Themes of Transcendentalism in Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau

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In the book Walden, or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau, written in 1854, there is portrayed a strong philosophical theme on transcendentalism. This view on the world was a prominent New England philosophy during the author’s life, and had a great effect on him. This view has a very simple idea. It shows that people, men and women equally, have a knowledge about the world around them, as well as themselves, that goes beyond what they can they can see, smell, taste, touch, or feel. This knowledge is acquired through imagination and intuition. People are able to trust themselves by their own authority, and what they individually think is right. Transcendentalism is shown through Thoreau how he regrets materialism, uses scripture, and how he accepts all faiths and philosophies.

“Why has man rooted himself thus firmly in the earth, but that he may rise in the same proportion into the heavens above?- for the nobler plants are valued for the fruit they bear at last in the air and light, far from the ground, and are not treated like the humbler esculents, which, though they may ...

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