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Compare And Contrast Transcendentalism And Enlightenment Thinking

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Enlightenment thinking declared that the world is best understood through reason and science. Transcendentalists believed that they had knowledge about themselves and the world around them that goes beyond what science can tell you that came from intuition and imagination. The two are like a coin-something that has two sides, but ultimately comes together and is one object. Transcendentalists thought that studying the world using only science and reason was insufficient and went on to emphasize the importance of our emotion and intuition. Transcendentalism was an intellectual movement, and the thinkers were not wrong to take such action.

Science can tell you one thing, but it can’t tell you what your heart feels. Transcendentalists were
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Transcendentalism is a highly competitive world of the market revolution which strongly encouraged the identification of American freedom without any restraints on people who were seeking financial improvement and personal development. It was a world in which regional developments along with the market revolution crushed traditional and social borders. For example moving from one place to another was a common characteristic of the American life. Transcendentalism believed in individual judgment over existing social traditions and institutions.

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The Great Awakening and Enlightenment were two very different cultural phenomena that happened during the 1700s but they both had a similar effect on colonial society. The Enlightenment was based on reason, science, rationality and progress. Benjamin Franklin, an Enlightenment thinker from Pennsylvania, believed that science could benefit society. Other Enlightenment thinkers had rational views of God and viewed him as a clockmaker that controlled the universe.

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It also revived the emotional side of religion which led to Transcendentalism. This was a philosophical and literary movement in response to rationalism and the enlightenment. It was centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson. Transcendentalists were critics of own society. They thought that society corrupted the purity of an individual.

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Both the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening encouraged Americans and colonists to question the validity of those that held powerful positions, thus causing conflict. The Great Awakening had a major impact on different religious associations. Although there were certain denominations that were focused on more than others, there was still strife between the rationalists and the evangelists. During this time people had doubts about the relationship between the church and state because of the fear that the government would interfere with religion.

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Many people nowadays take their right to question the government for granted. Puritans believed that government was something to dogmatically follow, and never question. The trials that occurred in Salem show this fact as clearly as crystal. Deists, like the founding fathers of the United States, held the belief that the people had a right to question the government. After all, they were the ones to shake Great Britain’s authority on the colonies.

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As two of the most prominent movements in American history, both the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening have had a tremendous impact of the colonists in America. The Enlightenment brought forth a ton of attention to learning and knowledge. With new ideas brewing in the European nations from the Renaissance, travelling colonists spread word very quickly which led to the Enlightment. The Enlightenment increased literacy in a big way and affected politics as well. Colinists wanted to improve their style of living, and by doing so, they needed the Enlightenment era to improve everyday life with new inventions, experiments, and theories.

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The Transcendental movement held that man’s inner consciousness was divine, that nature revealed the whole of God’s moral law, that ultimate truth could be discovered by man’s innermost feelings, and that a morality guided the conscience. Transcendentalism was based on the doctrines of various European philosophers and Eastern mysticism. In many ways, Transcendentalism attempted to fulfill the possibility of creating a uniquely American literary

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In this essay I will be talking about the one of the most famous states in the American U.S. country, Oklahoma. Oklahoma is known for being one of the religious states in the country. Oklahoma wasn't in the Confederates or the Unions side. They were actually on the Indian Territory. The Five Tribes had problems with the federal government in the history so they chose to be with the confederacy cause.

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However, Transcendentalism was extremely against the rise of the every and any scientific method that was placed most value on material facts rather than any spiritual ideals. Very few Transcendentalists, were involved in the growing disputes between labor and capital,also the reformation of asylums and penitentiaries, or other matters on a reformist agenda. Many Transcendentalists because of this basic belief became involved in efforts to reverse conditions that prevented individuals from realizing their full potential. Comparing many reforms, they all seemed to have very common themes and assumptions, one of the most important of the similarities was how each reform would be very passionate about their belief that individuals are able to act as free decision makers, capable of choosing right from wrong, and not be manipulated by anyone who can use them as puppets that tell them what to think see and believe. This logic helps explain the close connection between abolitionists and reforms such as the women’s rights

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Transcendentalism was a religious movement popular in New England. The transcendentalist movement was

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Transcendentalism is a literary movement of writers and philosophers beginning in the 19th century near New England. Transcendentalism is an extremely cumbersome word that is used to describe very simplistic ideology. Transcendentalism is knowledge of the physical world around an individual that transcends or delves beyond the physicality of the world, reaching further than just what one sees, hears, tastes, or feels. This richer understanding of the greater world is derived in the understanding of intuition and imagination, rather than logic or rationalization (Uhshistory.com, 2010). The Transcendental movement began as an effort to allow individuals to gain trust in themselves and to be their own authoritative voice on what is right or wrong.

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Transcendentalism is an idealistic philosophical and social movement that developed in New England around 1836 in reaction to rationalism. Influenced by romanticism, Platonism, and Kantian philosophy, it taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism and communal living. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were central figures. This new philosophy created a rebellion and turn away from the traditional societies in the United States. Transcendentalism, started around the mid 1800’s during the Romantic era, had a great deal of influence and similarities on many of the activist movements seen throughout the world.

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People consider Emerson the “father of Transcendentalism”. He believed that man would thrive if he trusted himself. Man was inherently good and could do no wrong. In Emerson’s “Nature”, a work about Emerson’s view on nature, he writes: “We must trust the perfection of the creation so far, as to believe that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy” (Emerson Par 2). Man did not need to rely on society, or entangle himself in the patterns of the world; man’s intuition would be enough for his success.

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Transcendentalism is the belief that man is inherently good, is an independent thinker, and goes out into nature to get in touch with himself. Generally, man has good intentions and intends no harm unto others. In addition, man does not need society to give him and develop his thoughts, as he already has them within. To help bring out these already installed beliefs, man has the desire to go out into nature to get in touch with himself and find deeper notions within. In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writings “Self Reliance” and “American Scholar”, he writes about how being a true individual means that one must have his own beliefs, and not copy someone else’s ideas.

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American Transcendentalism was highly inspired by Romanticism, and therefore they have many similarities. However, there are some differences, especially in their ideas of religion and God. The American Transcendentalist period took place in the mid 19th century. It began around 1836 and lasted to roughly 1860. Romanticism occurred much earlier, around the end of the 18th century, but was mostly dominant around 1840.

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