transcendentalism

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transcendentalism School of philosophy that traced its origin to the idealism of Immanuel Kant. It concerned itself not with objects, but with our mode of knowing objects. It spread from Germany to England, where Samuel Coleridge and Thomas Carlyle came under its influence. In the mid-19th century, it spread to the USA, where its proponents included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. In general, it emphasized individual (as opposed to collective) moral and spiritual responsibilities and rejected materialism, returning to nature for spiritual guidance.

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