Definition of: transcendental

(tran′sen·den′təl) adjective
1. Of very high degree; transcendent.
2. Pertaining to or being a transcendent; not included in any of the categories. See CATEGORY.
3. Philos. a In Kant's system, of an a priori character; transcending experience but not knowledge. b Rising above the common notions of men; with the Cartesians, pertaining to body and spirit alike.
4. Wildly speculative; above, beyond, or contrary to common sense.
5. Math. That cannot be formed by the five fundamental operations of algebra, each performed a finite number of times.
—tran′scen·den′tal·ly adverb Synonyms: instinctive, intuitive, original, primordial, transcendent. Intuitive truths are those which are in the mind independently of all experience, not being derived from experience nor limited by it. All intuitive truths or beliefs are transcendental. But transcendental is a wider term than intuitive, including all within the limits of thought that is not derived from experience, as the ideas of space and time. Transcendent, transcendental, and intuitive are opposed to empirical; or, according to the philosophy of Kant, transcendent is opposed to immanent, and transcendental to empirical. See MYSTERIOUS.