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transcendentalism

transcendentalism definition

tran·scen·den·tal·ism (-iz′əm)

noun

any of various philosophies that propose to discover the nature of reality by investigating the process of thought rather than the objects of sense experience: the philosophies of Kant, Hegel, and Fichte are examples of transcendentalism
☆ by extension, the philosophical ideas of Emerson and some other 19th-cent. New Englanders, based on a search for reality through spiritual intuition
popularly any obscure, visionary, or idealistic thought

Etymology: < 18th-c. Ger transcendentalismus: see transcendental & -ism

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