Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Relating to a system of philosophy that emphasizes the intuitive and spiritual over the empirical and material: Pertaining to knowledge or thought that is based on intuition or deduction, independent of sensory experience.
   • Existing outside of or not in accordance with nature; supernatural: Extending beyond the limits of ordinary experience or the physical world.
   • (Mathematics) Not capable of being produced by the algebraic operations of addition, multiplication, and root extraction; requiring infinite series or limits for expression: Describing a number or function that is not algebraic.

Usage Examples

• Adjective (Philosophical):
  • Kant's transcendental philosophy explores the necessary preconditions for human experience.
  • The poet sought a transcendental understanding of beauty, beyond mere physical appearance.
• Adjective (Supernatural):
  • The mystic described a transcendental vision that defied all natural explanation.
  • Some believe in a transcendental realm where the soul resides after death.
• Adjective (Mathematical):
  • Pi (π) and e are well-known transcendental numbers.
  • Solving this transcendental equation requires numerical methods.

Advanced Usage

• "Transcendental argument": In philosophy, an argument that establishes the necessary conditions for the possibility of experience or knowledge.
  • The philosopher used a transcendental argument to demonstrate the necessity of space and time as forms of intuition.
• "Transcendental meditation": A technique of silent meditation using a mantra, aiming to promote relaxation and self-awareness.
  • She practices transcendental meditation for twenty minutes every morning.

Variants and Related Words

• Transcendent (adj): Surpassing the ordinary; exceptional. Often used interchangeably in some contexts but can imply exceeding limits rather than being beyond them.
  • The concert was a transcendent experience.
• Transcendentalism (n): A philosophical and literary movement, especially in 19th-century New England, emphasizing intuition, spirituality, and the inherent goodness of nature and people.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson was a central figure in American Transcendentalism.
• Transcendentally (adv): In a transcendental manner.
  • The landscape was transcendentally beautiful.

Synonyms

• Metaphysical: Relating to the fundamental nature of reality and being.
• Supernatural: Attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature.
• Intuitive: Using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning.
• Non-empirical: Not based on observation or experience.

Antonyms

• Empirical: Based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic.
• Material: Concerned with physical substances or matter, not spiritual.
• Immanent: Existing or operating within; inherent. (Often contrasted with 'transcendent' or 'transcendental' in philosophy).

Related Phrases and Idioms

• "Transcendental idealism": The philosophical system of Immanuel Kant, which argues that our experience of things is shaped by the mind's inherent structures.
  • Kant's transcendental idealism distinguishes between phenomena (things as we perceive them) and noumena (things in themselves).
• "Transcendental number": A real or complex number that is not a root of any non-zero polynomial equation with integer coefficients.
  • Proving that a number is transcendental can be very difficult.

Adjective

1. of or characteristic of a system of philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical and material
2. existing outside of or not in accordance with nature
   • find transcendental motives for sublunary action-Aldous Huxley