Individualism Vs Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism is people who were during Civil War, some of them were struggling to find a religion. Some scriptures were a start of it too. A lot of transcendentalism

Transcendentalism focuses on the importance of individuality and how to find beauty in the simplest things. It also preaches to live in the now and that true faith lies within the self. Many transcendentalism quotes speak to me. The first quote, written by Henry David Thoreau, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined,” explains how you should always move forward in life, even through the tough times.

“Transcendentalism […] has primarily much the position of the sun […] We are conscious of it as of a kind of splendid confusion […] But the circle of the moon is as clear and unmistakable, as recurrent and inevitable, as the circle of Euclid on a blackboard” (Chesterton, 24). These words encapsulate the driving rationale of the anti-transcendentalist argument – that although individuals seek transcendentalism, they can never truly realize it, or, to compare with the sun, see it. Rather, they inevitably place attention on the “moon,” the perspicuous reflection of transcendentalism – that is, individualism – and neglect the responsibilities of society. Emerson institutes the philosophy of transcendentalism in his essay, Nature, teaching that divinity pervades all nature and humanity. Although transcendentalists would offer that man can only better his spiritual life by embracing individualism, pursuing the ideal, and being one with nature, the ability and appeal of transcendentalism to advance enlightenment upon the soul of the individual rests on the false suppositions that feckless man can achieve perfection and that nature embodies God, thus causing transcendentalism to conversely detriment the spiritual life of the individual, isolating him, prescribing his rebellion, and invigorating his selfish pursuits, simply because he confides his soul in creation instead of the Creator (Tocqueville, 482).

Oscar Wilde once said that, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” The founders of transcendentalism: Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, and Dickinson worked together to show everyone the different perspectives of the concept. They analyzed transcendental philosophies and demonstrated how the individual must rebel against societal conformity in order to seize the day and make life extraordinary, yet willingly accept the consequences that it entails.

Self-Reliance reflects Emerson’s beliefs on Transcendentalism by stating how Emerson believes in inspiration, happiness, and the spiritual measures of inspiration through the depth of the human mind itself. “The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried” (Pg. 774). Emerson in Self-Reliance puts majority of the focus on people trusting themselves, using good judgement, and their own knowledge because a new independent idea makes history not the idea that is copied. “Trust thyself; every heart vibrates to that iron string” (Pg. 774). Through this idea that Emerson created, the thought of people trusting themselves, using good judgement, and their own knowledge

On September 6, 1992, a group of moose-hunters discovered the remains of Chris McCandless’ body, which, through abject starvation, had withered and decayed in the unforgiving Alaskan bush. Upon discovery, Chris’ corpse became a symbol of misguided passions and misinterpreted values and inspired many to explore and document his story of demise. In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, the story of Chris, attempting to achieve ultimate freedom and independence is told. On this journey, it is evident that Chris McCandless’ shunning of society was unjustified because he took the transcendentalist ideas expressed in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self Reliance and radically misinterpreted them. Because of his analytical error, McCandless was unable to attain freedom and independence, despite his support for these values; egotism overcame individualism, and McCandless’ hubris and extreme risk-taking resulted in foolish isolationism and rendered his journey useless.

Is their a higher power than human intuition? Not everyone believes that there is a higher power. There are many religions that are based on many different views. Men and women equally have knowledge about themselves and the world around them that "transcends" or goes beyond what they can see, hear, taste, touch or feel. Transcendentalism teaches people to think for themselves,equality, and if there is a higher power or not.

From the time of the New England Renaissance period, which was 1830 through 1865, the compares and contrasts between transcendalism and anti-transcendalism was a big talk. The Renaissance was a time for rebirth, or could be said as the new learning of art, and wisdom. In both the transcendalism, and anti - transcendalism have a very strong relation of being exceedingly similar and different in multiple ways. First off, transcendentalism is a thought that states a person's senses, such as taste, touch, smell, and more. Ralph Waldo Emerson, was an excellent author that represented transcendentalism.

Transcendentalist have their own right to believe in what they want. Living self-reliant and individualistic should be what a lot of people live by. Living in society is so overrated now, all of the expectations are ignorance. Being able to live and be your own person and actually stick to it is a great way of living life to the fullest.

American Transcendentalism was an important philosophical and literary movement which placed an emphasis on staying true to one’s beliefs and expressing oneself no matter the situation or consequence. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau fully embraced these beliefs as their influence has allowed these

What is the main meaning of Transcendentalism? Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that happened in the late 1800s to 1830s in the Eastern United states. Transcendentalism is the way of thinking for yourself, being self reliant due to the conformity in society. Transcendentalism has an influence on music in modern culture, which can be seen when comparing

The time period of transcendentalism changed the views of many people through setting different principles otherwise known as tenets. These tenets I am going to focus on is: confidence, self-reliance, free thought, nonconformity, and the importance of nature. Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement in the 1800’s where people responded to the strict rules back then. They declared that they didn’t have to follow all of the rules and decided to go off of independent tenets. Many pieces of literature contain some or all of these tenets, the ones I’m going to discuss and analyze today are Still I Rise by Maya Angelou that focuses on self-reliance and stanza 1 and 52 from Song of Myself by Walt Whitman which focuses on all tenets of transcendentalism. All of the 5 tenets are very important, but the one that overcomes all the others in my life is confidence. Many pieces of literature contain at least all tenets, but reference them in different ways.

With the fact that remained in history, the primary conception of transcendentalism was led by the unitarianism, the reaction to the strict Calvinism, which supported that people should live the spiritual life in terms of a continuing effort to cultivate one’s own spiritual resources. David Robinson explicated it in his article “Transcendentalism”:

According to Dictionary.com Transcendentalism is, “any philosophy based upon the doctrine that the principles of reality are to be discovered by the study of the processes of thought, or a philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical”, but that’s only part of what Transcendentalism is. Transcendentalism is standing for One of the first people to write about Transcendentalism were Henry David Thoreau writer of “Resistance to Civil Government” and Ralph Waldo Emerson writer of “Nature” and “Self-Reliance”. Those writers through their writing inspired people like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.

Over time things change, for better or worse. Even if it is for the better, most of the time bad events end up following. Transcendentalism is not a religion, but a philosophy, in where people understand life relationships of the world, for its beauty and no its scientific meaning. It is clear that the way of life has changed and, the way we look and think has drastically shifted in a negative way, although it is not always in a bad way, yey for the most part it corrupts our intuition and denies us our own truths, of beauty, nature and life its self. Society and culture has changed so much in recent years.