爱默生RalphWaldoEmerson课堂PPT

Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882)
American philosopher, poet and essayist The most eloquent spokesman of New EnglandTranscendentalism.
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Life
• Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on the same street as the birth home of Benjamin Franklin.
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Comment on Nature (1)
《论自然》无论是作为教义, 还是神秘思想,无论是从哲学 角度去审视它,还是用诗人的思维去欣赏它, 都是蕴涵深刻 的作品。 ❖Emerson advocates man should go back nature and the primeval land where man can regain self-confidence to exert the potentiality for nature is the only infinite spring of man’s inspiration and power. ❖Nature advocates not to follow the beaten track and be confined by history. Man should directly look upon the exuberant nature with the brand-new eye because there is the new heaven and earth, new man and new thoughts here.
1847 1867 1837 1846 1847
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The scholar is that man who must take up into himself all the ability of the time, all the contributions of the past, all the hopes of the future, he must be an university of knowledge.
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• Offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was, to them, not purely matter. It was alive, filled with God’s overwhelming presence. It was the garment of the oversoul. Therefore it could exercise a healthy and restorative influence on the human mind. What the transcendentalists seemed to be saying was, “Go back to nature, sink yourself back into its influence, and you’ll become spiritually whole again.” The natural tended to become symbolic, and the physical world was a symbol of the spiritual.
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The major features
• 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
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---Ralph Waldo Emerson 16
Introduction:
Nature
In the “Introduction”, Emerson pronounces the fundamental premise about Nature in Transcendentalism, that is, Nature is not simply the Not-Me but also the universal mind whose signs, or symbols, are visible for the individual to read, with eyes, heart and mind. The ‘Introduction” is followed by eight sections, each of which develops a general thesis: “Nature”; “Commodity”; “Beauty”; “Language”; “Discipline”; “Idealism”; “Spirit” and “Prospects”.
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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.
的最重要的组成部分。
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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.
• 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.
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Questions for reading Nature
※According to Para 2, why does Emerson believe that the stars awaken a reverence in people? ※When do natural objects make a similar impression of reverence? ※How does Emerson describe the lover of nature? ※What does Emerson mean when he says, “In the woods too, a man casts off his years”? ※Why does Emerson say, “ I am part particle of God”?
8. Society and Solitude
1870
Letters and Social Aims 1876
Self-Reliance
1841
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Poems:
1.Poems 2.May Day 3.Concord Hymn 4.The Rhodora 5.The Humble Bee 6.Days
• 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。
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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
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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。
v Transcendentalists celebrated the power of human imagination to commune with the universe and transcend the limitations of the material world. The transcendentalists found their chief source of inspiration in nature.
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Essays:
Nature
1836
American Scholar 1837
Divinity School Address 1838
Essay (two series) 1841 1844
Representative Men 1850
English Traits
1856
7. The Conduct of Life 1860
In the woods, we return to reason and faith, there I feel that nothing can befall me in life---no disgrace, no calamity…, which nature cannot repair.
•你若是爱千古，你应该爱现在；昨日不能唤回来，明日还是 不实在；你能确有把握的，只有今日的现在。
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Major features of New England Transcendentalism
• Emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. The Oversoul was an all-pervading power for goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent, from which all things came and of which all were a part. It existed in nature and man alike and constituted the chief element of the universe.
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❖Emerson holds the universe consists of nature and spirit. Nature always wears the colors of the spirit , which is the symbol of the spirit. ❖Only the spirit and nature are melted into wholeness of harmony can engender the real pleasures.
• 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.
nonexistent appeared to be an folly 】
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• We will work with our own hands.
• We will speak our own minds.
• We will walk with our own feet.
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-Ralph Waldo Emerson