Transcendental Realism

1. Introduction

The concept of truth has traversed a long arc in Western philosophy—from Plato’s ascent beyond the cave’s shadows (c. 375 BCE) to Aristotle’s assertion of correspondence between statement and reality (c. 350 BCE), Kant’s mind-shaped categories (1790), and Lynch’s functional pluralism (2001). Yet, in 2025, truth confronts an unprecedented crisis: digital distortions amplified by algorithmic bias, a pervasive erosion of trust in technological systems, and an existential fragility in the face of political and informational chaos (Arendt, 1967). Traditional frameworks—Aristotle’s static alignment, Tarski’s semantic precision (1935), Foucault’s power-driven discourse (1972)—prove inadequate for this digital age, where perception is muddied by data and power rather than clarified by reason or evidence.

In response, I propose Transcendental Realism, a paradigm that redefines truth as “the virtuous transcendence of perception toward actuality”—a process-oriented approach distinct from static properties or subjective constructs. Drawing from a philosophical reflection in (Cuijpers, 2025), this paradigm confronts perception’s illusions with an empirical test (e.g., a tree misidentified as a cake is met with reality’s contradiction), aligns the outcome with virtues such as fidelity and humility, and transcends toward a relational actuality—a living web beyond mere data or power.

This is not a loose metaphor but a deductive method, formalized as a three-step process: confrontation, alignment, and transcendence, expressed propositionally as T = {P ∧ ¬E → B; B → V(F, H); V → A}, where perception meets evidence, virtues guide, and actuality emerges.

Transcendental Realism serves a dual purpose. Philosophically, it reframes truth as a lived engagement rather than a fixed object, offering a synthesis of empirical, ethical, and ontological dimensions suited to epistemology’s perennial questions. Practically, it addresses 2025’s technological landscape, proposing an ethical-epistemological shift for artificial intelligence (AI) development—e.g., confronting AIs outputs with reality, aligning them with virtues per Floridi’s ethical framework (2013), and aiming for a blockchain-verified actuality.

This article articulates and defends this paradigm across seven sections. Section 2 traces its historical and theoretical roots, situating it among classical, modern, and contemporary accounts. Section 3 delineates its core premises and axiom, arguing its distinctiveness. Section 4 formalizes its methodology with logical precision for scholarly scrutiny. Section 5 explores its implications. Section 6 evaluates critiques and offers responses, while Section 7 concludes with its significance and future directions.

In an era where truth is both sought and obscured, Transcendental Realism provides a deductive framework to navigate the digital fray, bridging philosophy and technology with a process both rigorous and relevant.

2. Historical and Theoretical Background

The evolution of truth in Western philosophy provides the intellectual backdrop for Transcendental Realism, revealing a trajectory of definitions and challenges that culminate in 2025’s digital exigencies. In antiquity, Laozi (c. 500 BCE) framed truth as the Dao—an ineffable flow beyond naming—while Plato (c. 375 BCE) cast it as a transcendent Form, accessible only by ascending from the cave’s shadows to the sunlit real (Chan, 1963; Annas, 1981).

Aristotle (c. 350 BCE) grounded it in correspondence—“to say of what is that it is”—offering a pragmatic anchor later refined by Szaif (2018) Aquinas (c. 1259) synthesized this with theology, defining truth as the intellect’s alignment with reality under divine illumination, a medieval bridge between empirical and transcendent. These classical views—transcendent ascent, linguistic fit, divine unity—set foundational tensions.

The modern era disrupted these with epistemological shifts. Bacon (1620) introduced empirical testing in Novum Organum, insisting truth emerges from nature’s interrogation, a method foundational to science (Klein, 2012). Kant (1790) reframed truth as mind-dependent in Critique of Judgment, with perception shaped by a priori categories, leaving the noumenal unknowable—a subjective turn. Nietzsche (1911) radicalized this in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, declaring truth a fiction of power—“a mobile army of metaphors”—unmoored from reality. Dewey (1938) countered with a process-oriented pragmatism in Logic: The Theory of Inquiry, where truth emerges through active inquiry, not static correspondence. These shifts—empirical, subjective, perspectival, procedural—highlight perception’s growing role.

The 20th century refined these threads. Tarski (1935) formalized truth semantically—“‘snow is white’ is true if snow is white”—a linguistic precision sidestepping perception’s messiness. Wittgenstein shifted to language games in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, tying truth to contextual use (Wittgenstein, 1922).

Heidegger (1958) reimagined it as aletheia—unveiling Being—in Being and Time, a poetic transcendence. Bhaskar (1975) introduced critical realism in A Realist Theory of Science, positing stratified realities beyond perception, accessible through causal analysis (Bhaskar, 1975). Lynch (2001) embraced pluralism in Truth as One and Many, arguing truth varies by domain. Floridi (2013) framed truth as informational integrity in The Ethics of Information, vital for digital ethics. These—logical, contextual, existential, realist, pluralist, ethical—enrich but fragment the discourse.

In 2025, truth faces a digital crisis. Rodrigues et al. (2016) reveal big data’s distortions—curated shadows skewing reality—while Marian David (2015) documents trust’s erosion amid digital chaos . Arendt (1967) warns of truth’s political fragility in ‘Truth & Politics’, a concern amplified by 2025’s misinformation.

Dowden (n.d.) survey a battlefield of theories clashing in real time, with Foucault’s power (1972) shaping discourse via coders and algorithms. Aristotle’s fixity, Tarski’s logic, and Lynch’s multiplicity falter here—lacking ethical depth or digital relevance.

Transcendental Realism synthesizes empirical (Bacon), ethical (Aquinas), and transcendent (Bhaskar) strands, addressing these gaps for 2025’s debate. →