Transcendentalism Examples

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The first ideas of Transcendentalism were formally introduced in the Nineteenth-Century by becoming an intellectual movement that brought forth new ideas, theories, and ways of thinking to society. These transcendentalist ideas were created by people known as "transcendentalists". Some of the more well known transcendentalists are Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau who created new styles of literature, essays, novels, philosophy, poetry, and other forms of writing that were much different from the current ideas that society was accustomed to. These ideas and thoughts ultimately became bad for humankind for a vast majority of reasons. One reason transcendentalist ideas became bad for mankind is because the ideas created friction between …show more content…

For example the author talks about Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. This theory formed infected the public with curiosity and ideas of natural selection. These new ideas caused disagreements traditional people at the time that evolution is bad. An excerpt from the text states that "Darwin's theory of evolution implied that natural selection, not divine will governed the evolutionary process" (Fiero, 211). Then further explains Darwin's reasoning that "All creatures are related to one another by their kinship" (Fiero, 212). The controversy of these ideas is that both ideas went against biblical beliefs and teachings at the time. Darwin eventually goes on to make a painting of a man-ape and an ape which he painted to signify the absence and false teachings of the existence of a God or a deity in the world. These topics were highly controversial and still cause conflicts today. One major real world example of conflicts that involved evolution is the Scopes Trial in Tennessee where a teacher was put on trial for teaching Tennessee's state curriculum that included teachings about Darwin's theory of evolution in the school textbooks. Another example are a large number of religious groups who argue that evolution is a nonfactual theory. Although today in more recent years society has changed to accept schools teaching evolution and allow the …show more content…

These beliefs created false prophecies that there is and always will be peace in the world. An example from the book is Edward Hicks's painting "The Peaceable Kingdom." This painting made it apparent that people believed once your soul is at one with nature everything else will be peaceful with animals, people, and all other aspects of nature. These portrayed ideas are bad because as history shows nature is cruel and people tend to use power and money to enslave, kill, and dictate the world for their own benefit. I strongly agree with this fact because of the horrible types of people that have came into this world. People such as Adolf Hitler whose goal was to forcefully gain more living space for the German people and to exterminate all of the Jews. Other examples of these horrible people are Osama bin Laden the founder of al-Qaeda (an organization that claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks on the United States, along with other high casualty attacks from around the world) and Joseph Stalin a dictator of the Soviet Union who killed thousands of people (people who either didn't vote for him or whom he didn't like). Many other people, groups, and organizations have come up in recent history such as ISIS (a terrorist group) who are a threat to society. Ultimately this proves

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