The road ahead

Posted on March 16, 2020 by ERIK CISNEROS ARELLANO

I agree most with an intermediate perspective of the Enlightenment and Romanticism. The reason for this is because I can agree with points from both sides. From the Enlightenment. I support its use of reason to encourage scientific progress. From Romanticism, I support its focus on sentiment to encourage introspection. In addition to this, it seems clear to me that taking a moderate approach towards these two ideas is the way to go, as taking an extremist view on any subject tends to lead to disaster, often due to inflexibility.

Learning about the Enlightenment and Romanticism has impacted the way I view our contemporary western culture, as I feel it isn’t as conscious of its past as it should be. The ideas that were developed during the Enlightenment and the Romanticism aren’t as widespread as they should be. I see that many people still commit some of the errors that the Enlightenment and Romanticism warn about. For example, in regards to reason, many people still take “miracles” or outlier incidents to validate their preconceptions. Also, in regards to sentiment, some still take it as a given that we should leave others to wrangle with their emotions on their own.

The most important takeaway I got from this class is that as the lucky few who got the opportunity to experience this class we have an obligation to act on the wisdom we have been provided both in its rational and sentimental aspects. While we shouldn’t impose these ideas on others, we should make others aware of them. Additionally, while we can’t act on every idea brought up by the authors of that time period, we should use our best judgement, to act on those we can.

A Learned Dichotomy of Modern man

Posted on March 16, 2020 by SALVADOR FRANCO

It would simply be impossible to argue that I only agree with one way of thinking showcased in this class. Like everyone else, I also favor one form of thinking more than the other, in my case it would be the Enlightenment thinking. I personally believe that despite the many nuances that people differ in their own beliefs, they all stem from universal beliefs, perhaps a better way of phrasing is primal instincts. Throughout the years of scientific advancement that occurred especially in psychology have shown this to be the case. However, these studies have also led me to believe that Romanticism is also an important aspect to the human condition as they move on from their primal needs. For those unfamiliar, this principle comes from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which states that human beings are simple if they lack basic necessities yet evolve to have deeper needs involving more nuanced psychological aspects such as self-actualization.

The process of learning about these separate eras of thinking has resulted in my further understanding of how much of an impact they have on current society, specifically in social movements. Whether it be the environmentalists whose way of thinking can be attributed to both Enlightenment and Romantic thinking. Enlightened as it argues from the perspective of logistics such as the impact of the ecosystem affects humanity as well, while Romantic in that the movement also exists with humanity’s sympathy and aesthetic interest in maintaining the beauty of nature.

The most interesting takeaway from the class as a whole was viewing the different perspectives of these enlightened thinkers as to what they believe is the natural state of mankind. More so how it is that humanity is and should move on from this initial state to a higher form of reasoning that will improve life for all.

Image result for maslow triangle — Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Oh no, The Zoomers

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Fermin Aguilar Gomez

Growing up I have always clashed between the two perspectives of romanticism and enlightenment. I have always been independent and the more rational of my siblings as we were growing up. However, the fact that I had many siblings made me value the beauty of a large family and doing anything for them. Without reason, I based many important decisions on my mere emotions and on how it would impact my family as if they were my apart of my universal law. Meaning that my decisions would be morally appealing if any of my siblings would do the same as me.

Honestly, western culture is also a sort of hybrid of the two but it doesn’t work well because there are constant conflicts between the two perspectives. Romanticism is usually used as a source of criticism towards the enlightenment thinkers who neglect the emotional sense in an opinion.

The most interesting part of this course was how linearly it connected with my life and childhood. Especially Candide in his perception of life.

Image result for obey woman propoganda — My favorite photo that exemplifies romanticism in the modern sense.

The end of the journey

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Justin Yang

With respect to Enlightenment and Romanticism, I think that I would agree with the Enlightenment perspective more than Romanticism, but find both sides to have valid and invalid points. This is because I find the rationalist approach more congruent to the topics that I study and the career path that I am pursuing than the Romantic perspective, but I also find that the personal, immediate experience is very important.

Learning about Enlightenment and Romanticism gave me a new framework to view the different issues that we face in the world, and have given me a greater appreciation of where we are today (in terms of social and technological progress). For example, the new coronavirus thing going on right now reminds me of how we haven’t really improved at all morally, but have gotten much further in medicine.

In my view, the most interesting takeaway of the class is the question of the natural state of mankind. I specifically enjoyed how most of the authors tried, in some way, to answer this question, and gave me a way to structure the viewpoints of the different thinkers presented in this class.

