the enlightenment movement might be regarded as the most significant improvement in human history. there are three propositions , if we may boil down to that, which are ,as it were, the three legs upon which the whole western tradition rested.
- all genuine question can be answered. , that if a question cannot be answered, it is not a question. We may not know what the answer is, but someone will. We may be too weak, too stupid or too ignorant to discover the answer for ourselves. In that case, the answer may perhaps
2 all these answers are knowledge and they can be discovered by means which can be learned and taught to other persons
3 all the answer must be compatible with one another.
what the enlightenment contribute is that the knowledge should not be obtained by revelation, not by tradition, not by dogma, but only through the correct use of reason. Thought enlightenment thinkers don’t agree with each other in every aspect, they do believe, virtue consists ultimately in knowledge : that if we know what we are and we know what we need, and we know where to obtain it, we can live happy, virtuous, just, free and contended lives.
Enlightenment penetrates every sphere of human life, arts, science and ethnics. Take arts as example, the purpose of painting is to convey the questing intellect or the questing soul what it is that nature seeks after. Nature seeks after beauty and perfection. In the sense of enlightenment, there exists an objective ideals of beauty, of grandeur, of magnificence, of wisdom, which writers, philosophers, preachers should aspire for.Also, enlightenment assure us, that if we obey the law of reason, we will progress, discover, and will be on the way towards, some kind of science which would make people happy, free, virtuous and just. After all, virtues consists ultimately in knowledge.
Besides, Enlightenment’s interest in history and humans are not focusing too much on individuals. As Bolingbroke said, history was nothing but philosophy teaching by examples. Voltaire’s interest in history was to show how men were much the same in most ages, and how the same causes produce the same effects. The purpose was to show what we were like sociologically: what kind of ends men sought after, what kind of means did not bring them about, what kind of means did bring them about , and in this way to create some kind of science of how to live well. This might be the most unhistorical attitude towards history, but this is the characteristic attitude of Enlightenment — aim of studying history was simply the accumulation of data upon which general propositions could be constructed, telling one what to do, how to live, what to be.
Attack on Enlightenment:
Since the start of enlightenment, attacks have never stopped. The attack starts from the field of religion and spirituality , interestingly, from Germany. Christian believes human beings are the image of God, which is perfect in its essence. If we scrape off all the bad social habits accumulated through centuries, we could live well for ever. In some sense, they believe in a perfect formality of human life, and can be extended to everything else. However, romanticism disagree with religion. They, led by Herder, initiate romanticism movement whose characteristic attributes include the denial of unity, the denial of harmony, the denial of compatibility of ideals.
For romanticism, nature herself is indifferent to man, nature herself is amoral, nature herself destroys us in the most ruthless and hideous fashion, and this is what makes us particularly aware of the fact that we are not part of her.The universe is as you choose to make it, to some degree at any rate. Besides, there is no pattern to which you must adapt yourself. There is only, if not the flow, the endless self creativity of the universe. The universe is a process of perpetual forward self-thrusting, perpetual self creation which can be conceived of either as hostile or friendly.
Romanticism maintain two opposite principles, the necessity of the will and the absence of the structure of things. Romanticism recognizes that there were certain aspects human experience, particularly the inward aspects of human life, called the dark force, which were totally left out by enlightenment thinkers, so that the picture was distorted in a very violent degree. One of the movements which it led to in the present is the so called – existentialism. Romanticism puts authenticity or sincerity to the highest form and value motives more than the consequence.
the result of Romanticism, then, is liberalism, toleration, decency and the appreciation of the imperfections of life, some degree of increased rational self understanding. People who believe in Romanticism are the persons who most strongly emphasized the unpredictability of all human activities, they were hoist with their won petard.
Romanticism left people with more freedom, as well as more confusion. The constant denial and destruction left people with nothing to attach to. The only solution left is to create a structure, which you believe and you like.
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