Ten Key Tenets of Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism was a philosophy, a way of life, for a select few people in the 1840's and beyond. I always think much of it is akin to the way some people felt about the world in the 1960s and 1970s. Transcendentalism is a philosophy of hope, which some people find inconsistent with the way we live in the modern world. As I get older, I keep thinking that some of it makes such good sense and would change our world immensely if we would only look and listen. We could at least take a look at things like conformity and technology.

In Nature, we are able to "transcend" the truths we know in the Natural world. In other words, Transcendentalists believe in things they cannot see or touch or feel. Nature is our source to experience these truths. So things like meditation can bring us to truths that we never would have experienced using only our five senses.

Materialism is bad. Striving for material goods was seen as worthless and an unhealthy pursuit. It was totally superficial.

Society is the source of corruption. If we are all to follow our own free will and listen to our hearts, we would be much better off.

Our intuition and natural instincts guide us to do the right things. In nature, we are uncorrupted. It is only when we let society in that we start to conform and hence, be corrupted.

Conformity is wrong. We should NOT follow the crowd. We should make our own way and our own decisions in this world.

The nature of human beings is good. Again, it is society that corrupts us. Human beings left to their own devices are good.

Knowledge comes from experience. The knowledge is not derived from reading books or studying or any of the other things we do in schools. It comes from living.

We have a direct relationship with God. The Transcendentalists did not believe in organized religion because they wanted that direct relationship with God, not one through a pastor or a priest.

Technology is wrong. Advances in technology only caused more problems for society. For example, we built the railroad so we could go, go, go. First of all, we should stay home and get in touch with ourselves. Secondly, now we need people to build the track and make the cars and drive the train and maintain everything. Technology ends up running us and not the other way around.

Human beings and nature are beautiful in and of themselves. We have innate goodness, and we are beautiful creatures.Is this idealistic? Of course it is. Many people did not follow these things in the 1840s when Transcendentalism was around. Many, many more would never follow them today. The big areas for most of us would be technology and materialism, but might the Transcendentalists have something to teach us?

The pursuit of technology is always good in our society, but has much of our technology enriched our lives? It has given us more things to do, and granted, more time to do them, but has it really enriched our lives? I don't feel like a better person because of my cell phone or even my computer. I feel like many times, I spend more and more time doing "forgettable" things and less and less time doing the things I will remember. Technology does not always have to be a good thing. We should at least question some of the advancements that are coming or have come. Is cloning ethical? Will it simplify or further complicate our lives?

The other big one is materialism, and Thoreau is probably turning over in his grave at how far we've come. We are consumers if nothing else. Everywhere we look somebody is trying to sell us something-goods or ideas. We are so focused on keeping up with everyone else and being stylish and having the best. How will material goods enrich you as a human being? How will they make you a better person? Aren't those the questions we should be asking ourselves? Is all the "bling" helping our world? I'm not advocating giving it all up; I think that would be foolish in our world, but maybe could we buy a little less? Could we not be so focused on the outward appearance of everything and focus a little more on the inner qualities that we all know are more important?

Transcendentalism at least gives us something to think about if nothing else. Start thinking.