Abeka American Literature Test 12 Practice

Transcendentalism emphasizes trusting inner experience and intuition as paths to truth, along with a belief in the inherent goodness of people and the direct, personal connection between the individual, nature, and a higher reality. The option that best captures this is the belief in innate goodness and intuitive knowledge, tied to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who championed self-reliance, inner conscience, and the idea that truth comes from within rather than from external authorities. Emerson’s essays and lectures articulate how individuals should trust their own insights and experiences to discover meaning, making him the best-known advocate of this perspective. The other ideas point to different traditions: progress through reason reflects Enlightenment thinking; strict conformity to tradition clashes with transcendentalist emphasis on individuality; and Samuel Johnson is associated with earlier, traditional frameworks rather than the intuitive, nature-centered focus of transcendentalism.