The Pros And Cons Of Transcendentalism

When a person looks in a mirror they don’t usually see the person that they have the potential to become, but instead see a hollowed shell of who they were yesterday. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that, “to be great is to be misunderstood”, and this quote was an incentive to get people to look beyond themselves and what they could be; this notion was called Transcendentalism. The Transcendentalism movement “ was a religious, [ intellectual], and philosophical movement,” and the people who followed this movement held high principles, merits, and ideals. They believed that mankind needed to be more self reliant, more or completely in tune with nature, and they wanted man to look within themselves to find a better enlightened mental state.

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Transcendentalists are the people who believe that there is so much more to the mind than any man knows, and that mankind needs to see what’s been hidden within them in order to become more self aware. In Henry David Thoreau’s manuscript “ Walden,” he wrote, we must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.”( Thoreau Walden pg. 748). In this it is evident that Thoreau believed mankind should be driven to find what their minds have subconsciously hidden from them in order to achieve a healthier enlightened mind. Thoreau also believed that not everyone was capable of reaching this state of awareness when he wrote, ‘ the millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion.” ( Thoreau Walden pg. 748). Thoreau was trying to convey that just because a person is alive doesn’t mean they have what it takes to become awake or aware of who they truly are. Having a mind that’s capable of complex thought and a willingness to learn about the world beyond the material was very important to