Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism was a major intellectual movement in the United States. It emerged during the late 1820s and 1830s. Most of its development occurred in the New England region.

This movement was not just one thing. It was a combination of literature, politics, and philosophy. It is considered one of the first major philosophical currents in American history. At its core, the movement held a specific view of reality. It suggested that thought and spiritual matters are more real than material things. For Transcendentalists, ordinary human experience was less significant than spiritual truth.

To understand how this philosophy worked, one must look at its view of the individual. Transcendentalists believed in the inherent goodness of both people and nature. However, they argued that social institutions often corrupt this natural purity. These institutions included organized religion and political parties. To combat this corruption, they advocated for self-reliance. This means being independent and trusting one's own subjective intuition. They believed people could generate original insights without relying on the past. This focus on intuition stood in contrast to objective empiricism, which relies on sensory observation.

There were several different layers to these beliefs. One central concept was the "Over-Soul." This idea suggests that all people are connected as part of one single being. Because the Over-Soul is one, it unites all humanity. Every individual holds a piece of this divine spirit within themselves. Another layer involved the relationship between the individual and society. Some thinkers focused on individualism, which can be anti-government. Others may have favored individuality, which sees society as necessary for personal development. The movement also had different social aims. Some members linked their ideals to utopian social change or early socialism. Others, like Ralph Waldo Emerson, viewed it as a strictly individualist project.

Transcendentalism grew from a complex history of global ideas. It was closely linked to Unitarianism in Boston. The movement was not a rejection of Unitarianism, but a parallel development. Unitarians emphasized free conscience and intellectual reason. Transcendentalists simply wanted a more intense spiritual experience than the calm rationalism of Unitarianism provided. The movement also drew from English and German Romanticism. It was influenced by the skepticism of David Hume and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Early thinkers often learned these ideas through English and French commentators. They also looked toward Indian religions for inspiration. In 1844, a translation of the Lotus Sutra appeared in their journal.

The movement became organized through the Transcendental Club. It was founded on September 12, 1836, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Prominent intellectuals like George Putnam, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Frederic Henry Hedge were founders. The club included many notable figures such as Margaret Fuller and Henry David Thoreau.

From 1840, the group frequently published their ideas in a journal called *The Dial*. Many members were struggling aesthetes, meaning they were artists focused on beauty. The wealthiest member was Samuel Gray Ward, who eventually focused on banking. While Emerson thought the movement was dying by the late 1840s, a second wave appeared later in the century.

Nature played a vital role in the Transcendentalist way of life. They did not just value nature for its beauty. They used the natural world as a tool to understand spiritual truths.

Emerson described a feeling of being a "transparent eye-ball" when standing in nature. This meant feeling the currents of the Universal Being passing through him. This belief led to practical experiments in living. In 1836, Charles Stearns Wheeler built a shanty at Flint's Pond. This was the first Transcendentalist outdoor living experiment. Thoreau stayed there for six weeks in 1837. This experience later inspired him to build his famous cabin at Walden.

The movement's impact remains significant in American thought. It helped shape the "Mental Sciences" of the mid-19th century. This later became known as the New Thought movement. Emerson is often considered the intellectual father of this movement. Furthermore, the Transcendentalist respect for nature led to an early skepticism of industrialization. They worried about the effects of capitalism and westward expansion. Margaret Fuller noted the loss of trees to industry in 1843. Thoreau later compared the expansion of railroads to a "fiery dragon." This connection between spirituality and the environment continues to be studied today.