Definitions for "Transcendentalism"
The transcending, or going beyond, empiricism, and ascertaining a priori the fundamental principles of human knowledge.
Ambitious and imaginative vagueness in thought, imagery, or diction.
A nineteenth-century group of American writers and thinkers who believed that only by transcending the limits of rationalism and received tradition could the individual fully realize his or her potential. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and Henry David Thoreau are among the most influential Transcendentalists.