Definition of: transcendentalism

(tran′sen·den′təl·iz′əm) noun
1. The state or quality of being transcendental.
2. In common usage, that which, in philosophy or religion, is vague, visionary, or sublimated.
3. Philos. The doctrine that man can attain knowledge which goes beyond or transcends appearances or phenomena. In the Kantian sense, transcendentalism affirmed the existence of a priori principles of cognition. The New England movement, as represented by Emerson and others, has been characterized by the exaltation of the spiritual in a general sense over the material, and the immanence of the divine in all creation.
—tran′·scen·den′tal·ist noun & adjective