Rational vs moral

Posted on March 16, 2020 by ANDREW HERNANDEZ

Personally, I believe in being rational. There are times when one must make tough decisions that hurt emotionally but are rational and therefore “for the better”. Not to say I am emotionless because I do also have morals, however, when life throws a curveball at you its best to respond with rationality as an enlightened person would.

Today this rational thinking is very relevant with this covid-19 pandemic. Western cultures are putting their morals aside and acting selfishly in hopes of preserving their comfort in times like these. We see people purchasing more food and toiletries than they need and price gouging rather than leaving some for those in need. While, in countries in a worse position than us like Italy, we see people helping others in need or atleast not taking more than they need as shown in the video below.

The most important take away from the class for me would be Kant’s emphasis on public debate. How one should question things in order to aid human progression.

Life in Italy. You see, no one is panicking. No one is buying a shit ton of groceries and toilet paper. No one is buying anything in bulk. And their whole country is literally on lockdown. Look how peaceful everything is and how calm they are. I hate the US. Lol. pic.twitter.com/hHTbFLJiLB
— .F L ♡ R I C E L. (@flo_gnzlz) March 14, 2020

Travel with Your Mind and Heart

Posted on March 16, 2020 by EMMA PALMER

Throughout my life, I have discovered that the Enlightenment and Romantic Periods introduced new ideas and perspectives that are applicable today. I believe that life should be approached with a scientific mind but an emotional heart. Only obeying one can lead to disasters. One should question everything about life but also accept that humans aren’t simply machines. We are complex with emotions and feelings that allow us to experience life in new ways. But sometimes emotions can get in the way of communicating with one another which is where the Enlightenment view comes in. On top of allowing us to answer questions about the world around us. It allows us to resolve conflict without bias. Society requires us to use both the Enlightenment and Romantic views to better our society.

History is built on the stones of those before us. While that statement is cliche, it is true. The Enlightenment allowed to answer questions about the world around us in an unbiased manner. The Romantic era has influenced art and writing styles even to this day. While we might not agree with everything that these eras brought, they still impact our world to this day. America is not just a jumble of cultures but also a mix of ideas brought about by our ancestors. As we have distanced ourselves from these ideas it is our job to take what made them great and incorporate them into our lives today.

One of the most important takeaways from this class is that our aesthetic experiences make us human. As most of us are STEM majors, we tend to focus more on the scientific aspects of life, questioning everything. Sometimes, we need to learn to appreciate beauty just for itself. While throwing out statistics about how much oxygen plankton shows people how much we need the ocean, one of the most influential ways to save the ocean is just by sharing its beauty and explain how we are losing it. Not knowing the answers to some questions and appreciating wonder allows us to experience life in a whole new way.

The Museums

Posted on March 16, 2020 by AMELIA SPERRY

I agree with both Romanticism and the Enlightenment. Through a perspective of purely unsentimental and will to live an effective life, the Enlightenment ideals has some really strong points. Sometimes as humans we really do need to think with our heads. Put our emotions aside so that we can do what is best for all people rather than perhaps what is most appealing in the emotionally gratifying sense. We sometimes have to give up what would make us feel good to make a decision that is better in the long run. That is part of life. This kind of thinking and reasoning comes from the Enlightenment. However, I do also agree that if life was pure reason and a mechanical rationale, then life would be dull. The ideas of the Romantics allow us to be more than a “machine”. They allow us to feel and to look at a beautiful picture of a mountain. When staring at that image, we can say to ourselves, “Wow isn’t that beautiful.” Then you feel good and happy even if just for a moment. Maybe, it would make you even want to visit that mountain and you save up and work hard so you can afford to travel and one day you final get to see that mountain in real life. This kind of thinking of the romantics allows us to get in touch with the beauty of the world. But just as travelling is fun, you must also have the reasoning and the drive to say that you are willing to work hard to afford a trip to a beautiful place. That is the Enlightenment, putting aside the unpleasant emotions that you get from having to work so that in the end you can discover something great. I believe that we need both Enlightenment and Romanticism in our lives to have a fulfilled and happy life.

