The Transcendentalists (TSD´s) were a group of men led by the likes of Emerson and Thoreau in a reaction against the Lockean empiricism (not rationalism, they´re different) that had overrun the American intellectual world in the early 1800´s. The Unitarian church and its school Harvard were enamored with empiricism and had become bastions for the idea. In reaction to this, the TSD´s looked to the transcendental philosophy of Kant, but even more so German Idealism (which was a large branch in offshoot from Kant´s
Critique of Pure Reason).
To be fair, Kant was much less reactionary and as critical as the TSD´s were, and much smarter as well. Here´s a good run down of much of the TSD thought (based off of Emerson´s work. This can be found many places on the web; I got it from
Wikipedia):
1. Respect for intuitions
2. Withdrawal from labor and competition
3. Pursuit of a critical, solitary lifestyle
4. Consciousness of the disproportion between a person's faculties and the work provided for them.
5. Repel influences
6. Shun general society
7. An appreciation for nature, specifically nature's symbolism
8. Life in rural settings
9. Work and play in solitude
10. Have a passion for the extraordinary
11. Not good for citizens or members of society
o Unwilling to bear their part of public and private burdens
12. Childlike; joyous, affectionate, susceptible, more than average wish to be loved
13. Make extreme demands on human nature
14. Disappointed in humanity
15. Sociable
16. Lack private ends to their means
17. United with every trait and talent of beauty and power
18. Idealistic
19. Admits the unreliability of the senses
20. Respects the government only so far as it reinforces the law of their minds
21. Reality originates from an "unknown centre" inside of themselves
22. Accepts spiritual doctrine
23. Do not share in public religious rites, enterprises of education, missions foreign or domestic, activism, or voting
24. Essentially dead or paralyzed
o Even though their participation in society is out of character, they choose to participate as dissidents
25. Reject routine, because there is not much virtue in it
26. Constantly waiting for a high command
27. Lovers and worshippers of society
28. Disdain for organized education
As you can see, there is more to this in German Idealism than transcendental philosophy per se, though there are obviously going to be connections.
Though some may disagree with this, the idea that there is a "œdivine spark" in all is not so much from the Stoics (as this was not held by all the Stoics, btw), but rather derived from the heavy influence of Eastern mysticism that often invaded their resources.
If we wish to exploit anything in Kant (which I think is possible, he did have some good things to say), anything useful inherent to Kant can be found in a better framework in Merold Westphal and Van Til.
Like so much of philosophy, I believe the fundamental problem with Trancendentalism is (its hard to narrow it down to one, there is so many) that they, like Kant before them, could not correctly balance the noumenal/phenomenal. If one does not hold these two in tension/balance, you are bound to overemphasize one to the loss of the other. The irony of TSDism is that by emphasizing the transcendental, it collapses and
implodes, thus making everything "œcommon" and then "œunclean" (κοινοÌÏ‚).
I KANT tell what you mean by that...
