lecture series on the mysterious but influential philosopher Mr. Emanuel Cant. ;-)

[@outthr]

Genius

[@johnbicket]

can someone tell me the name of this academic? I would like to cite him in an essay I'm writing. Thanks!

[@powasjington4262]

Cyrus Patell

[@fetteclan]

This is the type of reply I would expect. Too bad for you.

[@justinnicklas4712]

Is this professor still delivering lectures?

[@fantasybarista]

He is.

[@lisamcandrews8594]

I’ve been spending a few days researching this. What are they doing to help humanity today. Everything I’ve researched all they talk about is the heroes of the past.

[@njvalueinvestor]

We have to be the change.

[@bernardmmarx]

Agreed

[@JeffRebornNow]

For some reason Nietzsche loved Emerson. I haven't read enough Emerson to figure out why.

[@danielventura2538]

Read the American Scholar

[@thebigtimefan123]

Same goes for most philosophies and religions, if any were really effective in practice the world would be much better than it is now. I get what your saying though.

[@ezzoubeirjabrane]

Thank youuuuu ... !!

[@jonasctone]

How do I access the syllabus?

[@tomassullivan4422]

Dont know if you guys cares but if you guys are bored like me during the covid times then you can stream pretty much all of the latest movies on InstaFlixxer. Been binge watching with my gf lately =)

[@tomasgibson1912]

@Tomas Sullivan Definitely, I have been watching on InstaFlixxer for since december myself :D

[@raulcrew5116]

@Tomas Sullivan Definitely, I have been using instaflixxer for years myself =)

[@erosamuk]

@frostybob123 Sweetheart, your payment was received in full and our work is done. Thank you. Now it’s time for me to move on. To review: We began with my instructions for you to focus on your spelling, and you have taken several significant steps in that direction -- obedient as a dog. Punctuation and sentence structure were also touched upon, with your specific problem areas noted, and, again, you listened and obeyed my instructions with great diligence. Good doggie.

[@carlyleporzier6013]

nature is the womb where Emerson routes his essence..

[@carlyleporzier6013]

rootens and makes the process of getting inward

[@etinarcadiaego7424]

Was that meant to sound kinky or do I have a dirty mind?

[@Doriesep6622]

I think it is not a person but a robot.

[@billeggelston1680]

collectively transcending

[@perrin6]

Oooh - I've favourited this lecture so I can see it and parts 2 & 3, when I have 4 hours in which I'm so bored I will watch anything (sorry, I don't mean to sound nasty - I actually mean it !)

[@greenghost2008]

The desire not to conform and everything at the beiginning is sheer philosophic egoism. Why hold back? Why not join us egoists philosophers?

[@thebigtimefan123]

Why?

[@CS5n531]

dentistry!

[@lisamcandrews8594]

In the past and they were heroes. Today’s issue is the S trade what are they doing to help young girls and boys

[@TurboDally]

@lutherarao The only "free" energy that exists comes from solar power, hydro power etc. Don't waste your money and time on quackery that violates physical laws. Use your car wisely, cycle if you can, don't leave your computer on overnight, and if we get affordable solar panels/good deal go for it!

[@intellectualproperty1251]

6:27

[@brnoamik]

bet gitcho moneeeeBACK!!!!! HAHAHAHA

[@erosamuk]

@100sandblast yes, it's true frostybobbie is gay but god made him that way!

[@AmeliaOni]

He just said blah blah blah lol lol

[@juliaangelina1984]

Nothing confirms my choice to forgo college more than watching college lectures. Somehow one of the most interesting, exhilarating topics of American thought almost put me to sleep. All these details, connections, analyses seem to me to be so...academic...and missing the point. And the idea that I'd have to study it all in preparation for a test I was paying big money for the privilege of taking, yikes. Not exactly the best way to absorb Emerson. But I do appreciate the lecture, I mean nothing personal to the professor.

[@muhannedbennana1714]

Julia Angelina it is supposed to be academic because it is a university not a TV show!

[@QED_]

Julia Angelina As long as you have the discipline to do for yourself what attendance at college would otherwise force you to do . . . then you've made a good choice. Good luck . . .

[@juliaangelina1984]

Sifaw II Oh I'm not hoping for sound effects and bright lights. I simply mean that it's academic in that it's being presented in a way that gives it no relevance outside of a classroom setting. No wonder so many college grads forget everything they've learned so soon.

[@juliaangelina1984]

greenrate oh no, I certainly don't. I think I'll manage to muddle through somehow, along with the rest of the uneducated masses.

