What+is+Transcendentalism?

Transcendentalism, in philosophy and literature, proposes a belief in a higher reality than that found in sense experience or in a higher kind of knowledge than that achieved by human reason. Transcendentalism was strongly influenced by Deism, which although rationalist, was opposed to Calvinist orthodoxy. Deists held that a certain kind of religious knowledge is either inherent in each person or accessible through the exercise of reason. Transcendentalism also involved a rejection of the strict Puritan religious attitudes that were the heritage of New England, where the movement originated. Unlike the Puritans, the Transcendentalists saw humans and nature as possessing and innate goodness. In addition, they opposed the strict ritualism and dogmatic theology of all established religious institutions. The Transcendentalists were influenced by romanticism, especially such aspects as self-examination, the celebration of individualism, and the extolling of the beauties of nature and humankind. Consequently, Transcendentalist writers expressed semi religious feelings toward nature and saw a direct connection between the universe and the individual soul. In this view, divinity permeated all objects, animate or inanimate, and the purpose of human life was union with the so-called Oversoul. The Oversoul can be viewed as a convergence of the individual, God and Nature. Intuition, rather than reason, was regarded as the highest human faculty. The focus was on the individual. The Transcendentalists rejected materialism, looking to simplicity in one’s life as a path to spiritual greatness. The Transcendentalists opposed the reigning materialism and widespread conformity of American culture. They looked to nature as a source of truth and inspiration. They stressed non-conformity, emphasizing individuality and self-reliance. American Transcendentalism began with the formation in 1836 of the Transcendental Club in Boston. Among the leaders of the movement were the essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, the feminist and social reformer Margaret Fuller, the educator Bronson Alcott, and the author and naturalist Henry David Thoreau. The Transcendentalist Club published a magazine, //The Dial//, and some of the club’s members participated in an experiment in communal living at Brook Farm, in West Roxbury, Massachusetts during the 1840s. Major Transcendentalist works include Emerson’s essays “Nature” (1936) and “Self-Reliance” (1841) and Thoreau’s __Walden__, or Life in the Woods (1854). Thoreau’s essay, “Civil Disobedience” expressed transcendental attitudes as well. In it, Thoreau urges passive, non-violent resistance to governmental policies that an individual opposes on moral grounds. In their works, the romantic authors, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville explored the darker side of nature and human nature. Both authors considered life in its tragic dimension, a combination of good and evil. This outlook opposed the transcendental belief that humanity was godlike and a view of the world that chose to focus on goodness. Taken from:  https://www.salpointe.org/sperri/transcendentalismnotes.htm/
 * Transcendentalism **
 * The Anti-Transcendentalists: Hawthorne and Melville **