ipl-logo

Ralph Waldo Emerson's Transcendentalist Movement

626 Words3 Pages

People are easily influenced and persuaded by higher authorities. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a key figure in the Transcendentalist movement. This movement promoted ideas of intuition, independence, and inherent goodness in humans and nature. His most famous essay during this time was “Self-Reliance.” Throughout the text he expresses how to avoid conformity set by our society and to follow our own individual path. Henry David Thoreau like Emerson, believed that the government abuses its control especially when it comes down to just and unjust laws. Others, following in their footsteps and who were vocal for a change have impacted our society greatly such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mohandas K. Gandhi.
Nelson Mandela was the former President of South Africa and is known for taking part in the anti-apartheid revolution. The government didn’t take lightly what he stood for and he was imprisoned for conspiracy of trying to overthrow the government. Similar to …show more content…

Mohandas K. Gandhi is a world renowned spiritual and religious leader from India during its Independence movement. His study of philosophy of Satyagraha inspired his civil rights movement and freedom for all around the world (Non-violent Resistance Summary and Study Guide Description). Like Thoreau and Mandela, he focused on finding a way to combat injustice. He states in On Nonviolent Resistance, “No clapping is possible without two hands to do it.” insinuating that you cannot have a government if people refuse to live by it. Both Emerson and Gandhi were opposed to the arbitrary laws being enforced when it comes down to what is just and what is unjust. His method of Satyagraha he practiced promoted the idea of not using violence under any circumstance; and be willing to die for love and truth (Non-violent Resistance Summary and Study Guide

Show More
Related
576 Words | 3 Pages

Mahatma Gandhi Manav Patel Mahatma Karamchand Gandhi was a humanitarian who used peaceful topics to fight for the freedom of India. He walked 250 miles from his Ashram to Dandi, a coast off of Eastern India. He then proceeded to pick up a lump of salt, thereby defying British Law. This story leads us to ask the question, why did Gandhi’s nonviolent movement work? Basically, he could convince the people to join him instead of killing off nonbelievers.

Read More
676 Words | 3 Pages

Thoreau believes that an individual who acts with fairness, righteousness, and moral integrity has the ability to make a positive impact and influence societal change. heavily influenced by Gandhi's principles, expands on nonviolent civil disobedience as a collective and organized approach to challenge unjust laws and societal norms. He stresses the importance of direct action, peaceful protests, and that the power of love can overcome hate. Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" laid the groundwork for later civil rights movements, and its ideas on individual conscience and nonviolent resistance inspired people like Gandhi and King.

Read More
648 Words | 3 Pages

Those who want the world to change will vocalize their opinion for it. Whether it be a politician, a dictator, or a human-rights activist, those who speak for what they wish have more of a chance to alter the world's course than those who say nothing at all. As the popular saying goes, "You have no chance of winning the lottery you didn't enter." Among these famous speakers, there is the trio of transcendentalist thinkers: Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman. While each of these three poets have a particular style, one in particular lead the path to a more free America and Earth.

Read More
2124 Words | 9 Pages

India’s leader Mohandas Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) was influenced by David Thoreau 's Civil Disobedience arguments while sitting in jail. Gandhi loosely adopted the term “civil disobedience” for non-violent protests and refused to cooperate with injustice. Following his release, he protested the registration law by joining labor strikes and organizing a large non-violent march. After the marches, the Boer government finally agreed to end the most divisive sections of the law. In 1907, he campaigned in South Africa and wrote a translated synopsis of Thoreau 's argument for the Indian Opinion.

Read More
317 Words | 2 Pages

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a Transcendentalist, a person, according to the week 10 powerpoint, who rejected the thought of organized religion and had a deep skepticism of government. He embraced individualism and rugged self-reliance. He, and other Transcendentalists, focused primarily on the mind and on nature. Charles Finney, according to the week 10 powerpoint and Charles Finney on revivals, was apparently the most successful revivalist of the Second Great Awakening. The revival movement was, after admitting your sins, to dedicate the rest of your life to the church and the morals the church taught.

Read More
365 Words | 2 Pages

Also, in Civil Disobedience, he adverted to his essay Resistance to Civil Government, and this affected Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King

Read More
1504 Words | 7 Pages

Gandhi: A pure heart seeking the truth “Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.” When one thinks of Gandhi and his influence in the whole world, not only in India, his method of non-violence is the most important philosophy that he changed from a personal one to a political ideology. Even though he had more than most of the population in India, he did not live a lavish lifestyle.

Read More
1104 Words | 5 Pages

Gandhi was a firm believer of peace and using non-violence to protest the opposition. Mahatma devoted his life to non-violent protest, struggling against what he considered the three great evils afflicting India: British rule, Hindu and Muslim disunity and the discrimination against the lowest social class in India (Costly). Gandhi had expected Britain to grant India independence after World War I, but Britain refused. Mahatma responded with leading several strikes and non-violent protests to try and get Britain’s attention, who would sometimes respond with violence, but Gandhi insisted that Indians remain non-violent. He was arrested several times and once said, “In my humble opinion, non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good” (Costly).

Read More
145 Words | 1 Pages

Mahatma Gandhi was an admirer of Thoreau and adopted his policy of nonviolent resistance

Read More
778 Words | 4 Pages

Gandhi originally went to Africa on business with his job as a lawyer, but instead Gandhi had found his calling both spiritually and politically. This led to many acts of non-violence and civil disobedience and ultimately India’s Independence Movement in 1947. Gandhi implementation of civil disobedience was heavily influenced by Henry David Thoreau’s essay, Civil Disobedience which depicts Thoreau’s resistance towards the government. Gandhi’s system of non-violence and peace was called the Satyagraha, which translates in English to the “truth force”. Gandhi thought of this as “living a life of love and compassion”.

Read More
274 Words | 2 Pages

About two centuries ago, an American polymath Henry Thoreau protested the Mexican-American War by refusing to pay government taxes and with his innovative essay,'Civil Disobedience'. Years later, Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King both followed his lead in employing nonviolence as a way to protest the injustices of their time. Because of their recognition as great men and outcome of these great men efforts, I believe that nonviolent protest is the only way we can achieve reform concerning today's issues. For many years, Mohandas Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King as well as Henry Thoreau have been revered by many. King won a Nobel Peace Prize for his peaceful imperviousness to the racial partiality in America.

Read More
1098 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1066 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
610 Words | 3 Pages

Mohandas Gandhi is one of the greatest nonviolent activists ever. Gandhi came up with the word ahimsa, which meant nonviolence. He also introduced to the world the word satyagraha, which meant peaceful civil disobedience. In 1930 Gandhi and a group of followers began a march of more than 200 miles. Three and a half weeks later they made it to their destination, the sea.

Read More
658 Words | 3 Pages

Thoreau had completely different views and perspectives than Gandhi. Thoreau believed in breaking the law if it is unjust or abusive. In the essay Civil Disobedience it says “I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest”.

Read More

More about Ralph Waldo Emerson's Transcendentalist Movement

Related Topics

Open Document