Individualism Vs Transcendentalism

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 the New York Times, teenagers listen to an average of 2.5 hours of music in a singular day. The messages coming through in each song may vary between drug/alcohol reference or transcendentalism. No matter where there is music, there is a lesson to be learned through ideas that Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau created. Though transcendentalism is a relatively foreign word to most, it can be defined by using five i's: individualism, inspiration, intuition, idealism and imagination which are displayed on all platforms of music today. The different music genres may vary between music from the late 1990's and children's movies today.

“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).

Even though there is about one hundred and eighty years apart from the year transcendentalism started to the year two thousand seventeen, we can still see many similarities, and some notable differences between these two era. Transcendentalism movement is a philosophical movement that happen in between 1820s to 1830s in the United States. The movement started with Ralph Waldo Emerson, a famous philosopher and writer. The main tenets of the philosophy are individualism, connect with nature, and religion. We can see a lot of their ideas still apply in today’s modern society, even after all these years.

A month ago, you asked me to inform you on the goals and ideas of the transcendentalist philosophers. After some heavy research on the topic, I am ready to inform you to the finest of my abilities. How about we start with a little background and history? Sounds good? Great! First, transcendentalism is a movement that started in the early to mid-nineteenth century. According to definitions online, a transcendentalist Philosopher is a person that accepts ideas as a way of understanding life relationships rather than religious beliefs. Moreover, Transcendentalism describes a very modest idea. Men, women, children, and people in general are knowledgeable about themselves and their surroundings that transcends beyond what they can see, feel, taste, or touch. Most believe that this knowledge occurs as a result of intuition and imagination rather than logic or sense. As a result, the group declared cynicism of all recognized faiths, believing that spirituality lived in the individual, and the arbitration of a church was burdensome to attaining enlightenment.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement in the early nineteeth century that changed and shaped the literary works read today. Transcentialism is a longer complicated way to state a more “simple” idea. That all people have knowledge about themselves and the world that “transcends” the five senses, touch, sound, sight, and taste. It was a fight against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality that was prominent in the previous years. Transcendentialist believe the knowledge that everyone possesses comes through intuition and imagination instead of logic and reason. A major foundation is the belief that mankind is inherently good. They believed that large insinuations took away a persons individuality and therefore their own goodness. They believe that a person reaches their full potential and pureness when they are self-reliant. Therefore transcendtialist trust

The transcendentalists were a group of New England intellectuals. They believed that the direct experience of nature united one with god. From Hinduism and Buddhism, they adopted a holistic philosophy based in pantheism (believe that all aspects of the universe ae infused with divine spirit). In the essay “Nature” Emerson, becoming one with nature, we find true happiness.

There are three fundamental beliefs at the Transcendentalism core: Individualism/Nonconformity, Free thought/ Idealism, and the Divinity of nature. Individualism/Nonconformity: is emphasized to promote the peace and harmony of being one's self. Emerson