An Inquiry on Transcendentalism

There have been many philosophies guiding a man’s consciousness throughout the rugged trek of the modern world. Philosophies exist because man is weak; without certain guidance a man struggles to comprehend his conscious decisions of morality and success without a constant to compare it to. Transcendentalism being one of these philosophies transformed the common mindset to a whole new level, and redefined what success truly was to an individual. Inquiring discreetly on the topic of Transcendentalism, the aspects of the philosophy, the adaptability of it, and the evidence of its popularity today, all show the lasting and timely affect the mindset has had on society.

Transcendentalism’s original creator was Ralph Waldo Emerson, who strived to challenge the traditional thoughts and values acceptable at the time, namely Christianity for the mindset would be created around the time of the Second Great Awakening in America. Traditionally people were told to fit a mold in their life and follow through with it to the glory to a sovereign source. This was drastically different from the movement of Transcendentalism, for while the focus of the common thought was to focus ones goals to a higher source, Transcendentalism’s focus stressed the importance of individualism, and self-servitude. While this may have sounded radical, and selfish to some, the importance of the individualism stressed was to promote self-realization, to focus one’s mind on thinking on who a person really was, what their successes were, and what was morally objective to them, which led to one of the pitfalls of Transcendentalism with the concept of an objective success. While every aspect of thought was told to be different and unique, and to non-conform to the traditio...

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The ideas of Emerson originally existed to challenge the traditional thought that all of man-kind has, who I am, and to what purpose do I serve. His ideas of objective morality, self-individualism, and non-conformity greatly challenged the ideas of how people view our conscious and shed new light on ways to think. His ideals had held the test of time, adapting to help many people struggling to comprehend their purpose and meaning on the earth, and his ideals furthermore will ever be prevalent with the mass revival in the hippie movement. At the end of the day, people should acknowledge men like Emerson, for his ideals were in fact radical, and overall they could not be practical in modern society, but he challenged to be different, and questioned the modern authority that dictated the time, and at the end of the day, who are we to not do the same?