Transcendental

Definitions

1. A transcendentalist.
   obsolete
2. Any one of the three transcendental properties of being: truth, beauty or goodness, which respectively are the ideals of science, art and religion and the principal subjects of the study of logic, aesthetics and ethics.
   Christian, plural-normally

Equivalents

Examples

“In deference to Christian usage we can say⟳ that the transcendentals constitute the Logos within which everything has its being and according to which everything is made.”

“These predicates of Being are what the Medievals called, using a term that will have⟳ a fertile future, "transcendentals" (often called the "universals") because they transcend all particular genera, following the example of Being.⁹⁶ A quarrel over these transcendentals even shook the later Middle Ages. The quarrel stemmed from the question⟳ of whether the existence of these transcendentals was real or intellectual (also called nominal).”

“The medieval doctrine of the transcendentals is closely connected with a metaphysical conception of reality, but is there a science of being in William of Ockham (ca. 1285-1347)?”

“Another fascinating thing about the transcendentals is that each is fully contained in the others. When you appreciate beauty, for example, you recognise⟳ the presence of goodness and truth. When you grasp the truth about something you experience⟳ a moment of beauty in, perhaps, the simplicity or power of the insight. When you observe⟳ goodness in the actions of another person you are seeing truth and beauty in operation.”

CEFR level