Essay about Transcendentalism

“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil” -Ralph Waldo Emerson in Self Reliance. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a transcendentalist. Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that originated in the 19th century and was primarily influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Transcendentalists’ main beliefs are: self-reliance is essential to one’s life, nature is divine, every person should have an optimistic outlook, and humanity needs to adhere to their personal morals and beliefs. In today’s world we still see a multitude of the beliefs of transcendentalism.

Religion is always a big part of people’s life, but not for the transcendentalist. Most of them believe in nature than God. From the essay written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance, there are some paragraphs he talked about the religion and the church. “I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make a valued adviser who was wont to importune me with the dear old

Transcendentalism is an idealistic,philosophical,and social movement that developed in New England around 1836. It taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity and that by experiencing nature one could experience divinity. A Transcendentalist is someone who lives outside the confines of societys rules, finding inspiration and meaning through experiencing nature. Transcendentalism rose as a reaction against 18th century rationalism,sensualism ,and calvinism, it is composed of a variety of ideals spanning from Hindu texts and other such various religions. Several authors came about that influenced and pushed the transcendental movement to progress and evolve past what it originally was, among them being Ralph Waldo Emerson, (who is credited with pushing Transcendentalism to become a major cultural movement) and other such

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

Transcendentalism is an American literary, political and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ideologically speaking, the movement is not simply to define since its philosophical and religious ideas are marked with a certain mysticism, which defies concise explanation. As well, the transcendentalism had been approached and interpretated by its followers in different ways and these differences embroil generalizations about the movement as a whole. Along Ralph Waldo Emerson, other important transcententalists were Henry David Thoreau, Frederic Henry Hedge, Amos Bronson Alcott and Margaret Fuller. Regarding the world from a radical perspective, the transcendentalists found their inspiration

Transcendentalism is the American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century that was rooted in the pure Romanticism of the English and the German (Goodman). Ralph Waldo Emerson is considered the father of Transcendentalism because his literature is the first to praise the notable spirituality of nature. The basic belief of the movement is to live authentically; being true to oneself (Day). The movement itself, in the years 1840-1860, is fertile in knowledge because people are now beginning to ask questions about religion. Questions about religion, at the time, would most likely consist of origin, morality, and rituals. Because of the complex level of

"The Transcendentalist adopts the whole connection of spiritual doctrine. He believes in miracle, in the perpetual openness of the human mind to new influx of light and power; he believes in inspiration, and in ecstasy."(Emerson 196). These two lines written by Ralph Waldo Emerson exemplify the whole movement of transcendentalist writers and what they believed in. Though to the writers, transcendentalism was a fight for a belief, unknown to them they could have been fighting for the betterment of human health. The transcendentalist writings of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson have directly affected the health of modern society through the idea of transcendental meditation.

The highly religious philosophy of Transcendentalism developed as the response of a group of people who felt that it was unnecessary to practice a religion (and live a life) that was based on fear. The first Transcendentalists set out to create a more liberal way of life that allowed for personal growth, justice and freedom. To truly understand the implications of Transcendentalism and why Transcendentalists believed what they did, one must first look at the root of Transcendentalism, Unitarianism.

Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement that began in the late 1820s and 1830s in eastern United States. This movement was a reaction to all the protesting going on against intellectualism and spirituality. For the transcendentalists, the individual was the center of the universe. No institution, whether is was religion or politics, was greater and more powerful than the human itself. Ralph Waldo and Henry David Thoreau were two very famous writers that made up most of the Transcendental movement.

Transcendentalism was an intellectual/spiritual movement supporting intellectual independence and intuition by observing nature, largely dominant in Boston. Transcendentalists wrote many papers, and essays and further developed the philosophy as the true power of the free conscious and that self-reliant or independent men were inherently good by nature, and that organized/political parties were causing corruption and sin within the US. They also believed humans could obtain original insights from observing nature, with little influence from past writings. Transcendental signified the growing desire for independent thought and individualism within America, which would further develop and seep through to politics forming a more democratic

Transcendentalism is “a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture, and philosophy that emerged in the early to middle 19th century” (Wikipedia). Transcendentalism first started with Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the pioneers of the Transcendentalists, who in his essay “Nature”, criticized several things, especially the Unitarian church (Wikipedia). Many other Transcendentalists such as Thomas Parker, Henry David Thoreau, Amos Bronson Alcott, and James Freeman Clark, along with Emerson, were critics of their society because they didn’t like the fact that people had “unthinking conformity” (Stanford 1). Transcendentalists work to make the world better through “social

American Transcendentalism is a period of expression where was originally about the reform movement of the church, it was to represent the soul of the individual having a connection to nature. It has impacted society through the influence of the ideas that still exist today, the idea of spirituality and the soul's infinite connection.

Transcendentalism was a philosophy that emerged in America around the late 1820s. It arose as a response to Calvinist Puritanism. Many of its beliefs, however, contradict Scripture.

What is Transcendentalism, what are the beliefs associated with it, and why did these people believe this? During a period of time called the "Romantic period" which originated in the 18th century, people began forming their own, bizarre beliefs. One of which was Transcendentalism. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a strong believer of Transcendentalism and many of his writings reflected his beliefs. Transcendentalism was a revolt against unitarianism, which was the main religion at the time. Unitarianism was the belief that God exists in one person, not three. The

Transcendentalism was largely influenced by the earlier Romantic Movement which was filled with innovative and imaginative ideas. Similar to the Romantic's Transcendentalist wanted to break away from the old European models of organized institutions such as religion and politics. There was also the strict confines of the Age of Reason's rationalist way of thinking that stirred up a rebellious reaction within the literary traditional period of Transcendentalism. Transcendentalist believed religion and politics negatively tainted an individual’s innocence.