TranscendentalismRalph Waldo Emerson

Transcendentalism, in philosophy and nature, is the belief in a higher reality than found in sense experience or in a higher knowledge than achieved by human reason. Transcendentalism upholds the goodness of humanity, the glories of nature, and the importance of free individual expression. In addition, it is maintained that an awareness of reality, or a sense of truth, is reached through reasoning by intuition. Transcendentalism also holds that material objects do not have any real existence of their own. Rather, these objects are diffused aspects of God, the Over-Soul. In its most usage, transcendentalism refers to a literary and philosophical movement that developed in the United States in the first half of the 19th century.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American intellectual and author, helped lead

the transcendentalist movement, a movement that looked to individual intuition, rather than the scientific rationalism, as the highest source of knowledge. In “Self-Reliance” Emerson expresses his optimistic faith in the power of the individual achievement and originality. In “Nature” Emerson conside

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Lastly, Emerson believes that everything is created somehow fits together, like a puzzle, to from something he called the “perfect whole. Emerson also explains that the human sense of beauty depends on seeing things in relation to the “perfect whole” in his poem “Each and All. Emerson stressed the importance of being and believing in one’s self and discouraged the copying of another’s image, “…Insist on yourself; never imitate…” Emerson also reveals the insignificance of consistency which clutters and clouds the mind,

“A foolish consistency is the hobglobin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

I wiped away the weeds and foam;

I fetch my sea-born treasure home;

But the poor unsightly, noisome things

Had left their beauty on the shore

With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar. 194-195)

Ralph Waldo Emerson’ s transcendentalism beliefs all were most evident in his essay’s poems, and speeches. 190)

Emerson is ultimately fascinated with the relation of the individual to the natural world. It needs its surroundings to have beauty and magnificence:

“…The delicate shells lay on the shore;

The bubbles of the latest wave

Fresh pearls to their enamel gave,

And the bellowing of the savage sea

Greeted their escape to me. What he is preaching, however, was not selfishness, but the presence of divine spirit in every individual. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do…” (pg. No disgrace, no calamity nothing that nature can repair. Beauty through my senses stole, I yielded myself to the perfect whole. 186) meaning that if a man would search deeply enough within himself he would find something as powerful and beautiful as nature to God, and felt the more connected one was to their environment and surroundings, the closer one would be to God. ” Ralph Waldo Emerson’s transcendentalist beliefs are most evident in his essays, poems, and speeches.

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