Thesis: Romantics argued that the rationalism of the thinkers of the Enlightenment made humans souless thinking machines and reduced nature to a lifeless system of cogs and pulleys. They believed the Enlightenment's mechanistic view of the world and human nature chained the human spirit and creativity.
-William Wordsworth's "Tables Turned" expressed a desire to put away books and let nature be your teacher of wisdom and morality.
-William Blake's "Milton" saw Reason as a scab on the immortal soul and the source of doubting Christianity and mocking eternal life.
-Philosophes approaced the world in a scientific and analytical way, while romantics asserted the value of emotions and imagination.
-Philosophes thought emotion obstructed clear thinking, but romantics saw feeling and imagination as the human essence, source of creativity, and the path to true understanding.
-They held that artists, musicians, and writers must not be held by textbook rules
-They urged individuality and freedom of expression in the arts
-Artist and poet succeeded the scientist in the age of Romanticism as the arbiters of Western Civilization.
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