Definition of Transcendental

See Kantianism ; and Transcendental phenomenology

one of Kant's four main perspectives, aiming to establish a kind of knowledge which is both synthetic and a priori. It is a special type of philosophical knowledge, concerned with the necessary conditions for the possibility of experience. However, Kant believes all knowing subjects assume certain transcendental truths, whether or not they are aware of it. Transcendental knowledge defines the boundary between empirical knowledge and speculation about the transcendent realm. 'Every event has a cause' is a typical transcendental statement. (Cf. empirical.)

[A12/B25] Used by Kant in many senses: to refer to a type of philosophy, to a type of deduction, to a type of exposition, to types of idealism and realism, to "content", to a way of employing the faculties of the mind, to the unity of apperception, to different types of proofs, to a type of reflection, to a special unknown "transcendental object = x", to a type of truth, to a type of knowledge, to a type of reflection, to a type of illusion, to subjects (selves), to certain ideas, to a sort of negation, to principles, to a kind of theology, to a type of hypothesis--not to mention the term's use in contrast to empirical, transcendent, etc. Nevertheless, Kant did hazard some general comments about the meaning of the term. In the Introduction, he writes "I entitle transcendental all knowledge which is occupied not so much with objects as with the mode of our knowledge of objects in so far as this mode of knowledge is to be possible a priori". [A295/B352] In the Dialectic he defines a different usage: "we shall entitle the principles whose application is confined entirely within the limits of possible experience, immanent; and those, on the other hand, which profess to pass beyond these limits, transcendent. In the case of these latter, I am not referring to the transcendental employment of misemployment of the categories, which is merely an error of the faculty of judgment when it is not duly curbed by criticism". Kant offers innumerable other such definitions in the Critique, e.g. (at A720/B748), "synthetic propositions in regard to things in general, the intuition of which does not admit to being given a priori, are transcendental. Transcendental propositions can never be given through construction of concepts, but only in accordance with concepts that are a priori".

(n.)
A transcendentalist.
  

---

transcendental
\tran`scen*den"tal\, n. a transcendentalist. [obs.]
transcendental
adj
1. existing outside of or not in accordance with nature; "find transcendental motives for sublunary action"-aldous huxley [syn: nonnatural, otherworldly, preternatural]


2. of or characteristic of a system of philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual about the empirical and material

---

  similar words(6) 

---

---

 transcendental equation 
 transcendental philosophy 
 transcendental functions 
 transcendental function 
 transcendental curve 
 transcendental number 

---

Adjective
1. existing outside of or not in accordance with nature; "find transcendental motives for sublunary action"-Aldous Huxley
(synonym) nonnatural, otherworldly, preternatural
(similar) supernatural
2. of or characteristic of a system of philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual about the empirical and material
(pertainym) transcendentalism, transcendental philosophy

See more at Wikipedia.org...