Romanticism and Revival
Rousseau opens the door
- Rousseau questioned the exclusive reliance on reason and emphasised the role of emotions in the moral improvement of self and society.
- Note exclusive: the objection is to reason as the only faculty, not to reason itself.
- And note the aim — moral improvement — which makes this an Enlightenment argument turned against an Enlightenment habit.
Rousseau's objection was to...
Reason as the only faculty, not reason itself.
Romanticism as a challenge
- Romanticism emerged as a challenge to Enlightenment rationality.
- The CED's word is challenge, not replacement: the two coexist, argue, and borrow from each other.
- This is the concrete content of the thread's not unchallenged — the qualifier finally gets a movement.
Rousseau emphasised emotions in the ____ improvement of self and society.
An Enlightenment aim, turned against an Enlightenment habit.
Religious revival, alongside
- Consistent with the Romantic Movement, religious revival occurred in Europe and included notable movements such as Methodism, founded by John Wesley.
- Consistent with is a claim of kinship, not of cause: revival and Romanticism share a temper.
- Both privilege inner experience over the demonstrable, which is why the CED files them together.
Rousseau, the movements, or the evidence?
Sort each element of the challenge to reason.
The CED says Romanticism emerged as a...
The two coexist, argue, and borrow from each other.
Rousseau objected to the exclusive reliance on reason. The target is reason as the only faculty, not reason itself — and his aim, the moral improvement of self and society, is an Enlightenment aim. Reading him as anti-Enlightenment loses what makes the challenge interesting.
The CED's named revival movement is Methodism, founded by John ____.
Consistent with the Romantic Movement — kinship, not cause.
Mass politics has an emotional power
- Revolution, war, and rebellion demonstrated the emotional power of mass politics and nationalism.
- Demonstrated is the key verb: the events of 5.4-5.7 are the evidence for the claim.
- So this bullet closes the loop — the unit's political history is itself an argument against reliance on reason alone.
The CED says revolution, war and rebellion demonstrated the emotional power of mass politics.
The unit's political history is itself an argument against reliance on reason alone.
How and why the challenge came
- The objective asks how and why the Romantic Movement and religious revival challenged Enlightenment thought.
- How: by promoting emotion, inner experience and the particular over exclusive reason and the universal.
- Why: because reason alone had been shown, in politics, not to account for what people actually did.
A generation is told that clear reasoning will settle public questions, and then watches a decade of revolution, terror and war in which crowds move for reasons no argument predicted. Some conclude the reasoning was wrong. Others conclude that reasoning was never the whole account.
Rousseau questioned the exclusive reliance on reason and emphasised emotions in the moral improvement of self and society; Romanticism emerged as a challenge to Enlightenment rationality; consistent with it, religious revival occurred, including Methodism, founded by John Wesley; and revolution, war and rebellion demonstrated the emotional power of mass politics and nationalism.