Learning about these two movements impacted the way that I view our contemporary western culture because I see how much of both of these movements impact this culture. As a native San Diegan, I have been going to the museums that are in Balboa Park for my whole life. The Fleet Science Center, in Balboa Park, is a museum that shows the impact of the Enlightenment on our culture. In the Science Center, there are many examples of great discoveries that were found using the scientific method and it even emphasizes how important that method is. However, in the same park is the Museum of Art, which is completely opposite of the Science Center. Everything is focused on how beautiful and aesthetically pleasing art is. There is no explanation on the exact method and reasoning that the artists did to come up with their art. Rather, it shows how perspectives and color and paints and oils all come together to do one thing, make someone feel. Feel happy, feel sad, feel strong or feel weak. We as a culture have both museums, one on discovery and reason and another on feeling and emotions.

The most important take away from this class for me is really what I said above. I realizes that as someone who loves science and reason, I also need emotions and feelings in order to have a happy life. I actually decided to start getting into film photography as a way to get my mind off all the “school” and work stuff I do all the time. This allows me to have an outlet of creativity that makes me happy. (Even if my photos look terrible ha ha) This class really helped me put in perspective how important it is to have that balance.

Haystacks at Chailly by Claude Monet, at the San Diego Museum of Art

El Fin.

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Stephanie Mejia

I agree with both the Romanticism and Enlightenment perspectives. Romanticism emphasizes one’s emotions and creativity while the Enlightenment emphasizes one’s intellect and reason. As much as I want to agree with just the enlightenment perspective I can’t because humans are not perfect and we need both the heart and the mind to able to make decisions. We, as human beings, cant just live with one type of perspective (romanticism or enlightenment, reason or emotions) since that would be very foolish. One cant just base their ideas on just reason and one can’t just make decisions with just emotions, we need both to be able to make reasonable decisions.

Learning about Romanticism and Enlightenment values made me realize how they impact western society nowadays. For example, college students or students who are considering attending college try to pick a career that makes the best money rather than choosing something that they will enjoy doing for the rest of their lives. This an example of Enlightenment values, these students are basing their decisions on reason and society’s expectations rather than their own happiness.

The most important takeaway from this class would be the idea that one must live with both the Romanticism and Enlightenment values. Having both of these values in our lives will not only better ourselves but it will also lead to ones success.

It’s Over

Posted on March 16, 2020 by MICHAEL LEE

Because I am a stem major, I am inclined to say that Enlightenment is most agreeable, while Romanticism is a distraction. However, I recognize that I am not a perfect person. I am only human, and as a result, I am not a perfect rational being. So while I would like to only agree with Enlightenment, I do also believe in Romanticism. As a person, I make decisions that are not always perfectly rational (like playing games and sleeping in). However, they help me relax, and as a person, I want to be happy. So I agree with both Romanticism and Enlightenment.

For me, humanity helps me differentiate the different views my traditional immigrant parents gave me, and the ones western culture forced on me. For example, in lecture Professor Watkins stated how having children was completely irrational (as it gave him no profit). However, my parents come from poor farming families. As a result, their parents had them, so that they would take care of them when they get older (my grandma lives with my parents). To my grandparents, my parents were in an investment or a retirement plant. As a result, I am my parents’ retirement plan. The obligations that I have are much different than what western culture sees. Humanities helps me differentiate my obligations and values.

For me, the most important takeaway is that I am not a perfectly rational being. For example, I really enjoyed Goethe’s text as it presented a perfectly different view from Enlightenment and rationalism. Through his text, I realized just how irrational we are, even though we always preach about rationalism. Humanities help me learn more about myself and how irrational humans can be.

This is my favorite romantic era painting

Think Deeply About Your Feelings

Posted on March 16, 2020 by SARAH CEBRYNSKI

I think that I agree with a mix of both perspectives. The Enlightenment emphasizes intellect and reasoning rather than tradition while Romanticism is an art movement that emphasizes the emotions and creativity of each individual, as well as placing importance on nature. Although reasoning and learning are important, one cannot live in a world where they do not appreciate the beauty in the world around them. With a combination of both, one can use reasoning to explore more of nature as well as emotions and art.

The Enlightenment and Romanticism have impacted my thinking about western culture due to the fact that each one plays an important part in the everyday life of college students. STEM students are often thought of as using reasoning in their field which is an example of Enlightenment thinking while art majors exemplify Romanticism thinking more. I feel like Enlightenment thinking has more emphasis and respect placed on it due to potentially higher-paying jobs. However, I think both the Enlightenment and Romanticism are important because due to the different values each has and how it shows that life is not all just scientific thinking, but also being more in touch with emotions and nature.

