Enlightenment and Romanticism:

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚌𝚞𝚕𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎.

In Europe, at the end of the Enlightenment era, strange young men emerged. They looked quite exotic. These people rejected such obvious values of that time: as material well-being, slow-paced and prosperous life, prosaic calculation, and common sense. Instead, they saw a completely different world beyond the prose of reality — a phantom, joyful, immeasurable, and spiritual world. Many people refused to live by the dictates of their fathers. They questioned and even mocked their traditions and laws. Few at that time suspected that Europe was on the verge of a new cultural era — Romanticism — P.S. Gurevich

Adolph Menzel — Flute concert in Sanssouci 1852

Romanticism emerged in Germany in the 1790s. Its ideological foundation was the crisis of the rationalism of the Enlightenment. However, Romanticism is not a deviation from the ideals of the Enlightenment but a certain result of their development. Nevertheless, Romanticism appears to be a complete 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁 to the previous era. Indeed, if we imagine the basic tenets of both eras in a table, it will look like this:

Self-made table

A lot can already be said about the difference between these eras, but it is necessary to discuss first some principles of Romanticism in which there is a 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗼𝘅:

1. The cult of the 𝚌𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚎, faceless is closely intertwined with the accentuating of individuality from the general (the cult of the uniqueness of the individual).
2. The increased reflectiveness of creativity does not align with the discovery of the world of the 𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 (that being intuitive) 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚝𝚢 (artistic intuition).
3. Individual 𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚘𝚕𝚝 and dissolution in the national, general, tribal…

So, the main feature of Romanticism as a movement is 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. It proposes a new system of values — the cult of creators, the predominance of the irrational — intuition precedes reason, the unfolding of an individual’s personality, adherence to nature.

Giovanni Paolo Pannini — Roman Ruins with a Prophet, 1751

The myth is revived — it was seen as a way to resolve the contradiction between rich inner and unjust social external (reality). Accordingly, the myth was the ideal of romantic creativity, encouraging a greater appeal to folklore. The image was favoured over the concept, dynamism — over stasis.

𝚃𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙴𝚗𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝’𝚜 𝙻𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚝𝚜

In this debate with Enlightenment, Romanticism reinterprets 𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗽𝗵𝘆 in favour of artistic intuition, transforming it into intellectual magic where genius creates wholes from phenomena. During the Romantic era, philosophy itself is seen as a creative process that has the ability to reproduce.

The contradictions within Romanticism find resolution through the union of opposites in the dialectical concept of German transcendentalism. Romanticism rejects the axioms of Enlightenment 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 — it opens up the world of the unconscious. The integrity of the human “self”, so obvious in the Enlightenment era, comes into question.

Armand-Charles Caraffe — Metellus raising the siege, 1805

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚌𝚞𝚕𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗

What interests us most is defining the specific way of life of a person, the peculiarities of this life. For Enlightenment ideology, it was evident to contrast human beings with nature, so they began using the term “𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲”, opposing it to the concept of “𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲”.

Continuing the ideas of antiquity, through the term culture, the Enlightenment spoke about the sphere of “humanity,” “human nature.” Culture was interpreted as the improvement of the spiritual life and 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 of people. The development of culture was seen as equivalent to the development of education and prosperity.

Kant will help us greatly to see this contrast between the natural and the cultural in his philosophy, where he divided the world into the natural and the free.
In nature itself, a person is not free, but the development of culture liberates them. Here, we find an idea taken by the romantics and placed at the core of their conception of the essence of culture — the idea of 𝗕𝗲𝗮𝘂𝘁𝘆 (the power of art).

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗺.

Eugene Delacroix — Liberty Leading the People, 1830

In the Enlightenment era, culture is considered a moral imperative, akin to Kant’s categorical imperative. According to Herder, who, as some probably know, rejected the rationalism of the Enlightenment,

thought, society, and language are equivalent to culture.

Herder understood culture broadly, highlighting language, science, craftsmanship, art, family, state, and religion as its most important components. The interaction of these elements is the source of cultural development.

Rousseau, whom Russell called the founder of Romanticism, considered culture as

a factor that separates humans from nature.

In Rousseau’s concept, humans are anti-cultural, and he intuits that culture is created for suppression and enslavement.

John Constable — The Hay Wain, 1821

𝙳𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠𝚜

We see that the understanding of the concept of culture mostly differs in its favour for humanity. In Romanticism, where humans are considered natural beings, culture is perceived as a 𝗻𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 phenomenon that distances people from nature. In the Enlightenment era, culture was understood only as the 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 development of humanity, as humans were considered to have transcended nature and were no longer part of it.

Therefore, in the Enlightenment era, culture was perceived as a positive phenomenon, signifying human development. In the Romantic era, it acquired a negative connotation as it separated humans from nature, and according to the ideals of the Romantics, humans should belong to nature.