Transcendentalism Transcendentalism is the belief that man should reject the material world and concentrate on the simple things in life. Transcendentalism expresses the idea that man should be his own person. The basic principles of Transcendentalism are individualism and self-reliance. Transcendentalism also inspired a back to nature movement to find God. The fathers of Transcendentalism were Ralph Waldo Emerson and his student, Henry David Thoreau. Emerson and Thoreau sought permanent spiritual reality that lay beyond physical appearances. They also believed that man could be perfected. The time period in which Transcenden