What Are Examples Of Transcendentalism

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“Conformity is the jailer of freedom, and the enemy of growth”(John F. Kennedy). This anti-conformity attitude taken by the 35th president was first popularized by the originators of transcendentalism. One of these founders was a man by the name of Ralph Emerson. His essay “Self Reliance” was a type of manifesto of transcendental ideas. Some such ideas are those of nonconformity and trust of intuition. In the essay “Self Reliance”, Emerson illustrates the ideas of Transcendentalism by describing how one must trust themselves and not be swayed by others.
Emerson's essay “Self Reliance” demonstrates one of transcendentalism main principles of trusting one’s intuition. In paragraph 3 Emerson begins to speak of the importance of nonconformity and one’s intuition. It is in this paragraph where he quips “nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind”(Emerson 1). According to …show more content…

He describes these as examples of nonconformity. In one poignant line he declared, “he must take himself for better, for worse”(Emerson 1). Here in this thought provoking axiomatic line, Emmerson is saying how no matter what society may declare as right, people are to be who they are no matter if it conflicts with society's idea of “right” or “good”. He discusses this in more detail with a personal story. He describes an encounter with a church friend of his when he was told that, “these impulses may be from below, not from above”(Emerson 1). He simply replied, “good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it”(Emerson 1). This discussion reveals much about his ideas of transcendentalism. He believes that labels of good and bad, right and wrong, are not real and therefore deserve no heeding. That people are to act according to what their mind says not what society

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