Transcendentalism Essay

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Recommended: Influence of the romantic movement

A more interesting topic of recent times is a new social reform known as Transcendentalism, a movement that is focused on thinking and making decisions based on intuition. Transcendentalists, people who follow the movement, are renowned for having a strong connection with life and nature. They think that humans in modern times rely too much on one another for advice and opinions. The idea of Transcendentalism is that by understanding lessons in nature, one can be closer to God both spiritually, and mentally (LibertyEnglish). According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, a prominent figure of this new movement, he writes, “Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?” (Age-of-the-Sage) Many people and religions have contributed to the growth of Transcendentalism over the past couple of decades. Fellow Transcendentalists view transcendentalism not as a religion, but a way of life (UShistory.org).
Transcendentalism is said to have been influenced by Romanticism (Bingham 19), which originated in ...

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