Romanticism

Romanticism It was a reaction against the Enlightenment and yet akin in that

they both assumed life was designed for human happiness. However the

Enlightenment placed reason at the center of human acheivement.

Romanticismm distrusted the human intellect and placed its value on the

emotions and intuitive

qualities. The natural and spontaneous was deemed

good. The highest truths would be derived from the instantaneous of the

individual. It gloried in the unlimited potential of the individual.

There was an overall feeling of optimism and belief of a utopia.

Romanticism reinforced the emotionalism of the period and its philosophies

influenced the Transcendental movement.

Romanticism began in the early 19th century and radically changed the

way people perceived themselves and the state of nature around them. Unlike

Classicism, which stood for order and established the foundation for

architecture, literature, painting and music, Romanticism allowed people to

get away from the constricted, rational views of life and concentrate on an

emotional and sentimental side of humanity. This not only influenced

political doctrines and ideology, but was also a sharp contrast from ideas

and harmony featured during the Enlightenment. The Romantic era grew

alongside the Enlightenment, but concentrated on human diversity and

looking at life in a new way. It was the combination of modern Science and

Classicism that gave birth to Romanticism and introduced a new outlook on

life that embraced emotion before rationality.

. Romanticism began to show the people

that the Enlightenment had overstayed its welcome by leading the people to

a future that offered a vision of mankind as being part of a group rather

than an individual. G. W. F. Hegel, a German philosopher, rejected the

rational philosophy of the 18th century because he believed in "Idealism".

This