Romanticism

Major Representative Philosophers: Johann Gottfried von Herder, Schelling, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud



Classification: Universal Romanticism and National Romanticism


Meaning: Universal Romanticism is concerned with nature, the world soul, and artistic genius. National Romanticism is concerned with the history, language, and culture of the people.




Schelling: wanted to “unite mind and matter.” He thought that there was a world spirit that existed in both nature and the human mind. He saw a connection between living and nonliving things.


Herder: believed that “history is characterized by continuity, evolution, and design.” He thought that each time period had its own value, and each nation had its own soul.


Hegel: also believed in a world spirit, but only a human spirit. He believed that “all knowledge is human knowledge”. He did not believe in eternal truths because he felt that things change throughout history. Things are either right or wrong depending on their historical context. He thought that human knowledge is always expanding. He said that the study of history shows that “humanity is moving towards greater rationality and freedom.” He thought that in every philosophy, there were two contrasting viewpoints, but that the best philosophy combines both. He said “that which is right survives.” He emphasized “the importance of the family, civil society, and the state.” He said that the world spirit becomes conscious of itself in 3 stages: subjective spirit (individual), objective spirit (family, civil society, and the state), and the absolute spirit (art, religion, and philosophy).


Kierkegaard: Was concerned with the individual. He believed that there was no passion and commitment in the world. He thought that Christianity was so important that it either had to control our lives or have nothing to do with our lives. He said we should search for individual truths instead of universal truths. He said that we only truly exist when we are making choices. He thought that the philosophical questions could only be answered through faith, not reason. He believed in 3 stages of life: aesthetic, ethical, and religious. The aesthetic stage is living for the moment. The ethical stage is making moral choices. The religious stage is faith.


Marx: didn’t want to interpret the world—he wanted to change it. He thought that it was the material factors in society to determine the way we live and think. He felt that material changes affect history. He believed in 3 levels in the basis of society: society’s conditions of production (resources available), means of production (equipment and tools) and mode of production (division of labor). He felt that society decided what was right and wrong, and that change could only come from revolution. He was against capitalism because he felt that man should work for himself and for his own benefit. He thought that capitalism exploited the worker. He wanted a classless society.


Darwin: believed that all living things evolved from simpler species and that this evolution is the result of natural selection. Natural selection is essentially the survival of the fittest. He said that man came from different variations of earlier species. Every organism today is the best in its species because only the best have survived.

Karl Marx

Freud: developed psychoanalysis, which is a “description of the human mind, in general, as well as a therapy for nervous and mental disorders. Irrational impulses, called human drives, often influence what we do. He said that we have a pleasure principle, called the id, which we learn to regulate in our adult life. He said that there is a lifelong conflict between desire and guilt. He said that there is a deep unconsciousness in us of everything we have repressed. we can try to repress thoughts, but they can show up through slips of the tongue. He said we can rationalize things to ourselves if the real reason we want to do something is unacceptable. We also project, which is to transfer characteristics we are trying to repress in ourselves to other people. He said that “our unconscious tries to communicate with our conscious through dreams.” He felt that “all dreams are wish fulfillments.” Inspiration is when artists “lift the lid” on the unconscious. He stressed the importance of artists being able to let go.