Transcendentalism, a philosophical and social movement that emerged in the early 19th century, profoundly impacted American society and culture. In this Mantra101.blog post, we will explore the origins, key figures, and enduring influences of Transcendentalism in 19th century America.

Transcendentalism originated in the 1830s in the Eastern United States as a reaction against the intellectualism of Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian church. It was influenced by Romanticism, particularly the works of English poets like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant.

The movement’s most notable figures include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Amos Bronson Alcott. Emerson’s essay “Nature” (1836) is often considered the starting point of Transcendentalist literature, setting forth the core ideas of the movement.

Transcendentalists believed in the inherent goodness of both people and nature. They advocated for the idea that society and its institutions—particularly organized religion and political parties—corrupted the purity of the individual. They believed that people are at their best when they are self-reliant and independent.

A central concept in Transcendentalism is the belief in an ideal spiritual state that ‘transcends’ the physical and empirical and is only realized through the individual’s intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions.