The road ahead

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.

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A Learned Dichotomy of Modern man

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.

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

The end of the journey

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.

El Fin.

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.

Balance

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.

Reflecting on Romanticism + Enlightenment

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

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

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.

Romantic

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

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.

Youtube algorithm uniting people unexpectedly

I came across this song randomly one evening. It caught my attention for some reason. Not because it’s a Japanese song in an American 90’s rock-n-roll playlist. It’s the grooves and the way the music feel. It was just pleasantly pleasing. I could close my eyes and just listen to the song. When I went to read the comment I saw that there are hundreds of people who were experiencing the same thing I was experiencing. A random YouTube recommendation of some 1980’s Japanese music. Like other commenters, I had no idea what this song was about. More than half of the song is in Japanese with some occasional English phases like “Im Sorry” “Don’t Hurry”. From the Rhythm of music I felt this sense of urgency. Suddenly the singer began repeatedly sing this English phrase,

“I’m just playing games
I know that’s plastic love
Dance to the plastic beat
Another morning comes”

then the song end. Listening to this song for the second time gave me all kind of mixed emotions. The music is pleasing and relaxing. But at the same time it’s creating this sense of urgency contrasted with a sudden shout of “Don’t Hurry”. The language barrier made me curious of what she is saying. but at the same time I felt like I understood what she was saying. At that point I just gave and said to myself “it doesn’t matter that the song is about, it feel relatable and I enjoy it.”

Schiller’s ideas made me think about this song. A random 1980’s Japanese song uniting people from across the world. It one of those thing that’s just pleasing and we don’t have to know what it’s about to enjoy it.