Immanence / Transcendence — Immanence designates what is internal to a system, process, or being. Transcendence designates what lies beyond, outside, or above. Is God transcendent to the world (theism) or immanent to it (Spinoza’s pantheism)? For Kant, the Ideas of reason (soul, world, God) are transcendent — they exceed possible experience. For Sartre, consciousness is pure transcendence — always “beyond” itself, directed toward the world and the future.
← Glossary