The most interesting takeaway from the class for me was how aesthetic experience can be both sensible and intellectual, and how it can reunite man as a society. I also think that its interesting how Schiller focuses on the Greeks and places them on a high pedestal. This seems to be a recurring theme throughout this time. Not only were their ideas and unity exemplified, but so was their architecture. This could also relate back to aesthetics and how they are important in uniting man, demonstrated by the fact that many of our important government buildings are based on Greek architecture.

Balance

Posted on March 15, 2020 by JACKY LIN

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.

Improvement for an Improved World

Posted on March 15, 2020 by BENJAMIN ZHAO

While I initially thought that the Enlightenment perspective had much more weight, I thought the later readings we did about Romanticism also had a lot of truth. I do feel like Enlightenment goals are fundamental and totally worth going for, from the first impression of it to how it is fully embodied in our culture today. To somebody very familiar with the 21st century, to me, many of the ideals represented are 100% correct and pretty much just how it is nowadays. Beyond the process of how it shaped the world to the way it is today, I feel like at this point in time a lot of Enlightenment agendas are completely standard; to try to dispute many of these Enlightenment ideas is wrong and alien to me, if I’m being honest.

It initially seemed like Romanticism was just to be contrarian to many of these common sense truths of our current world. However, a lot of the readings we did had a lot of substance, especially when they weren’t mostly a rejection of progressive ideals. The text that wasn’t just presented as a contrast to Enlightenment ideas (which was most of what we read, contrary to my first impression) had a lot of truth to it as well, and while Enlightenment ideals seem to have a much more central theme, I definitely notice many Romantic ideals in how the system is dispersed throughout as well as in my personal life. I feel like the Enlightenment mentality definitely dominates the decision-making process, but Romantic ideas pervade many different parts of life. That being said, it may not be the best course of action to strictly adhere to Enlightenment standards when it comes to action, even if that is how it is right now – maybe different moves could make the world a better place.

From the course material I can definitely discern many things in how the system is now originated from these philosophies, back when they only existed as theory. It seems like every government in the world is operated based off these classical models. I also notice the heavy Enlightenment influence in how capitalism is – finance definitely seems to operate with empiricism first and foremost as its foundation. However, the biggest takeaway for me was how sound and accurate Romantic theory is. There is definitely a lot of truth that is missing when strictly pushing for an Enlightened world that is only truly and fully understood when considering things from a humanist perspective. To ignore the human heart of society is foolish and it is something that is often perpetuated nowadays. In spite of things being the way they are, I sensed a way for improvement not in Enlightenment texts, but in Romantic ones. Romanticism considers the human as an individual – in a world where it is easy to think of people as statistics, it makes a lot of sense to reevaluate things in a more Romantic way.

See Y’all on Zoom

Posted on March 15, 2020 by NIKOLAOS KOLTSIDAS

When examining the ideals of the Enlightenment and Romanticism, I feel that one should not choose one perspective to adhere to, but rather a combination of the two. The Enlightenment perspective places value on thought and reasoning as it examines how other point of views and the role individuals play in the greater scheme of society. On the other hand, Romanticism places its value on the subjectivity of emotions and imagination where the individual’s experiences are explored such as dreams and desires. It also places a great emphasis on the relationship between the individual and nature. I believe a combination of these two perspectives is best because the Enlightenment ideals push the individual to consider reason when conducting themselves and Romanticism makes sure that we do not lose the essence of our natural, true selves.

Learning about both perspectives has impacted the way I view contemporary western culture today. When I examine the culture today, I can see that everyone tries to base their lives and decisions to be acceptable to society. For example, students pick their majors due to the importance of money as a necessity and the drive for human progression. This aligns with the Enlightenment ideals as reason and progression of human beings gears the individual and society to be shaped a certain way. Although this is true, I see some of the Romantic ideals too coming from examples such as YouTube. YouTube is a platform that allows individuals to show the world who they are and share their life experiences with others. This has impacted my view as I see that there is a way to align with the Romantic ideas but the Enlightenment ideal of reason proves a difficult contender for individualism.

The most interesting takeaway from this class for me was seeing how much the perspectives clashed though they both were rebellions against religion. Enlightenment and Romanticism ideals shared a similar opponent but their motivations did not align so well. It shows that preference and motivation plays into how an individual goes about in their life and in making their decisions.

Reflecting on Romanticism + Enlightenment

Posted on March 15, 2020 by Lauren

I agree more overall with romantic thinking, but I also believe that too much individualism can be damaging in certain circumstances and there are times where we should think of our community before our personal desires. Learning about Enlightenment and Romantic values has made me notice more of how they still impact my life in western society everyday. I see a lot of enlightenment values in the importance that’s recently been placed on technology and STEM, and I notice a lot of romantic values in the concept of the “american dream” and the cultural encouragement of entrepreneurship. Something that I found interesting in this class was how much many of the writers we covered would reflect so much on their actions and moral codes. I think that the journey of reflection of their values they all went through was as important to them as all the different conclusions they came to and put into writing at the end.

