I believe a balance in both Enlightenment and Romanticism ideals is vital in living a meaningful life. Enlightenment focuses more on reason and thinking whereas Romanticism utilizes emotions and feelings. When making difficult decisions, there is no clear choice and one must balance and consider both sides of the heart and mind. Purely living by Enlightenment ideas is dangerous as it threatens our humanity and emotions and purely living by Romanticism ideas is foolish as it disregards reason and the bigger picture.

Learning about the Enlightenment and Romanticism movements impacts my view on contemporary wester culture as it allows me to see how these movements have evolved and incorporated itself in everyday life. It also allows us to see where certain ideas and laws today originated which is quite fascinating.

I think the most important takeaway from this course is that one must live with both Enlightenment and Romanticism values in mind as stated above. Professor Watkins has shown in lecture how strictly adhering to one side of these values is dangerous and foolish and how a fine balance in both leads to success.