Most Famous Transcendentalism Philosophers

Transcendentalism was a 19th-century American philosophical and literary movement centred in New England, drawing on European Romanticism, German Idealism, Indian and Chinese religious thought, and Unitarian Christianity. Its central convictions include the inherent goodness of nature and humanity, the priority of individual intuition over external authority, and the spiritual significance of self-reliance and direct experience of nature. Its leading figures include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Bronson Alcott. The movement gathered around the Transcendental Club, founded in 1836, and its journal The Dial. Its influence on American literature, environmental thought, and philosophy of self-reliance has been lasting.

Philosophers in this tradition

Henry David Thoreau 1817 – 1862 · American
Henry David Thoreau was a 19th-century American philosopher, essayist, and naturalist, the second major figure of the Transcendentalist movement after Ralph Waldo Emerson, his m...
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 – 1882 · American
Ralph Waldo Emerson was a 19th-century American essayist, lecturer, and poet, the leading figure of the Transcendentalist movement in New England. His 1841 collection Essays: Fi...
Margaret Fuller 1810 – 1850 · American
Margaret Fuller was a 19th-century American journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate, the first major figure of American feminist political thought and a central figure o...