Transcendentalism: The Philosophy of the Mind Transcendentalism is the view that the basic truth of the universe lies beyond the knowledge obtained from the senses, a knowledge that transcendentalists regard as the mere appearance of things (Adventures 162). Transcendentalists believe the mind is where ideas are formed. The transcendentalist ideas of God, man, and the universe were not all original, but were a combination of other philosophies and religions. One of the major questions of philosophy is "What is the nature of the universe?" Immanuel Kant was one of the major Transcendentalists of his time. One of