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- Creator:
- Norwick, Stephen
- Resource Type:
- Paper
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Creator:
- Shah, Muhammad Maroof
- Description:
- Nondualism as presented in Aṣṭāvakra Gītā, Śankara and Ibn Arabi implies the thesis that there is no need to invoke any notion of abstract beyond conceived in opposition to the world. The hypothesis of transcendental beyond needed to be affirmed as an object of faith and a proposition is here argued to be superfluous. Idealistic mystical philosophies of diverse traditions are not speculative ontological inquiries but fundamentally ways of looking at the world and their cognitive claims are often misrepresented with simplistic label of transcendentalism. Their primary interest is existential and psycho-spiritual and not any explanatory theory regarding this or the other world. Though explicitly upholding that the world as ordinarily experienced is not to be equated with Reality as such their view of transcendence needs to be understood in more nuanced way that appropriates much of reservations against transcendentalist thought currents today. I first quote some verses from Aṣṭāvakra Gītā that question a simplistic transcendentalist interpretation of Vedānta or Sufism and plead for seeing nondualism as an existential therapy that results in changed attitude towards everything by change in self-definition rather than a speculative metaphysical inquiry or philosophy in the modern sense of the term. The key arguments of the paper are that for achieving liberation or enlightenment we need not invoke any notion of beyond as a separate existential or conceptual category and then question, debate, relate to or be skeptical of it. Nothing needs to be done to access any proposed beyond of thought. Absolute receptivity or innocence alone is demanded and discoveries of this state can’t be expressed in conceptual terms and this means that all ideological battles or appropriations of Vedāntic and Sufi “position” are suspect.
- Resource Type:
- Article
- Campus Tesim:
- Pomona
- Creator:
- Kytle, Ethan J.
- Description:
- Second-generation Transcendentalist minister Thomas Wentworth Higginson played a leading role in the latter stages of the struggle against slavery. A principal member of the Boston Vigilance Committee, which resisted attempts to capture fugitive slaves, Higginson also provided support for John Brown's assault at Harpers Ferry and served as colonel of the Union's first regiment of African Americans during the Civil War. Building on recent scholarship that portrays Transcendentalists as sympathetic to the antislavery cause, this essay argues that Higginson's militant approach to abolitionism drew directly on key components of Transcendentalism. It thereby offers a fresh interpretation of the emergence of antislavery violence in the 1850s, while underscoring a fundamental connection between the philosophy of Transcendentalism and radical abolitionism.
- Resource Type:
- Article
- Identifier:
- Publisher version: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14664650701520959
- Campus Tesim:
- Fresno
- Creator:
- Ryan, Kelly A.
- Description:
- In my thesis, "A March of Complexities: Louisa May Alcott's Conflicted Response to Transcendentalism" in "Little Women", I explore Louisa May Alcott's both admiration for and frustration with her father Bronson Alcott's transcendentalism. I provide textual evidence that her response to this transcendentalism exists within her novel, "Little Women". I provide evidence from Louisa May Alcott's journals and letters to show that her public and private response to transcendentalism was consistently conflicted. I also examine Louisa May Alcott's feminism in depth and compare and contrast it with the feminism of Bronson Alcott and show how that comparison and familial tension informs both Louisa May Alcott's response to Bronson Alcott's philosophy and the text of "Little Women". Procedure: In addition to exploring "Little Women", and Louisa May Alcott's journals and letters, I have explored two of her other novels, "Moods", and "Work", and show how these novels, written both before and after "Little Women", show Louisa May Alcott to be a passionate supporter of women's rights. I show how her feminism was ignited by Bronson Alcott and also explore the ways in which Louisa Alcott critiques her father's unknowing adherence to nineteenth-century patriarchy. I examine the time the Alcotts spent in Fruitlands, the vegan spiritual community started by Bronson Alcott and the ways in which that experience informed her experience of transcendentalism and is present in the pages of "Little Women". I also provide the historical context of Bronson Alcott's place in transcendentalism, explore his pedagogy, and take a close look at his major work, Conversations with Children on the Gospels. Findings: During the course of my "Little Women" scholarship for this thesis I have made discoveries regarding why Louisa May Alcott chose the name of March for the family in "Little Women" that was so much like her own family. I have also discovered why Louisa May Alcott may have chosen to have the characters of Laurie and Amy marry. The two seem to have little in common and the match has puzzled readers throughout the years. I also made a discovery regarding why Louisa Alcott chooses to have Pip the pet bird die due to neglect. This tragedy is incongruous with the way that animals are adored throughout the text. Louisa Alcott's response to Bronson Alcott's transcendentalism inform all of these discoveries about the text of "Little Women". Conclusions: I conclude that Louisa May Alcott was both publicly and privately conflicted in her response to Bronson Alcott's transcendentalism and that that conflict informs the text of "Little Women" with a spirited tension that contributes to the novel's continued relevancy to readers.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma