Transcendentalism was an important 19th-century spiritual and philosophical movement in New England. My project analyzed the global inspirations and connections found in the environmentalist attitudes among Transcendentalist thinkers. My paper argues that the complex foundations of Transcendentalism’s resemblance to Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu principles challenges the East-West categorization of environmental thought. Transcendentalist environmentalism both drew from Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu attitudes towards nature and simultaneously achieved this resemblance through continuity with unprecedented, uniquely Euro-American strains of environmental thought. This phenomenon embodies a multifaceted critique of the East-West binary, including and beyond environmentalist discourse, showing that such a binary oversimplifies the independent development of global philosophies while also overlooking their interconnected maturation. 

In doing so, my paper hopes to challenge the perceived incompatibility of environmental thought with the stereotypically consumerist, individualist West, warn against the intrusion of stereotypes into conceptions of environmentalism and the East, and suggest that a powerful philosophical view of human-nature conflicts pervades cultures across the globe.

My research consisted of a literature review exploring existing evidence and argumentation; close reading of fundamental texts by Transcendentalist authors and important scriptures in Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu traditions; and visits to Fruitlands Museum and Walden Pond, the sites of important Transcendentalist living experiments.