Go alone…refuse the good models, even those most sacred in the imagination of men, and dare to love God without mediator or veil.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Transcendentalism is an American philosophical, religious, political, and literary movement that started in the 19th century. It focused on social experimentation, anti-slavery, anti-capitalism, non-conformity etc. and emphasized spirituality, the natural world, and self-reliance.
- Some transcendentalists:
- Henry David Thoreau
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Margaret Fuller
- Lydia Maria Child
- Amos Bronson Alcott
- Louisa May Alcott
- Frederic Henry Hedge
- Elizabeth Palmer Peabody
- Theodore Parker
- Caroline Sturgis Tappan
- Sophia Ripley
- Some key markers of the movement was their non-conformist ways of reaching the spiritual and their emphasis on personal ethics over tradition, religion, and government. Their idealism and emphasis on individual ethics was also what lead them to inconsistent theories which inhibited transcendentalism from becoming a philosophy in and of itself.
- Related To:
- German Romanticism
- Unitarianism
- Transcendental Idealism
- References:
0 responses to “Transcendentalism”