After Puritanism, transcendentalism became the prevailing American philosophy — and within transcendentalism is new individualism.
Transcendentalism began at Harvard and opposed Puritanism in many ways. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, transcendentalists “were critics of their contemporary society for its unthinking conformity.” Encouraging people to think for themselves regardless of the community’s general opinions is quite the opposite of collectivism.
For transcendentalists, conformity is almost like a curse word; to conform means to be dull, to abandon the true self, and to repress progress — and no one would want to admit to doing any of that.
Transcendentalism became extremely popular in America, and people began to abandon Puritanism in favor of these new ideas. Rather than cooperating in a tight community, transcendentalists encouraged people to seek solitude; rather than perceiving nature as the dangerous, “hideous wilderness” that the Puritans feared, transcendentalists revered nature and attributed healing qualities to it, which is explored extensively in Emerson’s “Nature.” Transcendentalism began the new individualism’s focus on self-cultivation.
Sophisticated Innocence 