Transcendentals

Common card · No. 316626

In philosophy, the transcendentals (Latin: transcendentalia, from transcendere "to exceed") are the ultimate "properties of being" that exist beyond the material world, nowadays commonly considered to be truth, unity (oneness), beauty, and goodness. The formulation of the transcendentals as a set arose in medieval scholasticism, particularly with Aquinas, though the underlying ideas originated with Plato, Augustine, and Aristotle in the West. From the time of Albertus Magnus in the High Middle Ages, the transcendentals have been the subject of metaphysics. Although there was disagreement about their number, there was consensus that, in addition to the basic concept of being itself (ens), unity (unum), truth (verum), and goodness (bonum) were part of the transcendental family. Since then, thing or reality (res), something (aliquid), and, more recently, beauty (pulchrum) have been added. Today, they are found in theology, particularly in Catholic thought, as unity, truth, goodness, and beauty.

Read on Wikipedia