Reflections Resulting in Reunification

Posted on March 14, 2020 by TIMOTHY HONG

When it comes to philosophies and ideologies, I believe a balance is necessary to create a more understanding person. When asked to choose between the Enlightenment and Romanticism, I believe a balance of both would be the best solution. The two work very well together, such that when using logic and rationality for day to day processes as suggested by the Enlightenment, Romanticism also helps us take a step back and appreciate our ability to use or reasoning to complete such complex tasks.

Learning about these two philosophies helps to greatly explain the structure of our western society today. Many of our ideals and structure stem from these philosophies, especially the way our government is run. It truly is fascinating to see what was proposed in the 1700s is still relevant today. On an overall time scale, however, it makes sense because compared to the billions of years the universe has existed, 200 years is not very much.

I think the most interesting take away from this class is the respect we hold for one another. After listening to Professor Watkins’ lectures, it is truly amazing to see how many of us simply want to be respected. It puts many personality traits and behaviors into a deeper perspective. Another takeaway is that we are one step closer to reunifying ourselves similar to how the Ancient Greeks were unified in their hearts and mind. By continuing to build on the Enlightenment and Romanticism, I believe that one day in the near future, we will have become whole again.

Influences that shaped Western Society

Posted on March 13, 2020 by REEM MOHANTY

I agree with perspectives of both Romanticism and Enlightenment. I think a romantic perspective doesn’t focus too much on reason and that’s what I like about it. A solely logical perspective is devoid of emotions and imagination, which would make life very dry and boring. Romantic perspective has a certain kind of beauty to it because it focuses so much on vivid imagination. I believe that Romanticism evokes imaginative thinking which leads to creativity. However, too much of anything is not ideal, and I believe Enlightenment definitely balances out Romanticism. Enlightenment focuses on rationality which definitely adds essential and much needed practicality to any perspective.

Romanticism and Enlightenment gave birth to contemporary western culture’s notion on government, literature, philosophy and art. Western way of thinking was born out of these two perspectives. Hence, we can say that these two perspectives have heavily influenced western culture and society.

Kant’s perspective on duty free of self interest was a very interesting topic and I really enjoyed reading his take on morality.

Live fully

Posted on March 13, 2020 by Alejandra Ponce Ortiz

Both the enlightenment and romanticism perspectives have some aspects that one can agree with. Making decisions with rationality allows men to have a clear understanding of the consequences that words and actions can have on the everyday life and in a near future, it is important that one uses reason to be able to survive in such a complex and ever evolving society. However, giving the appropriate importance to ones emotions and the nature that surrounds us is also important as it is what ultimately motivates and drives our existence. The enlightenment relies on reason to plan out successful and effective outcomes, while romanticism relies on individuality to ensure peace and happiness which are both important and agreeable perspectives.

Compared to other humanities classes, the emphasis on enlightenment and romanticism has had an interesting impact in the way I view our contemporary society. The readings were always able to get the audience engaged as one would often correlate the content to current events all around the world or even our personal lives. For instance, one may not be able to understand what the mentality of suicidal individuals are like, Goethe’s story about Werther allows the audience to go in depth and really understand the situational factors and challenges that unfortunately many people face in our society.

I think the most interesting takeaway from this class is allowing the content to resonate with ourselves and our surroundings and being able to have a self reflection in which we analyze the logic behind our everyday lives. Perhaps you find yourself being too carried away by emotions and not paying much attention to obvious logical explanations around you, or the other way around trying to find evidence for everything when sometimes you have to listen to your heart and not worry about repercussions.

Romantic

Posted on March 13, 2020 by NICHOLAS FRIES

I agree mostly with Romanticism. While reason is very important and helpful, I believe it sells people short because it ignores emotion. If we live simply off of reason alone, life wouldn’t be very interesting. However, Romanticism is not reliant on reason but emotion.

Learning about romanticism and the enlightenment has made me realize that our culture today is seemingly split. It is not clear to me which way the population lies (rather romanticism or enlightenment) rather we have a strong mix of both.

