Literary notes about Transcendent (AI summary)
The term transcendent in literature is used to evoke ideas and images that lie beyond ordinary experience. It often highlights a reality that surpasses the limitations of the material world, suggesting qualities of divine majesty or an ineffable beauty that uplifts both mind and spirit [1, 2]. Authors employ it to describe moments or entities imbued with supreme, often immeasurable, excellence—whether in reference to the sublime splendor of nature, the extraordinary skill of an individual, or the lofty ideas of metaphysical thought [3, 4, 5]. At times, the word underscores the contrast between the immanent and the otherworldly, inviting readers to perceive elements of existence that transcend conventional boundaries of perception and understanding [6, 7].
- For instance, if God was in the world, He was immanent; if He was somewhere outside it, He was transcendent.
— from Essays of Schopenhauer by Arthur Schopenhauer - Hence the cathedrals founded by them in America were of transcendent beauty and magnificence.
— from The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. 1With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notesby George Gilfillan by William Lisle Bowles - He knew that to make his voice heard above the clamour of war his language must have the transcendent quality of inspiration.
— from The Parts Men Play by Beverley Baxter - Every one who has a heart, however ignorant of architecture he may be, feels the transcendent beauty and poetry of the mediaeval churches.
— from Lectures and Essays by Goldwin Smith - This product of pure reason in its transcendent use is its most remarkable curiosity.
— from Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics by Immanuel Kant - Thus transcendental and transcendent are not identical terms.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant - Also he sometimes supposes that God is immanent in the world, sometimes that he is transcendent.
— from Timaeus by Plato
