What is Transcendental?
1.
1. The characteristic of meaning derived from real.
2. A school of thought in the 1830s based on the idea of finding (greater) meaning in everyday objects. That meaning transcends the object itself. For instance Henry David Thoreau might write poetry about grass growing, but the meaning of the poem transcends from real to abstract, and in that way is transcendental.
Therefore anything that is abstract, but derives its meaning from real (tangible objects, ideas, or experiences) is transcendental.
By studying and observing the world one may obtain transcendental wisdom. The transcendentalists based their philosophies on observations of the world, not on prayer, inner feelings, or suernatural miracles.
If the works of God are made manifest in the world, then by understanding the physical world one may obtain transcendental wisdom of God's nature. The meaning of life may be contained within the flow of a stream.
My paper is about the greater meaning of everyday objects, and so is about transcendentalism (as an idea, it's not about the movement), and begins by discussing art then transcends the art itself (a painting of the color red represents more than that) and discusses its greater meaning, thus the paper starts with material objects, and moves to greater meaning and is doubly transcendental.
*note: Transcendental thought is normally restricted to the idea of observing the natural world and not art as I used in an example. Although it can be used for both, it is generally closely tied to the transcendental movement; which was based on deriving meaning through nature.
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