transcendentalist

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a follower of transcendentalism, especially the nineteenth-century American movement that emphasized intuition, individual conscience, and the spiritual value of nature

   The transcendentalist argued that intuition could reveal truths beyond experience.

2. 2
   noun

   a philosopher who holds that some knowledge or reality transcends sensory experience

   As a transcendentalist, she rejected the claim that all knowledge begins with the senses.

Formed from transcendental plus -ist. In the nineteenth century it became particularly associated with American Transcendentalism, the movement linked with Ralph Waldo Emerson and others who stressed intuition, individual conscience, and spiritual experience.

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