scend-, scen-, scand-, scan-, scans-
(Latin: to climb; to mount; by extension, a ladder)
1. A system of philosophy that emphasizes the intuitive and spiritual above the physical, scientific, and material: Founders of the American movement of transcendentalism were striving "to climb beyond" traditional empirical thinking, favoring instead a person’s insight or premonition and natural spirituality.
Ralph Waldo Emerson summed up the beliefs of transcendentalism when he said, "What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
2. Etymology: from Latin transcendere, "to climb over or beyond, to surmount"; from trans-, "beyond" + scandere, "to climb".
1. Someone who believes that reasoning is the key to understanding reality: One of the most famous transcendentalists was Ralph Waldo Emerson who believed and wrote about the importance that everyone should be self-reliant or self-sustaining.
2. Anyone who asserts that true knowledge is obtained by faculties of the mind that go beyond sensory experiences: Margaret Fuller, a transcendentalist of the 19th-century, was one of the philosophers who advocated that the spiritual reality rises above the scientific and empirical facts and entities of this world.
2. Anyone who asserts that true knowledge is obtained by faculties of the mind that go beyond sensory experiences: Margaret Fuller, a transcendentalist of the 19th-century, was one of the philosophers who advocated that the spiritual reality rises above the scientific and empirical facts and entities of this world.
transcendentally (adverb), more transcendentally, most transcendentally
Descriptive of how things, which go beyond the practical experience of ordinary people, cannot be understood or discovered by normal reasoning: Gregory went to a monastery after his father's death where he thought that meditating transcendentally would help him recover from the pain and suffering he was experiencing.
