Definition

Noun: * A philosophical system: Specifically, any system of philosophy that prioritizes and emphasizes intuitive understanding and spiritual reality over knowledge gained solely from empirical observation and material concerns.

Usage

• The term is used to categorize and discuss philosophical traditions that argue for the existence or primacy of realities beyond the scope of ordinary sensory experience.
• It often refers to systems that explore the necessary preconditions for experience itself, such as the nature of consciousness, self, or the absolute.

Examples

• The professor's expertise was in transcendental philosophy, particularly the works of the German Idealists.
• His thinking shifted from strict materialism towards a form of transcendental philosophy.
• The book contrasts analytic philosophy with various strands of transcendental philosophy.

Advanced Usage

• In academic discourse: The term is often used historically to describe the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and his successors, who inquired into the conditions of possible experience (e.g., space, time, and the categories of understanding).
• In a broader sense: It can be applied to any philosophical or spiritual system (e.g., certain interpretations of Platonism, Vedanta) that posits a fundamental reality transcending the physical world.

Variants and Related Words

• Transcendentalism (n): Often used synonymously, but can specifically refer to a 19th-century American literary and philosophical movement (e.g., Emerson, Thoreau) influenced by such ideas.
• Transcendental (adj): Of or relating to a spiritual or non-empirical realm; in Kantian philosophy, concerned with the basis of human knowledge.
• Transcendent (adj): Surpassing the ordinary; existing beyond the material universe.

Synonyms

• Metaphysical philosophy
• Idealism (in many contexts)
• Speculative philosophy

Antonyms

• Empiricism
• Materialism
• Positivism

Noun

1. any system of philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical and material