transcendentalism?

Question

what does transcendentalism mean?????? my dictionary is so old it dont tell me!!! plz help it not like a test or anything its just to help me on a question

Answer 1

. Also called transcendental philosophy. any philosophy based upon the doctrine that the principles of reality are to be discovered by the study of the processes of thought, or a philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical: in the U.S., associated with Emerson.

Answer 2

If you cannot find it just under transcendentalism, look under Henry David Thoreau or Ralph Waldo Emerson. They were transcendentalists.
Wikipedia says this:

Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture, and philosophy that emerged in the New England region of the United States of America in the early-to mid-nineteenth century. It is sometimes called "American Transcendentalism" to distinguish it from other uses of the word transcendental. It began as a protest against the general state of culture and society at the time, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard and the doctrine of the Unitarian church which was taught at Harvard Divinity School. Among their core beliefs was an ideal spiritual state that 'transcends' the physical and empirical and is only realized through the individual's intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions.

I agree with them, personally.