What is the philosophy of transcendentalism. American Transcendentalism 2022-10-10

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Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that originated in the United States in the early 19th century. It is based on the belief that knowledge can be gained through intuition and spiritual insight, rather than through sensory experience or logical reasoning. Transcendentalists believe that the ultimate reality, or the "Absolute," cannot be known through the senses or the mind, but can only be experienced directly through spiritual intuition.

One of the key figures of the transcendentalist movement was Ralph Waldo Emerson, who argued that the individual self is the ultimate source of truth and meaning. He believed that each person has the ability to access the "oversoul," or the divine source of wisdom, through self-reliance and contemplation.

Another important figure in the movement was Henry David Thoreau, who argued that people should live simple, self-sufficient lives in nature and avoid the distractions and materialism of society. He believed that by living in harmony with nature, people could connect with the divine and transcend their everyday concerns.

Transcendentalism also emphasizes the inherent goodness and perfection of the individual and the natural world. Transcendentalists believe that people are innately good, and that society and its institutions corrupt and distort the natural goodness of the individual.

Overall, the philosophy of transcendentalism is concerned with the individual's search for meaning and connection with the divine. It emphasizes intuition and spiritual insight as a means of gaining knowledge and understanding, and advocates for living in harmony with nature and the inner self.

Transcendentalism

what is the philosophy of transcendentalism

Transcendentalism falls in amongst all of these ideas. Throughout the years, this philosophy attracted other artists and thinkers such as the American Romantic novelist Henry David Thoreau. Margaret Fuller was the daughter of a Massachusetts congressman who provided tutors for her in Latin, Greek, chemistry, philosophy and, later, German. The actual name of the movement "transcendental," came from the Critique of Practical Reason 1788 by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Emerson stood with his head between his legs and took note of the fact that this opened a very different reality. The transcendentalists were drawn to the beauty of ideas, but they knew they had to make their way in a world that also included stubborn facts.


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What is the basic philosophy of transcendentalism?

what is the philosophy of transcendentalism

He lives in it, and masters it by a penny-wisdom; and he that works most in it, is but a half-man. The life-long devotion of the transcendentalists to their practices, even as their theories changed and vexed them anew, suggests they sensed their practices would and perhaps should stand on their own. We are free from their tedious and often sorrowful limits to roam at liberty in thought. They do not need the support of theories as an airplane does not need wires to hold it in the air. The sky, the meadow, and the rose are breathtakingly beautiful, but as time passes their beauty fades. .

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What Is Transcendentalism and How Did It Change America?

what is the philosophy of transcendentalism

That is to say they were nonconformists — people usually not adhering to a generally accepted pattern of thinking and acting. The Cambridge Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. But the transcendentalists were too pragmatic to embrace such an intellectual view of life. Spontaneous feeling and intuition are superior to deliberate intellectualism and rationality 1. Some examples of transcendentalists are Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman.

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American Transcendentalism

what is the philosophy of transcendentalism

He said that even the foam at the mouths of ravening beasts takes on a certain beauty once its purpose is known. Be yourself- Exercise the self-discipline necessary to study oneself in rlation to nature 1. The group eventually published a magazine, Later, some of the transcendentalists even created a short-lived utopian community in Boston based upon their ideas — While the transcendentalists were a rebellious fringe, a lot of their transcendental philosophy ideas eventually became an accepted part of the American mainstream. Determine the truths for yourself- only accept theose traditions which appear to be true; reject the rest. With a few exceptions, the membership continued to be Unitarian.

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Commitment to Privacy

what is the philosophy of transcendentalism

Space separates us from the ones we love and the places we would rather be. Emerson was a big fan of journal keeping and encouraged Thoreau to do the same. People were to knowledge their thoughts through instinct and imagination not through logic or the senses; they were to trust themselves to be their own authority on what is right. He held the belief that man should be focusing his attention to his inner self for guidance. It was based on the belief that knowledge is not limited to and solely derived from experience and observation but from the truths seem through reason. Thoreau lived at Walden for just under three years, a time during which he sometimes visited friends and conducted business in town.

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The Philosophy of Transcendentalism

what is the philosophy of transcendentalism

You see the men, how they are willing to sell shamelessly, the happiness of countless generations of fellow-creatures, the honor of their country, and their immortal souls for a money market and political power. Transcendentalism was the belief that what the person can see, touch, feel, taste, or comprehend goes beyond those senses. The rightness of moral action does not always impress us, and we often fail to see beauty in ordinary objects and events. He is remembered today for his unique writing style and his contributions to transcendentalism. From the inside of her home she wrote about f experiences that she never had.

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American Transcendentalism — Transcendentalist Spirituality

what is the philosophy of transcendentalism

Their romanticism was intoxicating to him, and he seems to have passed some of that intoxication to his friend Thoreau. They fell in love with the perfect like good romantics, but they could find little beauty in the countless misfortunes that befell them. People count on themselves on the account of what is right or wrong. They felt betrayed by life. Transcendentalism was a religious, literary, and political movement that evolved from New England Unitarianism in the 1820s and 1830s.

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Transcendentalism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

what is the philosophy of transcendentalism

Intuition, rather than reason, was regarded as the highest human ability. One Herman Melville's Philosophy Of Transcendentalism In Bartleby, The Scrivener the beginning of a new idealistic philosophy. Is humanity inherently good or inherently evil? This is transcendentalism at its moral best. Input from perception is grasped through twelve categories, space, time, and what he calls the transcendental unity of apperception. Each individual person's consciousness was considered to make up the other half of the universe, which Emerson called the ''Soul. Retrieved 9 November 2014. Nor did they lose all awareness of common sense or all contact with facts.

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