| Transcendental | a. [ Cf. F. transcendantal, G. transcendental. ] 1. Supereminent; surpassing others; as, transcendental being or qualities. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. (Philos.) In the Kantian system, of or pertaining to that which can be determined a priori in regard to the fundamental principles of all human knowledge. What is transcendental, therefore, transcends empiricism; but is does not transcend all human knowledge, or become transcendent. It simply signifies the a priori or necessary conditions of experience which, though affording the conditions of experience, transcend the sphere of that contingent knowledge which is acquired by experience. [ 1913 Webster ] 3. Vaguely and ambitiously extravagant in speculation, imagery, or diction. [ 1913 Webster ] ☞ In mathematics, a quantity is said to be transcendental relative to another quantity when it is expressed as a transcendental function of the latter; thus, ax, 102x, log x, sin x, tan x, etc., are transcendental relative to x. [ 1913 Webster ]
Transcendental curve (Math.), a curve in which one ordinate is a transcendental function of the other. --
Transcendental equation (Math.), an equation into which a transcendental function of one of the unknown or variable quantities enters. --
Transcendental function. (Math.) See under Function. [ 1913 Webster ]
Syn. -- Transcendental, Empirical. These terms, with the corresponding nouns, transcendentalism and empiricism, are of comparatively recent origin. Empirical refers to knowledge which is gained by the experience of actual phenomena, without reference to the principles or laws to which they are to be referred, or by which they are to be explained. Transcendental has reference to those beliefs or principles which are not derived from experience, and yet are absolutely necessary to make experience possible or useful. Such, in the better sense of the term, is the transcendental philosophy, or transcendentalism. Each of these words is also used in a bad sense, empiricism applying to that one-sided view of knowledge which neglects or loses sight of the truths or principles referred to above, and trusts to experience alone; transcendentalism, to the opposite extreme, which, in its deprecation of experience, loses sight of the relations which facts and phenomena sustain to principles, and hence to a kind of philosophy, or a use of language, which is vague, obscure, fantastic, or extravagant. [ 1913 Webster ] |
| Transcendentalism | n. [ Cf. F. transcendantalisme, G. transcendentalismus. ] 1. (Kantian Philos.) The transcending, or going beyond, empiricism, and ascertaining a priori the fundamental principles of human knowledge. [ 1913 Webster ] ☞ As Schelling and Hegel claim to have discovered the absolute identity of the objective and subjective in human knowledge, or of things and human conceptions of them, the Kantian distinction between transcendent and transcendental ideas can have no place in their philosophy; and hence, with them, transcendentalism claims to have a true knowledge of all things, material and immaterial, human and divine, so far as the mind is capable of knowing them. And in this sense the word transcendentalism is now most used. It is also sometimes used for that which is vague and illusive in philosophy. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. Ambitious and imaginative vagueness in thought, imagery, or diction. [ 1913 Webster ] |
