transcendentalism

Noun

transcendentalism (countable and uncountable, plural transcendentalisms)

1. The transcending, or going beyond, empiricism, and ascertaining a priori the fundamental principles of human knowledge.
2. Ambitious and imaginative vagueness in thought, imagery, or diction.
3. A philosophy which holds that reasoning is key to understanding reality (associated with Kant); philosophy which stresses intuition and spirituality (associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson); transcendental character or quality.
   • In this respect his hesitations are reminiscent of Brzozowski, except that Adler maintained his absolute transcendentalism to the end instead of trying to synthesize it with his Vernunftreligion and so repair the incoherence of his philosophy.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in...
4. A movement of writers and philosophers in New England in the 19th century who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths.