Can someone explain to me the ideologies of Trancendentalism?

Question

Please don't be too brief.

Answer 1

Kant's idea of transcendental idealism suggests that our senses cannot wholly be the source of our knowledge of the world, because there is some knowledge that tells us how our senses operate. This limited body of knowledge tells us how to use our senses on things, the limits of our senses, and possibly therefore much more.

You can see why it's called 'transcendentalism'. If a skeptic says "we only know what our senses tell us, and beyond this border we can know nothing", the transcendentalist may easily respond, "if this is so, how can you know about your senses themselves?" Because we know the limits of what we can perceive, a transcendentalist would say that we can also know some things BEYOND what we can perceive.

Take, for example, an artist's palette. You see a blob of orange paint. But you have the transcendental knowledge that if red and yellow paint is mixed together, it LOOKS orange. Thus although see one thing, you may (perhaps) realize that it is something else.

Another good example is an illusionist's show. A good illusionist will show you all kinds of things: people flying, audience members sawed in half, things appearing and disappearing, and so on. Yet you know none of these things are real, even though your senses are telling you they are. And you are absolutely correct in this knowledge.

Thus we can see a couple ways the view of pure empiricism is weakened. Our knowledge can help us perceive and understand things, such that we can see more than we see in many occasions.

Other ideas and movements came to be called transcendentalist afterward. They seem to have adopted the label largely because of Kant's idea that something beyond the senses could provide a person with knowledge. One example of this was the American Transcendental Movement, a sort of religious and literary renaissance that occurred in the 19th century.

Answer 2

It really means not remaining what you think you are and going beyond it for a higher understanding of what and how things are.   Sorry if its too brief.