Editing Transcendentalism (section)

===Individualism===
Transcendentalists believe that society and its institutions—particularly [[organized religion]] and political parties—corrupt the purity of the individual.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/understandingeme0000sack|url-access=registration|quote=institutions.|title=Understanding Emerson: 'The American Scholar' and His Struggle for Self-reliance|last1=Sacks|first1=Kenneth S.|last2=Sacks|first2=Professor Kenneth S.|date=2003|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691099828|language=en}}</ref> They have faith that people are at their best when truly self-reliant and independent. It is only from such real individuals that true community can form.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

Even with this necessary individuality, transcendentalists also believe that all people are outlets for the "[[The Over-Soul|Over-Soul]]". Because the Over-Soul is one, this unites all people as one being.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Emerson|first1=Ralph Waldo|title=The Over-Soul|url=http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu.edu/authors/emerson/essays/oversoul.html|website=American Transcendentalism Web|access-date=13 July 2015|archive-date=16 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190416112312/http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu.edu/authors/emerson/essays/oversoul.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{Request quotation|date=July 2015}} Emerson alludes to this concept in the introduction of the ''[[The American Scholar|American Scholar]]'' address, "that there is One Man, – present to all particular men only partially, or through one faculty; and that you must take the whole society to find the whole man".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu.edu/authors/emerson/essays/amscholar.html|title=Emerson – 'The American Scholar'|website=transcendentalism-legacy.tamu.edu|access-date=2017-10-14|archive-date=2017-12-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213134859/http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu.edu/authors/emerson/essays/amscholar.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Such an ideal is in harmony with Transcendentalist individualism, as each person is empowered to behold within him or herself a piece of the divine Over-Soul.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

In recent years, there has been a distinction made between individuality and [[individualism]]. Both advocate the unique capacity of the individual. Yet individualism is decidedly anti-government, whereas individuality sees all facets of society necessary, or at least acceptable for the development of the true individualistic person. Whether the Transcendentalists believed in individualism or individuality remains to be determined.