transcendentalism
noun
tran·scen·den·tal·ism
ˌtran(t)-ˌsen-ˈden-tə-ˌli-zəm 
-sən-
1
: a philosophy that emphasizes the a priori conditions of knowledge and experience or the unknowable character of ultimate reality or that emphasizes the transcendent as the fundamental reality
2
: a philosophy that asserts the primacy of the spiritual and transcendental over the material and empirical
3
: the quality or state of being transcendental
especially
: visionary idealism
Examples of transcendentalism in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Johnson spoke with us about the film’s origins, transcendentalism and never quite being done.
—
Los Angeles Times Staff, Los Angeles Times, 12 Jan. 2024
For much of the year, Alan Lightman lives less than a mile from Walden Pond, the Massachusetts spot where Henry David Thoreau popularized transcendentalism and its ideas about a direct connection to the divine through nature.
—Danny Heitman, WSJ, 16 Mar. 2023
By 1840 he was well known both as a public lecturer and as the titular head of that newfangled doctrine, transcendentalism.
—Brenda Wineapple, The New York Review of Books, 8 Apr. 2021
Though The Will to Live is lyrically rich with a kind of punk transcendentalism, the album sounds anything but natural.
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 9 Sep. 2022
So was exploring how the ideals of transcendentalism (the philosophical movement led by Ralph Waldo Emerson) influenced his character.
—Gregg Goldstein, Variety, 8 Sep. 2022
Hickey goes on to read Gober’s stacks of newspapers and boxes of rat poison placed within a paint-by-numbers wraparound wallpaper of a New England forest as situated between the history of American transcendentalism and the raging AIDS crisis.
—Jarrett Earnest, The New York Review of Books, 8 June 2022
At the center of the story are Ralph Waldo Emerson and his protégé, Henry David Thoreau, who championed transcendentalism as a way to break with dogmas of the Old World so that Americans would be empowered to think for themselves.
—Danny Heitman, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 Dec. 2021
While Emerson was diving into nature to become a transparent eyeball, forging the new, homegrown American philosophy of transcendentalism, Poe was cobbling together a myriad of sources in a wild patchwork.
—Colin Dickey, The New Republic, 21 July 2021
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Los Angeles Times Staff, Los Angeles Times, 12 Jan. 2024
For much of the year, Alan Lightman lives less than a mile from Walden Pond, the Massachusetts spot where Henry David Thoreau popularized transcendentalism and its ideas about a direct connection to the divine through nature.
—Danny Heitman, WSJ, 16 Mar. 2023
By 1840 he was well known both as a public lecturer and as the titular head of that newfangled doctrine, transcendentalism.
—Brenda Wineapple, The New York Review of Books, 8 Apr. 2021
Though The Will to Live is lyrically rich with a kind of punk transcendentalism, the album sounds anything but natural.
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 9 Sep. 2022
So was exploring how the ideals of transcendentalism (the philosophical movement led by Ralph Waldo Emerson) influenced his character.
—Gregg Goldstein, Variety, 8 Sep. 2022
Hickey goes on to read Gober’s stacks of newspapers and boxes of rat poison placed within a paint-by-numbers wraparound wallpaper of a New England forest as situated between the history of American transcendentalism and the raging AIDS crisis.
—Jarrett Earnest, The New York Review of Books, 8 June 2022
At the center of the story are Ralph Waldo Emerson and his protégé, Henry David Thoreau, who championed transcendentalism as a way to break with dogmas of the Old World so that Americans would be empowered to think for themselves.
—Danny Heitman, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 Dec. 2021
While Emerson was diving into nature to become a transparent eyeball, forging the new, homegrown American philosophy of transcendentalism, Poe was cobbling together a myriad of sources in a wild patchwork.
—Colin Dickey, The New Republic, 21 July 2021
Dictionary Entries Near transcendentalism
Cite this Entry
“Transcendentalism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transcendentalism. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
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