Martin Luther King And Henry David Thoreau's Philosophy : What Is Transcendentalism?

A philosophy is a study that attempts to discover the fundamental nature of knowledge; the word philosophy is from the Greek language and it means “love of wisdom.” Hence the philosophy of transcendental means to attempt to discover something beyond our experience of phenomena, although not beyond potential knowledge. To be specific transcendental people have changed the status quo. For instance, an example would be Martin Luther King Jr. His philosophy, beliefs, and values are similar to the philosophy, beliefs, and values of a transcendentalist.

Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau in their two story’s Into the Wild and Walden show us the world of Transcendentalism through their eyes. Transcendentalism is a religion, movement and a life style to some. It’s the idea of being equal amongst all humans no matter what race or decadence; it’s accomplishing and having self-wisdom, and being one with nature devoting your life to the wild. Chris McCandless’s decision to devoting his life to the perpetual and thick Alaskan forest, and the menacing obstacles he may face, mirrors the Transcendentalist beliefs of Thoreau. An example in Into The Wild it tell how McCandless shreds his money into bits and pieces , and that he walks into the wild with a bag of rice and a gun.

Transcendentalism is a literary movement in the 1830s that suggest that every individual is capable discovering higher truth through intuition. Transcendentalist live by 5 tenets which are the importance of nature, self-reliance, simplicity, self-trust/confidence, and nonconformity. The movie Dead Poets Society is about a teacher who teaches his group of students how to live transcendental. The movie shows great acts of transcendentalism through each of the characters using the different tenets. Mr. Keating and Knox Overstreet in dead poets society shows that living transcentally is worth the consequences.

Henry David Thoreau was a simplistic man and philosopher well known for his attacks on American controversies. Thoreau was full of opinions and had many problems with the way the United States was run. He had strong opposition towards slavery and spoke his mind when it came to politics. Especially when it came to the Mexican American war, which he heavily disliked. Ralph Waldo Emerson heavily influenced him, and introduced him to the ideas of transcendentalism, a philosophy vital to Thoreau's way of thinking and writing. Thoreau was not an agitator. He did not believe that there shouldn’t be a government, but only a better one than currently existed. The government would not improve itself, so he argued; it was a patriotic man's duty to refuse to support it.

Henry David Thoreau’s words that “disobedience is the true foundation of liberty” and that “the obedient must be slaves” is a political statement that never lost its topicality during the Romantic era. Thoreau served as an important contributor to the philosophical and American literary movement known as New England Transcendentalism. Nature and the conduct of life are two central themes that are often weaved together in his essays and books that were published in the Romantic era of literature. Thoreau brought these two themes together to write on how people ought to live a simplistic life through embracing nature. His naturalistic writing intertwined cataloging and observation with Transcendentalist views of nature. Through his life and

Transcendentalism is an idealistic,philosophical,and social movement that developed in New England around 1836. It taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity and that by experiencing nature one could experience divinity. A Transcendentalist is someone who lives outside the confines of societys rules, finding inspiration and meaning through experiencing nature. Transcendentalism rose as a reaction against 18th century rationalism,sensualism ,and calvinism, it is composed of a variety of ideals spanning from Hindu texts and other such various religions. Several authors came about that influenced and pushed the transcendental movement to progress and evolve past what it originally was, among them being Ralph Waldo Emerson, (who is credited with pushing Transcendentalism to become a major cultural movement) and other such

beliefs. Likewise, Into The Wild , by Jon Krakauer, tells the story of a young man named

Transcendentalism is to understand who oneself is by having confidence, free thought, and self-reliance. It is to isolate themselves from society and find themselves through nature, to find what they want and who they are. They must have self-reliance and leave the people they know, and isolate themselves from society, so they will not be told who they are or who they should be. Going into nature without the luxuries and only the essentials, confidence is imperative. They have to be confident in themselves to know they can survive on their own. Free thought is also crucial because they need to be able to live a simple life and explore new ways to live, while enjoying every second of it and making everything they do meaningful to them. Thoreau

Transcendentalism focuses on the importance of individuality and how to find beauty in the simplest things. It also preaches to live in the now and that true faith lies within the self. Many transcendentalism quotes speak to me. The first quote, written by Henry David Thoreau, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined,” explains how you should always move forward in life, even through the tough times.

Transcendentalism is all in the mind of others. Transcendentalism is what keeps people unique. Being a transcendentalist is when one will not conform. In the time when the poems “A Psalm of Life”, and “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls’ people were expected to conform to a certain way of life and be like robots to what societies standards say is the correct way of living.

Transcendentalism is the idea that our spirits have deep connection with nature. Our ideas go beyond the natural world as we see it. Transcendentalism is a philosophy about self reliance, and individuality. We are more into nature and our mood is more pictured by Nature. When I think about failures and achievements I can always base it off transcendentalism.

The philosophy of Transcendentalism, according to the article “Transcendentalism, An American Philosophy” is believed to have been created and led by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which is why he is considered by many literary scholars and historians to be the father of Transcendentalism. Throughout the years, this philosophy attracted other artists and thinkers such as the American Romantic novelist Henry David Thoreau. These prominent and poetic individuals created an insight for this movement, believing in the true and significant values of individualism, minimalism, and spirituality in their lives. These specific aspects can be found in Thoreau’s most famous work, and Transcendentalist staple, Walden. This novel was a reminiscence of his life

Even though there is about one hundred and eighty years apart from the year transcendentalism started to the year two thousand seventeen, we can still see many similarities, and some notable differences between these two eras. Transcendentalism movement is a philosophical movement that happen in between 1820s to 1830s in the United States. The movement started with Ralph Waldo Emerson, a famous philosopher and writer. The main tenets of the philosophy are individualism, connect with nature, and religion. We can see a lot of their ideas still apply in today’s modern society, even after all these years.

Transcendentalism was an American literature movement urging people to look past everyday material life, and reach into their souls to find inner peace with themselves. Transcendentalism originally came from Kantian idealism. This idealism was credited by Immanuel Kant.

Transcendentalism is defined as the philosophical movement that manage an insistence to the idea of culture and society. For example, Robinson gave a meaning of it with the quote, “This philosophy,