transcendentalism

[tran-sen-den-tl-iz-uh m, -suh n-]

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.

Origin of transcendentalism

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

Related formstran·scen·den·tal·ist, noun, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for transcendentalism

Contemporary Examples of transcendentalism

That was sadly even true for Margaret Fuller, one of the leading lights of transcendentalism.
Why Do Women Love Bad Men? A New Life of Margaret Fuller
Susan Cheever
March 22, 2013

Historical Examples of transcendentalism

Bless your soul, that is Carlyle-ism, not transcendentalism.
Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, March 1844
Various
Idealism and Transcendentalism have carried no conviction to them.
Essays Towards a Theory of Knowledge
Alexander Philip
Its ethics are too weak, its theories too unsound, its transcendentalism is too thin.
British Socialism
J. Ellis Barker
There is nothing in Transcendentalism to prevent intolerance.
Liberty In The Nineteenth Century
Frederic May Holland
Transcendentalism has become the foundation of liberal Christianity.
Liberty In The Nineteenth Century
Frederic May Holland

British Dictionary definitions for transcendentalism

transcendentalism

noun

1. 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
2. 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 Formstranscendentalist, 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

Word Origin and History for transcendentalism

1803, in reference to Kant, later to Schelling; 1842 in reference to the New England religio-philosophical movement; from transcendental + -ism.

transcendentalism in Culture

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.