Enlightenment and Romanticism

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The debate between Enlightenment and Romanticism has an enduring impact on discussions of today in art, politics, science, human identity and social values. This course is a systematical introduction to these two, formative, opposed intellectual traditions. First, a historical context will be presented to the political and ideological ambitions of the Enlightenment (enlightened despotism, the court of Frederick the Great, the diffusion of the Enlightenment). Secondly the opposed approach to ‘Nature’ will be introduced; the influence of Newton, the rise of modern science, the Encyclopédie vs. Romantic science (e.g. Goethe’s criticism on Newton’s Theory of Colour) and the role of the arts in the new approach to Nature. Then, the changes in the visual arts will be treated, illustrating continuity and discontinuity in cultural history (e.g. the ambiguous meaning of Neo-Classicism). In the fourth place human subjectivity in the Enlightenment (based on Lockean psychology) will be confronted to new approaches to the romantic soul (the unconsciousness, irrationality, Weltschmerz). Finally, discussions about morals and politics will be presented (Rousseau, the Social Contract, the slogans of the French Revolution vs. Romantic values concerning the State and personal relationships like love and friendship).