transcendentalism: Meaning and Definition of

tran•scen•den•tal•ism

1. transcendental character, thought, or language.
2. Also called transcenden&prim;tal philos&prim;ophy. any philosophy based upon the doctrine that the principles of reality are to be discovered by the study of the processes of thought, or a philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical: in the U.S., associated with Emerson.