The most interesting thing that I took away from this class was the debate on morals. I was specifically interested in the idea that doing something good, but in your own self-interest, isn’t moral. I find this very interesting because I am unsure if to agree with it or not. I understand how acting in self interest shouldn’t be credited, however it is still far better than acting against your self-interest in an immoral way.

Enlightened Enlightenment

Posted on March 12, 2020 by CHENG-YU CHIANG

Source: https://www.history.com/.image/t_share/MTU3ODc5MDg1MDkwMjE5MzM3/englightenment-hero.jpg

I believe in Enlightenment because I believe rational thoughts drive the humanity as a whole forward. Imagine living without computers, electricity, and science in general. Life will be reverted to its primal state and humans will be no different than animals. All these inventions are possible because of rationality and a strong emphasis on science for the last couple hundred years. Furthermore, I think rationality is important because it helps us avoid confusion is our life. While some may ask, “What is the meaning of life?” This is certainly a valid question, and I question this myself sometimes, too. Yet, no one can answer this question will full certainty. Therefore, I argue that, although it is interesting to fathom the answer to the question, it is ultimately impractical. Instead, we should focus on definitive questions such as: “How can we make and our life better?”, “How can we make the most of our life?”, etc. However, I also realize that life without Romanticist beliefs can be unbearable. We would be no different than robots that follow a set of predefined rules. A society without Romanticist elements, such as emotions, aesthetics, relationships, etc, has the full potential to become dystopian. In such a society, empathy, warmth, and genuineness are replaced by self-serving desires, coldness, and calculations. In short, it would not be a nice place to live in. Therefore, I believe extremity on both ends of the spectrum can be catastrophic, and it is certainly beneficial to strike for a balance of the two ideologies.

After learning about the Enlightenment and Romanticism, I gained a broader view of how Western politics and government are structured, in particular the US Government. Growing up in a very different culture (although a similar form a government), I was never taught the reason for the particular structure of the government that we used in our country, let along read the foundational writings of the philosophers that influenced and sprouted these thoughts. Therefore, it is certainly thought-provoking for me to read the works of Locke, Rousseau, Kant, etc. Following their reasoning, I saw different viewpoints of state of nature, natural rights, and ideal society. I realized many of these thoughts can be traced to the modern democratic society that most of us live in. For instance, Locke proposed the idea of fundamental human rights, which is practically embedded in most people’s minds these days and Kant develops an ethical system that emphasizes reason and rational agency, which is reflected in the jurisdiction system of contemporary western societies.

In summary, the main takeaway from this class, for me, was that following any principles to the extreme can be dangerous. In the Sorrows of Young Werther, we saw extreme devotion to romanticism can lead to a volatile mental state, like Werther and in Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality, the author showed how reasoning leads to unnecessary social constraints, misery, and injustice. Thus, I believe modesty is the only way to ensure our physical and mental welfare.

Art, Subjectivity, and the Limits of Reason

Posted on March 12, 2020 by DAVID RICHMAN

I personally agreed most with the Romantic movement. Their focus on Beauty and Art, as well their insistence on the primordiality of subjective experience resonated more than the cold and dry Enlightenment principles. Furthermore, I think that Romanticism sprung up precisely because of a distrust of Reason, a distrust with which I am sympathetic. Modern science and analytic philosophy are the progeny of the Enlightenment–fully realized versions of what were new and young principles in the time period we were reading. Contemporary society thus has the pitfalls of the Enlightenment to the extreme as a consequence of this–and Goethe and Schiller’s critiques seem all the more relevant.

Learning about the Enlightenment and Romanticism I feel has given me an even clearer view of today’s society. As I argued above, because I think that today’s society is in many ways approaching the logical extreme of the Enlightenment (and in some ways perhaps not), I think that reading thinkers from both movements helps understand our current situation in a deeper manner–the positives, negatives, problems, solutions, values, etc.

I think that the most important takeaway from this class is the idea that art and science are not mutually exclusive. It is often times an assumption that science walks a path that is both methodologically and analytically distinct from art. I think that Professor Watkins has done a good job at arguing that this is an irrational position (i.e. by citing studies indicating that doctors who look at artwork tend to treat patients more accurately and better). Decreased attention to the Humanities (in particular, philosophy, art, and literature) is to our peril. And while the Enlightenment provides us with many important tools, the importance of recognizing its limitations and its negative consequences were relayed very effectively in this course.

The picture, “A Moonlight with a Lighthouse, Coast of Tuscany” painted by Joseph Wright, is meant to capture the Romantic skepticism of the Enlightenment’s Reason.

Enlightenment, Romanticism and Revolution

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