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Transcendentalism Many people have theories and philosophies about life in general. There have been hundreds of thousands of books published by many different people on the ideas of people in the past and the present. Transcendentalism falls in amongst all of these ideas. There have been articles, essays, poems, and even books written about this subject. Transcendentalism has effected many people since the philosophy was first introduced. The idea was complex and hard to grasp for many commoners and therefore it was understood by few people, and some would think that the idea was not understood at all and that was part of the idea.
Henry David Thoreau once stated about himself, "I should have told them at once that I was a transcendentalist. That would have been the shortest way of telling them that they would not understand my explanations" (Reuben 1). Even the people that called themselves "transcendentalists" had only their own thoughts of what transcendentalism was, which in turn were based on the thoughts of others. So, transcendentalism is defined as a philosophy. This philosophy was uniform for everyone that believed in it.
This is a difficult concept to comprehend because the philosophy called for people to trust themselves and their own thoughts, which meant that even though transcendentalists held the same central idea, all of their individual thoughts branching off transcendentalism contradicted the other transcendentalists. In Paul Reuben's web site, Noah Porter made this statement about transcendentalism: The word Transcendentalism, as used at the present day, has two applications. One of which is popular and indefinite, the other, philosophical and precise. In the former sense it describes man, rather than opinions, since it is freely extended to those who hold opinions, not only diverse from each other, but directly opposed. (1) These transcendentalists all had different opinions on the different things in life, but they believed in the philosophy of transcendentalism.
According to Webster's Dictionary, transcend means to go further than, or to go past. This would give transcendentalism the definition of an idea beyond other people's ideas, or even possibly beyond this earth. The idea of transcendentalism is definitely an idea beyond what other people thought about at the time it was first thought up. This idea of transcendentalism started with a small group of people in the New England area around the year of 1836 (American 1).
This group of people, who were all friends, met together and discussed their ideas on philosophy, literature, and religion, and called themselves the Hedge Club, from the name of one of the members. Later other people gave them the name of the Transcendental Club because of their discussion of Immanuel Kant's ideas on transcendentalism (1). These people published many books and writings about their ideas. The most famous of these philosophers and writers would be Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
Ralph Emerson wrote many journals and essays dealing with the subject of transcendentalism. One of his most famous works is the essay "Self-Reliance. " In "Self-Reliance, " Emerson hit on the idea that the individual should be completely reliant on God, and that every person has been put into their certain life and position by God and that the person needs to trust themselves. He said that God has put the power to handle things, think, and act into each individual and that the individual needs to trust what God has put inside them to do things with their lives. The idea is almost that of predestination, except for the fact that we have the choice of which road to take.
Predestination is the idea that a higher power, or God, has planned everything that will happen to a person in their life. Emerson's idea is that God has put the choice to us, but he has given us all of our unique gifts for the paths we can choose to take. In "Self-Reliance, " Emerson wrote, "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events" (Runes 362). Emerson also gave the idea of trusting ourselves through God. He said that you have to trust in God to tell you what to do and what to think.
He said that if you do this that God will provide answers (363). Another quote from his popular essay, "Self-Reliance, " supports this. "And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort and advancing on Chaos and the Dark" (363). Emerson also had the idea that we need to be ourselves, especially in the things that we say. Again from the popular essay, "Self-Reliance, " he spoke about how we need to say what we think one day, and then speak what is on your mind the next day, even if you completely contradict what you said in the first day. Then he said that people will definitely not understand you if this happens (365). That goes along with the whole idea above about how transcendentalism was widely misunderstood because even the great minds that thought it up don't fully understand everything about the philosophy.
Emerson concludes this thought to say that, "To be great is to be misunderstood" (365). Emerson is obviously the father of transcendentalism, and his great ideas were conveyed in his brilliant essays, journals, and poems. He helped pass the philosophy on to other philosophers and writers. One of these writers is Thoreau. Thoreau studied under Emerson and also wrote many pieces dealing with the subject of transcendentalism. One of his most popular pieces of writing about transcendentalism is "Walden. " In Thoreau's "Walden, " he gave lots of references to nature and just natural things in everyday lives.
Thoreau was also concerned more about slavery than lots of the other transcendentalists. One of his references to nature comes in an argument about how people in general don't trust enough. He feels that the lack of trust leads to other problems in life. This falls into the transcendental philosophy in that we need to be self-reliant, and when we can be self-reliant we can learn to trust other people more for our advantage.
Thoreau said, "I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do... Nature is as well adapted to our weakness as to our strength. The incessant anxiety and strain of some is a well-nigh incurable form of disease" (Atkinson 10). As stated above, Thoreau was more interested in slavery than lots of the other transcendentalists.
Some of his ideas of slavery are present in "Walden. "I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may also say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle masters that enslave North and South" (7). He went on to say that "It is hard to have a Southern overseer; it is worse to have a Northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself" (7). Thoreau is saying that we are often slaves to ourselves. Not that we are slaves to our independent thinking, but we are driving ourselves to be the slaves of conformity.
People should free themselves of conformity and start thinking for themselves. This is a major idea of transcendentalism, and it goes directly along with how we need to be self-reliant. Both of these great transcendentalists contributed enormously to the philosophy of transcendentalism and to the way people looked at life from then on. They influenced later writers including "Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Charles Ives, William James, Robert Frost, and Wallace Stevens" (von Frank 4). Transcendentalism challenged many things in New England from late 1830 's to about 1860. This in turn challenged people from then on to turn from conformity, and think about their lives through their own eyes.
Transcendentalism did many things for people even after the movement was over and done with. "Ultimately, the significance of transcendentalism lay in its having gotten memorably on the literary record a vision of the universe in which God and the world, spirit and matter, existed in intimate symbolic relation. This vision of the universe and of humanity's central place in it served to nurture the artistic imagination in a predominately materialistic society" (4). In conclusion, transcendentalism can be defined as "The beliefs that God is immanent in man and nature and that individual intuition is the highest source of knowledge led to an optimistic emphasis on individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of traditional authority" (American 1). The major players in the transcendentalist movement are Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. They shared ideas such as self-reliance, and ideas about how there is a divine being that controls every person.
They influenced many other writers and they even had an effect on the American society, then and now. Transcendentalism was a philosophy and a way of life. It will continue to be this as long as we have access to the great minds of the transcendental movement. Works Cited "American Literary and Philosophical Movement. " The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition. 1 Jan. 1993. Atkinson, Brooks. Walden and other writings of Henry David Thoreau.
New York, NY: Random House, Inc. , 1950. Durant, Will. The Story of Philosophy. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, Inc. , 1926. Reuben, Paul. Towards a Definition of Transcendentalism.
web Runes, Dagobert D. A Treasury of Philosophy. Chicago, IL: Spencer Press Inc. , 1955. Von Frank, Albert J.
Transcendentalism. The Reader's Companion to American History. 1 Jan. 1991.
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