Transcendence (philosophy)

In philosophy, the adjective transcendental and the noun transcendence convey three different but related primary meanings, all of them derived from the word's literal meaning (from Latin), of climbing or going beyond: one sense that originated in Ancient philosophy, one in Medieval philosophy, and one in modern philosophy.

Introduction: concept, language, and transcendence

Transcendence generally refers to the divine or God, who is conceived as being transcendent, infinite, absolute, and eternal. These concepts, which are beyond (transcendent) our conceptual grasp, are difficult to perceive or even define by itself. They are, therefore, often defined in term of negation of finite concepts. For example, infinite is defined by "not finite," eternity is "not temporal" or "no beginning and no end."

Transcendence can thus refer to a characteristic of being beyond the conceptualization. Negative theology, for example, tries not to describe God in direct or immediate terms, but tries to describe Him as a negation of what human beings can directly conceptualize and immediately grasp. Attributes of God have a characteristic of transcendence.

Although transcendence or immanence is not a philosophical vocabulary of Plato, his Ideas are also divine objects that are transcending the world. In Plato's ontology, Ideas, such as beauty and good, are eternal and absolute being, which are manifested in relative and imperfect form in the world we live in.

Transcendence and Immanence

(See Transcendence (religion) and Immanence)

The first meaning, as part of the concept pair transcendence/immanence, is used primarily with reference to God's relation to the world and is particularly important in theology. Here transcendent means that God is completely outside of and beyond the world, as contrasted with the notion that God is manifested in the world. This meaning originates both in the Aristotelian view of God as the prime mover, a non-material self-consciousness that is outside of the world. Philosophies of immanence such as stoicism, Spinoza, Deleuze or pantheism maintain that God is manifested in and fully present in the world and the things in the world.

Plato's concept of Ideas are also divine object which transcends the world. For Plato, the Idea of beauty is perfect and absolute, which manifests itself in imperfect form in phenomenal world. Similarly, the Idea of good is eternal, perfect, and absolute, which transcends the world. Goodness in the world is imperfect, temporal, and finite, and it is understood in reference to the Idea of good. Thus, Plato's Ideas transcend the world in his ontology, aesthetics, and ethics.

Transcendentals: Medieval usage

In the second meaning, which originated in Medieval philosophy, concepts are transcendental if they are broader than what falls within the Aristotelian categories that were used to organize reality conceptually. Primary examples of the transcendental are the existent (ens) and the characteristics, designated transcendentals, of unity, truth, and goodness.

Kant and modern philosophy

(See Transcendental idealism)

Kant

In modern philosophy, Kant introduced a new term - transcendental, thus instituting a new, third meaning. In his theory of knowledge, this concept is concerned with the conditions of possibility of knowledge itself. He also opposed the term transcendental to the term transcendent, the latter meaning "that, which goes beyond" (transcends) any possible knowledge of a human being. For him transcendental meant knowledge about our cognitive faculty with regard to how objects are possible a priori. "I call all knowledge transcendental if it is occupied, not with objects, but with the way that we can possibly know objects even before we experience them." He also equated transcendental with that which is "...in respect of the subject's faculty of cognition." Something is transcendental if it plays a role in the way in which the mind "constitutes" objects and makes it possible for us to experience them as objects in the first place. Ordinary knowledge is knowledge of objects; transcendental knowledge is knowledge of how it is possible for us to experience those objects as objects. This is based on Kant's acceptance of David Hume's argument that certain general features of objects (e.g. persistence, causal relationships) cannot derive from the sense impressions we have of them. Kant argues that the mind must contribute those features and make it possible for us to experience objects as objects. In the central part of his Critique of Pure Reason, the "Transcendental Deduction of the Categories," Kant argues for a deep interconnection between the ability to have self-consciousness and the ability to experience a world of objects. Through a process of synthesis, the mind generates both the structure of objects and its own unity.

A metaphilosophical question discussed by many Kant scholars is how transcendental reflection is itself possible. Stephen Palmquist interprets Kant's appeal to faith as his most effective solution to this problem.

For Kant, the "transcendent," as opposed to the "transcendental," is that which lies beyond what our faculty of knowledge can legitimately know. Hegel's counter-argument to Kant was that to know a boundary is also to be aware of what it bounds and as such what lies beyond it – in other words, to have already transcended it.

Husserlian phenomenology and Sartre

In Husserlian phenomenology, the "transcendent" is that which transcends our own consciousness - that which is objective rather than only a phenomenon of consciousness. "Noema" (object of intentionality, that is, object of mental acts such as thinking, feeling, imagining, hoping, believing, and others) is employed in phenomenology to refer to the terminus of an intention as given for consciousness.

Following Kantian distinction, Husserl distinguishes transcendental from transcendent. Transcendental means a type of discourse that explains the possibility of experiences, that is, why and how experience is possible. So "transcendental phenomenology" is a phenomenology which explains the condition of the possibility of experience.

Jean-Paul Sartre also speaks of transcendence in his works. In Being and Nothingness, Sartre utilizes transcendence to describe the relation of the self to the object oriented world, as well as our concrete relations with others. For Sartre, the for-itself is sometimes called a transcendence. Additionally if the other is viewed strictly as an object, much like any other object, then the other is, for the for-itself, a transcendence-transcended. When the for-itself grasps the other in the others world, and grasps the subjectivity that the other has, it is referred to as transcending-transcendence. Thus, Sartre defines relations with others in terms of transcendence.

See also

• Immanence
• Transcendence (religion)
• Transcendental idealism
• Transcendentalism

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Candler, Peter M., and Conor Cunningham. Transcendence and Phenomenology. London: SCM Press, 2007. ISBN 9780334041511
• Husserl, Edmund. The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology; An Introduction to Phenomenological Philosophy. Northwestern University Studies in phenomenology & existential philosophy. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1970. ISBN 9780810102552
• Kant, Immanuel, and J. H. Bernard. Critique of Judgment. New York: Hafner Pub. Co, 1951.
• Kant, Immanuel, Paul Guyer, and Allen W. Wood. Critique of Pure Reason. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 9780521657297
• Kant, Immanuel. Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics. New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1950.
• Palmquist, Stephen. Kant's System of Perspectives: An Architectonic Interpretation of the Critical Philosophy. Lanham: University Press of America, 1993. ISBN 9780819189271
• Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness; An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology. New York: Philosophical Library, 1956.

External links

• Aldous Huxley on Self Transcendence
• Self Transcendence.org What is Self Transcendence?
• Transcendence in Western Psychology
• Stephen Palmquist, Kant's System of Perspectives (Lanham: University Press of America, 1993). See especially Part Two.

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