Ralph Waldo Emerson published Nature in 1836 which represented a new way of intellectual thinking in America. “The Universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. Spirit is present everywhere.” This new voice led American Romanticism to a new and mature period, the period of New England Transcendentalism. This was the most significant development of American literature in the mid-19th century. “New England Transcendentalism” or “American Renaissance” (1836---1855) was the first American intellectual movement, which exerted a tremendous impact on the consciousness of American people. As Lawrence Buell states, “To proclaim transcendentalism’s impact, however, is easier than to define it, for the movement was loosely organized and its boundaries were indistinct” (Elliott 364).
New England Transcendentalism was, in essence, romantic idealism on Puritan soil. It was a system of thought that originated from three sources. First William Ellery Channing (1780---1842) was an American Unitarian clergyman. His Unitarianism represented a thoughtful revolt against orthodox Puritanism. Unitarianism believed God as one being, rejecting the doctrine of trinity, stressing the tolerance of difference in religious opinion, and giving each congregation the free control of its own affairs and its independent authority. It laid the foundation for the central doctrines of transcendentalism. Secondly, the idealistic philosophy from France and Germany exerted enormous impact on American intellectuals. Thirdly, oriental mysticism as revealed in Hindu and Chinese classics reached America in English translations. As a result, New England Transcendentalism blended native American tradition with foreign influences.
Dissatisfied with the materialistic-oriented society and eager to save the soul with a doctrine of the mind, some American intellectuals were so athirst for new ideas that they formed an informal discussing group, the Transcendental Club, with some thirty men and women of Boston and Concord in 1836. They were strongly influenced by the new German idealism and delighted in abstract discussion. They met irregularly over the next four years at Ralph Waldo Emerson's home in Concord for the purpose of discussing the new ideas of life and society. This club was the first and most famous of a series of forums that served during the next few decades as social gathering points. It became the movement's magnetic center. From 1836 to 1835, they advocated their views and principles in various magazines. Besides, they even published their journal. The Dial (1840-1844).
Their meetings and their journal promoted this movement and added prominence to it. Many people interested in the new ideas of transcendentalism were impressed by the brotherhood of humanity. In order to separate themselves from the evil society, they made two communitarian experiments by establishing ideal communities. George Ripley (1802-1880) set up the Brook Farm on Boston's outskirts, which ran from 1841 to 1847 with emphasis on cooperation without competition. On this farm, people shared in domestic and physical labor, and secured material and cultural welfare. It stressed educational reform and its most distinguished institution was its school. The great novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne (1806-1864) was once its member. It is a pity that a disastrous fire in the uninsured main building put and end to this experiment. The second experiment is Fruitlands, near Harvard, set up by Bronson Alcott (1799-1888) in 1843. On this farm, Alcott stressed the absolute avoidance of exploitation of man and beast. It lasted less than a year because it was more extreme in practice than the Brook Farm. Alcott also helped to organize and preside over the concord School of Philosophy (1879-1888), a summer seminar. This was the last significant activity of transcendentalism. However, in the 1830s and 1840s,transcendentalism was treated in newspapers and magazines as something between a national laughing stock and a clear menace to organized religion.
超驗主義觀點的核心是主張人能超越感覺和理性而直接認識真理，認為人類世界的壹切都是宇宙的壹個縮影——“世界將其自身縮小成為壹滴露水”（愛默生語）。超驗主義者強調萬物本質上的統壹，萬物皆受“超靈”制約，而人類靈魂與“超靈”壹致。這種對人之神聖的肯定使超驗主義者蔑視外部的權威與傳統，依賴自己的直接經驗。“相信妳自己”這句愛默生的名言，成為超驗主義者的座右銘。這種超驗主義觀點雖屬於唯心主義，但它強調人的主觀能動性，有助於打破加爾文教的“人性惡”、“命定論”等教條的束縛，為熱情奔放，抒發個性的浪漫主義文學奠定了思想基礎。在這壹思想影響下，美國文壇出現了“新英格蘭文藝復興”。而海濱城市波士頓以其天時地利人和的優越條件，便成為這個“文藝復興”的中心
英文的壹般用法:
先驗的，transcendental;超越的,transcendent。
康德的先驗,德文是transzendental(英語transcendental),意指fishyu
上邊所引
<那些不是與對象有關，而是與我們關於對象之認識方式有關的認識，只要它們是先天可能的，都稱作‘先驗的’>
在康德的用法裏,先驗transzendental是我們先天(a priori)具有的認識
能力,它包括對時空的認識能力、分辨夢與現實的能力等等,是壹切經驗和
知識的基礎、根本條件。
康德的超越,德文是transzendent(英文transcendent)。意指超出人的
經驗範圍、超出人的認識能力的範疇,比如上帝、死後的靈魂等。
美國的超越主義(超絕主義)transcendentalism是壹個哲學(文學)派別,
雖然這個詞同樣是從transcendental來的,但其所指和康德哲學上的
transcendentalism(先驗論)不同。
愛默生他們的transcendentalism是壹種神秘主義哲學,其更像壹種泛神
論,認為上帝存在於人和自然界裏,萬物有靈,人們需要依靠自己的直覺去
超越(transcend)五官的感覺,達到更高層次的真理。