Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism was a literary and philosophical movement that emphasized individualism and intuition as a means of understanding reality. Transcendentalism is a very complicated word that describes a very simple idea. The idea that people, both men and women, can gain knowledge about the world that can transcend, or go beyond, what you can see, hear, taste, touch, or feel.

This movement was led by transcendentalists, people who accepted these ideas as a way of life, such as Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and their leader Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thoreau carried out the most famous experiment in self-reliance when he went to WALDEN POND, built a hut, and tried to live self-sufficiently without the trappings or interference of society. Emerson founded the Transcendental Club with a group of his other like minded friends. These transcendentalists led the celebration of the American experiment as one of individualism and self reliance. The knowledge they were trying to convey did not come through logic or sense, but through instinct and and imagination. They believes people are inherently good and should follow their own beliefs. People should trust their own authority to what is right. Emerson put it best when he said “Trust thyself”.