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Similarities Between Romanticism And Enlightenment Thinkers

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Similarities Between Romanticism And Enlightenment Thinkers
Romantic and Enlightenment thinkers were very interested in the natural world and human nature. They both looked at inspiration and nature as a great source of learning man's limits in the natural world. They also looked to natural laws, the principles that governed nature and society, and respected them in all aspects of their lives. Mary Shelly was a Romanticist who took natural laws seriously in her novel Frankenstein which taught us not to challenge the natural world because nature will take whatever course it wants. Rousseau also taught that man was born good but corrupted by society in his novel The Social Contract written in 1762. Newton's enlightened teachings being popular among all of the social classes also portrays how …show more content…
Enlightenment thinkers sought to explain, study, and watch the true nature of man and believed that human nature was solely based on reason. An Enlightenment thinker named Kant wrote two novels named The Critique of Pure Reason and The Critique of Practical Reason. These books describe the Enlightened belief of categorical imperative, an internal sense of moral duty or awareness that must always be obeyed described by the beliefs that humans have knowledge based on a conscience and humans know more than what is accessible by senses. Contradictory to Enlightened beliefs, Romanticists tended to focus on the natural side of man and believed that human nature was based on emotion and feeling. This Romantic view came from the old German "Sturm and Drang" movement in romantic philosophy and literature that emphasized feeling and emotion. Romanticism also taught that individuals have unique, endless potential and that because artists are the true philosophers, self realization comes through the power of art. A painting named The Dreamer by Gaspar David Friedrich portrays these Romantic views by depicting a man taking in the beauty engulfing the scenery around him while he contemplates his surroundings. While the Romantic and Enlightenment periods have such strongly contrasting views, they both look to inspiration and nature as a source of learning in a persons limits in the natural

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