Transcendentalism Thesis

In early 19th century America, a philosophical way of life was conceived out of a plethora of ideas reaching from Germany to England, and finally to America. Transcendentalism is that political, literary, and idealistic movement. It focuses on one’s individual relationship with nature and beauty and the ability to see more than the tangible realm of things

(Goodman par. 1-2). Thesis Transcendentalism is an inverse philosophy, beginning with practices and ending up with philosophy. Transcendentalists believe that viewing life in worldly ways can severely inhibit one's ability to see things as they truly are (Brodrick par. 1-5). They believe that all things are inherently beautiful and that mankind is inherently good. However, although these

Emerson was a Unitarian, one of the religions most closely resembling the free thinking transcendentalists, and he studied philosophy at Harvard University (Heitman par. 15). He wrote the essay “Nature” on the idea that men do not fully appreciate the beauty of nature nor do they have the capacity to. Many other philosophers read this essay and adopted it as a basis of transcendentalism. Emerson was rather rebellious; questioning organized religion and promoting the ideals of the transcendental. He did not fully accept all the concepts of it, however, believing that all ideas should be tested through experience, not accepted through notability of the source alone (Heitman par 1-15). Henry David Thoreau was another key contributor to the American Transcendentalist movement. He studied at Harvard University, and was close friends with Emerson, being greatly impacted by “Nature” (Woodlief par. 1-7). In his life, he never stopped trying to find God for himself and found great joy in his daily life. He encouraged others to question authority and rethink their lives, so they could find meaning in their everyday lives, a concept that was used by the transcendentalists (Woodlief par.

One of his greatest and most influential works was “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”. In the essay he discusses the inner workings of the human mind and how and why it works the way it does, from a philosophical point of view. He claims that to acquire knowledge, one must first attain an understanding of what knowledge is and how it works. In the essay, he writes 4 books, each on a different topic of psychology and philosophy. An interesting component of the essay is this frequent use of the word ‘idea’. At the beginning of the essay he preemptively apologizes for the over-use of the word in the essay. He goes on to define the word idea as the mechanism that makes our mind work, however, he contradicts himself twice throughout the essay. In a later book, he says that ideas are mental objects for use, and then as mental actions in a different book. This perfectly embodies the contradictory nature of transcendentalism, saying one thing, but changing beliefs when those beliefs don’t hold up under scrutiny to preserve