What was the beef between Romanticism and the Enlightenment?

Before romanticism, the Enlightenment was the dominant force in art

The Enlightenment was a period of discovery, innovation, and political change. Roman and Greek visuals came into fashion in reaction to the excess and wealth of royalty and the church. Romanticism rebelled against the rigidity of neoclassicism's simplicity and structure.

Romanticism challenged neoclassicalism

Neoclassical artists believed in the promise of the Enlightenment—that logic was a cure-all for society’s problems—and sought to apply a similar rationality to their artwork. That meant straightforward, realistic work that portrayed historical scenes as close to real life as possible without any visible evidence of the artist’s handiwork.

Romanticism was an 18th and 19th century creative movement

The movement emphasized the beauty of nature and human feeling. It was inspired by reactions against classical traditions, social injustices, technological change, and the philosophy of the Enlightenment. Although the movement spanned literature, visual art, music, poetry, and architecture, some of its most recognizable works are paintings.

Romanticism continues to influence culture

The breadth and impact of Romanticism and its emphasis on individualism, embracing emotion, and the power of nature outlived the formal boundaries of the movement’s popularity and continue to linger in the public consciousness.

Why some writers believe there's a new romanticism

Journalist and novelist Ross Barkan argues that a crushing political system and alienating technology have led people to become more interested in the offline, analog world and the beauty of nature and emotion. In this essay, he defines this as "the new romanticism," and predicts it will come to define the culture of the 2020s.

Many of the founding fathers were deists—believers in a God of reason

A uniquely American iteration of the Enlightenment movement thrived during the Revolution. This selection from a longer write-up on the American Enlightenment highlights six core ideas: deism, liberalism, republicanism, conservatism, toleration, and scientific progress.

In 'Frankenstein,' Mary Shelley questioned both Romantic and Enlightenment ideals

The classic monster story is a richly philosophical tale about the role of technology, written by Shelley at the age of 18. This podcast episode explores Shelley's deeper intentions with the story and debunks some of the popular misconceptions about its plot and meaning.

Romantics sought to experience 'the sublime'

“Sublime” may be a word that’s still used in popular culture, but when Irish philosopher Edmund Burke used it in a 1757 essay, he was attempting to define an astonishment at something that was beyond full human understanding.

'The Republic of Letters' was an analog internet for the Enlightenment.

The virtual intellectual society exchanged tens of thousands of letters and spanned several continents. Some of its most avid correspondents were Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, and Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.

What is transcendentalism?

The 19th-century movement, largely centered around the ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson, believed that individuals needed to form transcendent connections with the universe. For many transcendentalist philosophers, writers, and religious figures, that meant seeking it in nature. This Stanford explainer on the philosophy digs deep into its major concepts and figureheads.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

Love is a more recent part of marriage

Love matches are incredibly late to the marriage game. For most of our history, marriage has been about alliance, wealth, property, power, and, as an occasional afterthought, the couple liking each other. All that changed when Enlightenment thinkers were inspired in their pursuit of personal happiness, including in their choice of mate.

What is rhetoric?

The roots of "rhetoric" stretch back to ancient Greece, where early philosophers defined rhetoric as the art of winning the soul through discourse or the art of persuasion. Rhetoric and its proposed nature have since shifted, with more modern sources describing rhetoric as a natural byproduct of language, the intentional framing of discourse, or the study of how humans use symbols and language to carry out human activity.

Sartre and de Beauvoir had an open romantic relationship

The two figureheads of existentialist thought were romantic partners, though they had a publicly open relationship and never lived together. As de Beauvoir says in the interview below, "third persons knew our relationship dwarfed any we could have with them."

Environmental determinism links human traits and societal progress to geography

Also known as climatic determinism, the theory states that the latitudes where people are located influence their emotional and intellectual capabilities. Originating in Ancient Greece, these ideas were used throughout history to justify racial hierarchies.

A linguist argues Jane Austen's language is what defines her fiction

While many readers love Austen's novels for their characters and their romantic plots, Chi Luu argues that many people (including literary luminaries like Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, and Ralph Waldo Emerson) underestimate how her adept wordplay, sense of irony, and memorable turns of phrase are what have made readers fall in love with her fiction for centuries.

John Steinbeck's philosophical ideas, which he often explored in his novels, wrestled with the role of the individual and the power of community.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

Philosophers have debated the nature of time since at least the 6th century B.C.E.

Greek philosopher Parmenides of Elea was skeptical of time and reasoned that if it were real, then the present would emerge from nothing because the future did not yet exist. Just as the color red is our perception of a specific wavelength of light, others have suggested time is a psychological projection based on how we interpret the world.

Constitutional originalism and living constitutionalism are the 2 main theories of interpretation

Hear from experts about originalism—the view that the Constitution should be interpreted according to its original public meaning—alongside its main counter-ideology, living constitutionalism, which argues that the document's meaning should evolve with changing social and legal norms.

Ralph Waldo Emerson celebrated Walt Whitman, then regretted it

Emerson famously praised the first edition of Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” which Whitman used to promote the collection. In doing so, Whitman effectively created the modern book blurb, though he did so without Emerson’s permission, leading to a prolonged, passive beef between the two.

Discoveries in electromagnetism became the catalyst for overturning Isaac Newton

To maintain the consistency of experimental results involving electricity, magnetism, and light, time and space had to cease being absolute and could change in value to keep the speed of light constant. This cosmic speed limit forced Einstein to revise the existing model of gravity.

Some call Beard the original 'foodie'

James Beard came of age when home cooking revolved around canned and frozen ingredients. Likewise, West Coast cuisine wasn’t on anyone’s radar. Beard’s appreciation of fresh, seasonal ingredients and regional influences provided a foundation for today’s movement toward local, farm-to-table cooking and the foodies who seek it out.

Explore new and contemporary perspectives with Emerging Civil War

Emerging Civil War brings together historians and writers who offer fresh research, essays, and battlefield stories that uncover overlooked events, people, and places—showing that scholarship on the war is still evolving over 160 years later.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

What led to the October Revolution?

The 1917 Russian Revolution is actually two separate revolutions. One happened that spring that ended centuries of Tsarist rule and led to the establishment of a provisional government. Another happened that autumn during which the Bolshevik...

How to win a negotiation

Chris Voss, former FBI hostage chief, explains how logic and argument rarely convince someone; instead, he claims emotional intelligence is the most important factor. Watch this brief video where the expert lays out the three most important skills...

LSD fueled a countercultural movement before evolving into a potential therapeutic

As the use of recreational psychedelics became common, authorities were quick to claim LSD had lasting adverse effects, criminalizing the drug and halting scientific study for decades. Over time, LSD's reputation shifted from a potential source of enlightenment to a dangerous drug that could dim a person's future, and back to a possible therapeutic compound.

During the French Revolution, a botanist's letter asking about "dear Rhus" (poison ivy) was intercepted, leading authorities to suspect he was conspiring with the Russians.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.