Transcendentalism in Today´s World

Transcendentalism is a much-debated theory from the mid 1800s, championed by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Many people have questioned the value of Transcendentalism, and in this modern age, less and less of them seem to appreciate it. I am one of the few who finds some value in this old theory. Let me explain why.

Transcendentalism itself describes the idea that people know more about the world than their senses tell them. Hence the word transcend, as their knowledge of the world ‘transcends’ their senses. That, however, is not the extent of transcendentalism. Transcendentalists like Emerson believed that society poisoned the individual and constrained them, causing them to not be their true selves and to not reach their full potential. Thoreau and Emerson believed that nature was the solution to this problem, as a walk in nature offered solitude and clean air, to cleanse a mind infected by society. These men believed the best way to reach our full potential is to look within our very selves.

In his work “Nature”, Emerson preaches about how a man can only truly be himself when he is alone. Society limits how much a man can show of himself, limits the ceiling a man can reach. A man must escape the clutches of society in order to truly think for himself and about himself. So much of this is true. Society puts so many expectations and so much influence on people. It doesn’t allow them to be themselves. Society is a masquerade ball, stating we may talk and dance freely, but no one must show his or her true selves, for the true self would never be accepted by society. Everyone must conform to the rules of the ball, and anyone who does differently will be shunned. This makes it certain that you can only ever be part of...

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...rson. A philosophy must sometimes evolve to stay applicable to the times and people’s lives, to be able to mean something. This is why Transcendentalism must be interpreted slightly differently than Thoreau and Emerson did. The ideas are not changed, but the way those ideas are used and interpreted have. The world is not the same world it was in the day of these men. We must apply Transcendentalism to today’s world and our lives in order to give it any sort of meaning, otherwise all we have are some weird elderly white men blabbering. However, if we look at the true meaning of what they’re saying, we can build a new definition, one that still applies to our world. Transcendentalism is not an outdated philosophy, it’s merely the interpretations that are. The idea, the core values, these have not changed, and we can build around these to make something valuable again.