Global Transcendentalism

Abstract This article examines the courses of action taken by the Transcendentalists in the wake of globalization and how successful Transcendentalism was in becoming a global movement. Transcendentalists were self-conscious and enthusiastic participants in the global culture and commerce. They themselves saw their achievement in global, planetary, and even cosmic terms. The scientific discoveries that happened during that period helped them revise inherited dogmatisms into radically liberal and secular forms of religious thought. The article states that Transcendentalism was a movement that aimed at a global reach. They offered not a national but a global ideology. In Emerson's opinion, Transcendentalism would not only successfully interweave sources from all around the globe, across all historical time scales, it would also consolidate a project for “planetary conviviality” under the leadership of elite intellectuals. He also hoped that this international class would rise above the petty differences of nationalism to offer far-sighted guidance to global leaders.