Introduction
Transcendentalism can be defined as a very important movement in philosophy and
literature that flourished during the 19th century in New England, though it cannot be precisely
1
defined when exactly it started. We can say that it is a very specific movement since it
cannot be seen as one well-shaped body of doctrine. For instance it is impossible to assign a
specific set of ideas as common for a whole group of writers. James Freeman Clarke
perfectly explained this by saying: “We are the like-minded because no two of us think alike”.
The reason why that is so can be found in various influences. One of them is certainly
Transcendental Philosophy; transcendentalism used some of its concepts but did not strictly
follow it. The most prominent representative of this philosophy was Immanuel Kant (1724-
1804) who was also the first to make distinction between the two terms “transcendent” and
“transcendental” reserving term “transcendent” for ideas and entities that are behind human
experience such as God and soul while the term “transcendental” stands for those elements
which are necessary constituents of experience, but which could not be perceived through our
senses.2
Some of the most outstanding proponents of Transcendentalism are Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, George Ripley, Margaret Fuller and many others, who were
New England’s intellectuals and members of so called “Concord group”.3 In other words,
transcendentalist were mostly associated with the town of Concord, Massachusetts; however
Henry David Thoreau was the only one who was born there; Emerson settled there because
that was the home of his ancestors and others came to Concord to be near him.4
1
http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/amtrans.htm
2
The Encyclopedia Americana, International Edition Volume 27 Trance to Venial Sin, Americana Corporation,
1976, page 3
3
The Encyclopedia Americana, 3
4
The Encyclopedia Americana, 4.
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Basic Ideas and Influences
Transcendentalism as a movement cannot be understood out of the context of
Unitarianism which was the dominant religion widespread among New Englanders in 19th
century. Unitarianism preached that there is no trinity and that Jesus Christ was a great man,
a prophet of God, but not God himself. 5 Ralph Waldo Emerson also claimed that Jesus Christ
was good but not God, a man who saw the truth clearly and that every person should strive to
achieve the same.6 Transcendentalism rejected the need for Biblical Christianity, and
preached divinity of humanity. They emphasized the importance of spirituality over doctrines
and dogmas of any kind and believed that entire Universe was controlled by so-called
Oversoul. Oversoul presents a common soul through which human beings are connected to
everything in nature, and all human beings have access to it through intuition-which means
that no mediator is necessary. Unitarians claimed that every person can read the Bible and that
it can be studied rationally, while transcendentalists claimed that we should seek the answer
deep in ourselves. Unitarians also promoted healthy spiritual and intellectual life and believed
that individual character can be perfected.7 Emerson believed that every person carries a part
of divinity within himself/herself; hence, one must be self-reliant. By trusting our instincts we
perform God’s will. This intuitive ability which leads us to the world of ideas, one’s innate
divinely created capacity which each individual should cultivate, Emerson calls Reason; On
the other hand, cognitive ability, sensual one, which makes us understand the material world
he calls Understanding. 8
It would be wrong to say that transcendentalists were merely influenced by German
philosophy. They were also influenced by Orient and books such as Bhagavad Gita of
5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarianism
6
Tiffany K. Wayne, Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism (The Essential Guide to the Lives and Works of
Transcendentalist Writers), (New York: Infobase Publishing, 2006),8.
7
Wayne, Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism, 8.
8
Zvonimir Radeljković, American Topics (Sarajevo: Buybook,2005),69
Page 2 of 4
Hinduism and Sayings of Confucius; among other influences are writings of French authors
such as Madame Staёl, Francois M. C. Fourier, 17th century metaphysical writers of England
and many others.9
All ideas presented by transcendentalists had to be well formed and constructed. That
happened after the creation of so called Hedge Club. Members of this club were some of the
most important personages of the period such as Emerson, Ripley, Thoreau, Frederick Henry
Hedge and many others. They were all students at Harvard University who shared same
opinions and ideas about the world. So on September 8, 1836 they formed a club known as
“The Hedge Club”. On one occasion Hedge wrote: "There was no club in the strict sense;
only occasional meetings of like-minded men and women", which gave them the nickname of
brotherhood of “Like-Minded”10The club was informal. It did not have its constitution or a
leader. Its membership varied, but due time, the club included all famous transcendentalists in
its ranks. They even had their own periodical known as the Dial.
Although transcendentalists were mostly interested in individual reform, and although
they believed that society cannot be perfected, some of them tried themselves in
communitarian experimentation. Two most prominent communities of the period were Brook
Farm formed in a suburb of Boston and Fruitlands in Harvard, Massachusetts. Both these
communities presented were based on transcendentalist ideas and presented an attempt to
create utopian societies. These attempts did not last long because of the various troubles
residents had to deal with.
Besides that, many transcendentalists participated in many social reform movements
such as temperance, peace, universal suffrage, antislavery movement etc. They were against
social injustice of any kind; they were especially against maltreatment of the Native
9
Encyclopedia Americana, International Edition Volume 27 Trance to Venial Sin,3
10
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Henry_Hedge
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Americans, the war with Mexico and slavery. Thoreau was even arrested for nonpayment of
poll tax, a tax that supported Mexican War. In order to express the grievance over the
government and its actions, in 1849 he wrote an essay called “Resistance to Civil
Government”. In this essay he claims that every individual should oppose immoral
legislations of the government and that “under a government which imprisons any unjustly,
the true place for a just man is also a prison“.11 Transcendentalists rebelled not just against
the government but also against other institutions because they were unjust and aimed to
control minds and lives of individuals. 12
What is also important to mention is how transcendentalists viewed and treated nature.
For them, nature was divine; it was a sign of inward spirit. This view of nature is perfectly
presented in Emerson's essay Nature. Emerson believed that nature is unconscious projection
of divinity; it was the way in which people could get in contact with the spiritual world.
According to transcendentalists, a regular contact with nature was essential in order to regain
innocence and originality corrupted by civilization and materialism. They believed that the
pursuit for nature is pursuit of self or of knowledge of the divine, and that their role was to
decipher messages of nature and interpret moral lessons taken from it.13
Conclusion
In conclusion, we can say that Transcendentalism as a movement did not last long but
it made a long lasting impact on Americal culture and society in general, not to mention its
influence on later social movements. Intellectuals of the period are among the most cited; they
had some belifs in common but each of them produced variety of thesis and ideas which led to
creation of American literature and culture in general.
11
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau)
12
Douglas Grudzina, Sondra Y.Abel and Elizabeth Osborne, Transcendentalism: Essential Essays of Emerson
and Thoreau: including Self-reliance & Civil disobedience,( Prestwick House Inc, 2008), 5
13
http://www.scribd.com/doc/36987862/Gould-Transcendentalism
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