Transcendentalism arose in Massachusetts in the 1830s among Emerson, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott and others. Drawing on Plato, Kant as read through Coleridge, and newly translated Indian scriptures, they taught that the soul can know truth directly, that nature is a symbol of spirit, and that each person should trust the inner light.
Transcendentalism
The New England movement of Emerson and Thoreau, holding that the divine is known by intuition in the soul and nature.