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Transcendental vs Metaphysics - What's the difference?

transcendental | metaphysics |

As nouns the difference between transcendental and metaphysics

is that transcendental is a transcendentalist while metaphysics is the branch of philosophy which studies fundamental principles intended to describe or explain all that is, and which are not themselves explained by anything more fundamental; the study of first principles; the study of being insofar as it is being (ens in quantum ens).

As an adjective transcendental

is concerned with the a priori or intuitive basis of knowledge, independent of experience.

transcendental

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) A transcendentalist.

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (philosophy) Concerned with the a priori or intuitive basis of knowledge, independent of experience.
  • Superior, surpassing all others.
  • Extraordinary.
  • Mystical or supernatural.
  • (mathematics, number theory) Of, or relating to a number that is not the root of any polynomial that has positive degree and rational coefficients.

    • Antonyms

    * (mathematics) algebraic

    Hypernyms

    * (mathematics) irrational

    Derived terms

    * transcendental ego * transcendental function * transcendentalize * transcendental meditation * transcendental number * transcendentalism

    Related terms

    * transcend * transcendence * transcendency * transcendent * transcendently

    metaphysics

    English

    (wikipedia metaphysics)

    Noun

  • (philosophy, uncountable) The branch of philosophy which studies fundamental principles intended to describe or explain all that is, and which are not themselves explained by anything more fundamental; the study of first principles; the study of being insofar as it is being (ens in quantum ens ).
    • Philosophers sometimes say that metaphysics is the study of the ultimate nature of the universe.
  • (philosophy, countable) The view or theory of a particular philosopher or school of thinkers concerning the first principles which describe or explain all that is.
    • The metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas holds that all real beings have both essence and existence.
    In Aristotelian metaphysics physical objects have both form and matter.
    In his ''Pensées'', Pascal mentioned some first principles recognized within his metaphysics : space, time, motion, and number.
  • (uncountable, by extension from the philosophical sense) Any fundamental principles or rules.
  • * 1990 Jan. 1, Lance Morrow, " Gorbachev: The Unlikely Patron of Change," Time :
    • The metaphysics of global power has changed. Markets are now more valuable than territory.
  • (uncountable) The study of a supersensual realm or of phenomena which transcend the physical world.
    • I have a collection of books on metaphysics , covering astral projection, reincarnation, and communication with spirits.
  • (uncountable) Displeasingly abstruse, complex material on any subject.
    • This political polemic strikes me as a protracted piece of overwrought, fog shrouded metaphysics !
  • (countable) Plural of countable senses of metaphysic.

    • Meronyms

    * ontology

    Derived terms

    * metaphysical * metaphysician * metaphysicist

    Related terms

    * physics