Romanticism vs. Enlightenment?

Abstract

The article presents an attempt to reveal the relation between philosophical positions of the Romanticism and Enlightenment. The novelty of the research is that the Enlightenment, namely Kant’s philosophy, is not considered within a frame of the contradictory logic opposed to the Romanticism. According the authors` interpretation, Kantian notion of the Enlightenment created the ground to overthrow the scientific ideal of knowledge as the reference to all kinds of human cognitive activity. Insofar as the new European “rationality” was identifi ed previously with the “scientific” mode, Kant’s philosophy “opened the door” to allow the nonrational and irrational knowledge. However, the major difference between the Romanticism and philosophy of the Enlightenment concerns the notion of “subjectivity.” Romantic subject is an individual unique personality following the “categorical imperative of genius”, which replaces the faceless subject of the universal morality of the Enlightenment.

Keywords:

Enlightenment, romanticism, rationality, irrationality, artist, genius