TRANSCENDENT' i.J.—TRANSCENDEN T (transcendentalis, transcendens), words em ployed by various schoolmen, in particular Duns Scotus, to describe the conceptions that, by th&r universality, rise above or transcend the ten Aristotelian categories (see CATEGORIES). Thus, according to Scotus, ens, or being, because it is predicable of sub stance and accident alike, of God as well as of the world, is raised above these by includ ing or comprehending them; it has the same relation to the sum of the categories, as the summurn genus to the various genera within a single category—relation (s-ummum genus) to the classes of related things (included genera). Further, the predicates assumed by Scotus to belong to ens, or simple existence; viz., the one, the true, the good—unum, verum, bonum—are styled transcendent, because applicable to ens before the descent is made to the ten classes of real existence. In later times, since Kant, the word transcend ental has been largely used as equivalent to the philosophical meaning of d priori. See
COMMON SENSE, INSTINCT.
Between the hitherto convertible terms, transcendental and transcendent, Kant him self drew a distinction, of considerable importance in understanding his own system. By the word "transcendental" he designates the various forms, categories, or ideas assumed to be native elements of human thought; implying that, although they are not products of experience, they are manifested only in experience; such as space and time, causality, etc. The word "transcendent," Kant reserves for those among the tran scendental or ci priori elements that altogether transcend experience. They may seem to be given in experience, but they are not really given. Such are the "ideas of the pure reason," God, an immaterial soul, etc. Transcendental elements, when legitimately applied to experience, as causality and relation, are called immanent.