transcendentalism

[ tran-sen-den-tl-iz-uhm, -suhn- ]

/ ˌtræn sɛnˈdɛn tlˌɪz əm, -sən- /

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noun

transcendental character, thought, or language.

Also called transcendental philosophy. any philosophy based upon the doctrine that the principles of reality are to be discovered by the study of the processes of thought, or a philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical: in the U.S., associated with Emerson.

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Origin of transcendentalism

From the German word Transcendentalismus, dating back to 1795–1805. See transcendental, -ism

OTHER WORDS FROM transcendentalism

tran·scen·den·tal·ist, noun, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use transcendentalism in a sentence

Tom Cotton credits Harvard as the place where he “discovered political philosophy as a way of life.”
Harvard’s Conservative Cabal Takes Congress|Patricia Murphy|December 17, 2014|DAILY BEAST
His philosophy is Everything to Someone rather than Something for Everyone.
The Hot Designer Who Hates Fashion: VK Nagrani Triumphs His Own Way|Tom Teodorczuk|December 1, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The course Jackson taught at VMI, “Natural and Experimental Philosophy,” was brutally difficult.
Stonewall Jackson, VMI’s Most Embattled Professor|S. C. Gwynne|November 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Each step of the way, Booker has thrived on the philosophy that your actions matter more than what you preach.
Talking Tofurky With Newly Vegan Cory Booker|Vlad Chituc|November 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST

But Moglen, an Internet scholar, has developed something closer to a philosophy.
How Four Upstarts Built and Crashed the Anti-Facebook|Jake Whitney|November 12, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It lacks convincingness perhaps from the fact that Thomass theology is so largely philosophy, as Roger Bacon said.
The Mediaeval Mind (Volume II of II)|Henry Osborn Taylor
Of course not,” said Wilkins, “proverbial philosophy asserts and requires that doctors should disagree.
Hunting the Lions|R.M. Ballantyne
But he thought of the inexorable beating of that pulse of life—of life, and the will to live as her philosophy desired.
Bella Donna|Robert Hichens
Such being the adjustment, the philosophy of the inhalation may be easily understood.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce|E. R. Billings.
Kilkelly was an excellent travelling companion, readily pleased, and taking things as they came with easy philosophy.
Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland|Joseph Tatlow

British Dictionary definitions for transcendentalism

transcendentalism

/ (ˌtrænsɛnˈdɛntəˌlɪzəm) /

noun

any system of philosophy, esp that of Kant, holding that the key to knowledge of the nature of reality lies in the critical examination of the processes of reason on which depends the nature of experience
any system of philosophy, esp that of Emerson, that emphasizes intuition as a means to knowledge or the importance of the search for the divine

vague philosophical speculation

the state of being transcendental

something, such as thought or language, that is transcendental

Derived forms of transcendentalism

transcendentalist, noun, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for transcendentalism

transcendentalism

A movement in nineteenth-century American literature and thought. It called on people to view the objects in the world as small versions of the whole universe and to trust their individual intuitions. The two most noted American transcendentalists were Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.