[@joshuasellers8725]

+Julia Angelina - True, it is a mixed bag. Thoreau himself said 'What does education do? It makes a straight-cut ditch out of a free, meandering brook.' Online lectures like this (and the Yale series) have their value, but it is limited. This is the blessing-- and curse-- of being an autodidact....

[@fetteclan]

You can't analyze what Emerson is writing about. Until you understand "being" and "knowing" (as a transcendent experience with the heart rather than the mind), you won't be able to fully get it. Emerson's ideas parallel the Buddha, Eckhart Tolle, and many others who teach of knowing the world of consciousness. This lecturer is trying to construct ideas and theories about Emerson. Your time would be much better spent alone with a book of Emerson lectures.

[@robertoalexandre4250]

Fettecian, yours is an old comment, but it hits the nail on the head. I have spent many years immersed in Emerson, more meditating on his thoughts in their direct relation to personal experience. Emerson cannot be theorized and his thought cannot be summed up (he´s everywhere, yet nowhere): he has no handle you can grab. Rather, as you say, you must have the experience wherein his words begin to ressonate and ring true. It´s uncanny how so many people who are looking for success (=money, material success, power, etc.) like hearing Emerson: but Emerson´s is a very narrow path (the path that you state above: truly that transcendent ongoing change of one´s awareness and an integral expansion of one´s inner space). You can read and experience a core part of Emerson without knowning where is was from, where he was born, what his literary environment was, all the bibliographic excrescence that universities thrive on (I know, I did an MA in literature). Forget the universities, literature is meant to be experienced (yes, discussed, dialogued about and shared), but not downsized, mapped out or theorized. Emerson is for a very private experience.

[@abhimanyudharma21]

@fetteclan.. you forgot or deliberately missed to mention about " HINDUISM"!! I know America is christian nation ruled by missionaries who hate Hinduism? But the Great Emerson and Thoreau were Hinduphiles!! Transcendentalism is more based on the ideas of Hinduism..

[@vrcbabu29]

@@robertoalexandre4250 Can I contact you, I am a researcher of Emerson's Transcendentalism, Romanticism, and Mysticism

[@robertoalexandre4250]

@@vrcbabu29 Hello, Mr. Ramachandra! That's great to know! I have been studying Emerson for years (my MA is in literature) and he is superb for our kinds of thinking. My email: [e-mail] I look forward to hearing from you. Best from Rio de Janeiro

[@robertoalexandre4250]

@@vrcbabu29 Emerson like Whitman and Thoreau are Indians born in America: their awareness of life and the universe is much closer to what I see in Hinduism and Buddhism. I am from Rio and I have a deep affinity with India: just look into the eyes of the most humble Indian and you will see something that here in the West is largely absent. There is some of this in Brazil still: a pure loving spirit, but our elite is corrupt, our masses poor and uneducated and consuming both mental and dietary trash.

[@user-hf7lp8ti3p]

😂

[@billeggelston1680]

bit of a contradiction? studying individualism.

[@pcote001]

On one hand, a scholarly analysis of Emerson’s views ought to be a positive contribution to literature . On the other hand, from these lectures, one must conclude that to truly understand the meaning of Emerson’s words, one needs to be familiar with dozens of other texts, including those of religious writers. How does an atheist, for example, read Emerson? Either something is wrong with these lectures or Emerson’s writings are essentially useless exercises intended for a handful of like minded writers.

[@litcrit6704]

I don't think you need to read other writers to understand Emerson at all. Emerson's project- the canon of Emerson- was to point to the immediacy through which man finds himself in the arms of Nature, i.e, Providence. This in itself is proof enough that Emerson was trying to wholesale reject the iron hand of "literary tradition", and move towards the immediate abode of nature. I think some where in American Scholar he says that he is not interested in being a "mere thinker", but Man Thinking, for the former is always a vessel of others thoughts.

[@JBrock884]

Utterly absurd comment.

[@bernardmmarx]

I just think the whole nature thing is silly. The same goes for the Oversoul concept. It sounds nice in theory, but is completely useless and ridiculous in practice.

[@larrydallas697]

so weird people pay 100,000 grand a year to talk about poems

[@vincentdesapio]

Trump paid $130,000 to a porn star. Are her contributions to society worth more?

[@maka8551]

Is there an alternative?

[@ssake1_IAL_Research]

I have discovered evidence that Margaret Fuller was not the author of much of the work she claimed. My paper, entitled "The 'Star'-Signed Reviews, Essays and Reports in the New York 'American,' from 1831-1833; Or, how the 'Tribune's' 'star,' which was never Margaret Fuller in the first place, turns up in New York City more than a decade earlier, looking very much the same," can be accessed at the following link: www.ial.goldthread.com/American_Tribune_star.pdf