Transcendentalism

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Transcendentalism Transcendentalism was a
movement in philosophy and literature which
flourished during the middle years of the 19th
century (1836 1860)
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It began as a reform movement of the Unitarian
Church. Transcendentalists believed in the unity
of the world and God. They believed that the
soul of each individual was identical to the
soul of the world and contained what the
world contained
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Ralph Waldo Emersons essays are Key statements
of its doctrine Self-Reliance is a classic
piece, as is Henry David Thoreaus Walden.
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Transcendentalist theories originated with
reactions against Calvinism, 18th Century
Rationalism, and with the emerging ideal of the
American democracy.
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Transcendentalists believed that humans had
intuitive knowledge not derived from the senses,
and believed that the soul knows what is right.
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They also believed that the essential nature of
human beings is good and that left in a state of
nature, human beings would seek good. They also
believed that society was to blame for the
corruption that man endures.
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Romanticism influenced Transcendentalism and they
both believed that man steadily degenerates from
childhood to adulthood as he is corrupted by
nature.
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Transcendentalists believed that there was
meaning in everything and that meaning was good.
Everything was created by a divine plan,
according to their philosophy.
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Everyone had the power to transcend the seeming
chaos and confusion of the world and understand
natures signs.
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The Transcendentalists were mostly New Englanders
from around Boston, who were attempting to create
a uniquely American body of art.
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