1. Emphasis on Emotion and Individuality:
- Romanticism placed a strong emphasis on emotion, intuition, and imagination as sources of knowledge and truth. This contrasted with the Age of Reason's focus on rationality and logic.
- Romantics valued individual feelings, experiences, and perspectives, challenging the Enlightenment's emphasis on universal reason and objective truths.
2. Appreciation of Nature:
- Romantics celebrated the beauty and power of nature, viewing it as a source of inspiration and spiritual connection.
- This differed from the Age of Reason's emphasis on human rationality and mastery over nature, seeing nature as something to be conquered and controlled through scientific knowledge.
3. Importance of Imagination:
- Romantics emphasized the creative power of imagination and considered it a vital faculty for understanding the world and creating art.
- This contrasted with the Age of Reason's focus on reason and empirical observation as the primary means of understanding the world.
4. Focus on the Individual:
- Romanticism elevated the individual, often exploring themes of personal identity, self-expression, and self-reliance.
- This stood in contrast to the Enlightenment's emphasis on collective reason and the pursuit of human progress as a collective goal.
5. Rejection of Social and Political Norms:
- Romantics often challenged societal norms and existing institutions, advocating for personal freedom, individualism, and the pursuit of authentic experiences.
- This contrasted with the Age of Reason's support for social order, rational authority, and the pursuit of societal progress through reason.
While the Age of Reason and Romanticism coexisted for some time during the late 18th century, the rise of Romanticism did indeed lead to a revision and critique of some of the accepted ideas from the Age of Reason, giving rise to new intellectual and cultural currents that would shape the subsequent evolution of Western thought and culture.