Transcendentals

The transcendentals (Latin: transcendentalia, from transcendere "to exceed") are "properties of being", nowadays commonly considered to be truth, unity (oneness), beauty, and goodness.^{[citation needed]} The conceptual idea arose from medieval scholasticism, namely Aquinas but 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.^[1] Since then, essence (res), otherness (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.

^ Albertus Magnus named exactly these four values. See Aertsen, Jan A. (2001). "Die Frage nach dem Ersten und dem Grundlegenden. Albert der Große und die Lehre von den Transzendentalien" Albertus Magnus. Zum Gedenken nach 800 Jahren. Neue Zugänge, Aspekte und Perspektiven. ed. by Walter Senner and Henryk Anzulewicz. Berlin: Akademie1, pp. 91–112.

[1] Albertus Magnus named exactly these four values. See Aertsen, Jan A. (2001). "Die Frage nach dem Ersten und dem Grundlegenden. Albert der Große und die Lehre von den Transzendentalien" Albertus Magnus. Zum Gedenken nach 800 Jahren. Neue Zugänge, Aspekte und Perspektiven. ed. by Walter Senner and Henryk Anzulewicz. Berlin: Akademie1, pp. 91–112.

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