Emotion over reason

Definition

Emotion over reason is a concept that emphasizes the primacy of feelings, passions, and instincts over logical thought and rationality. This idea reflects a core belief of Romantic philosophy, which valued individual emotional experience as a means of understanding and engaging with the world, often opposing Enlightenment ideals that prioritized reason and empirical evidence.

5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test

1. The Romantic movement arose in the late 18th century as a response to the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment's emphasis on rationality.
2. Key figures in Romanticism, such as Wordsworth and Coleridge, highlighted the significance of personal emotion and natural beauty in their works.
3. Emotion over reason played a pivotal role in literature and art during this period, as artists sought to express deep feelings rather than conforming to strict artistic rules.
4. Romantic thinkers argued that authentic human experience is rooted in emotion, leading to a renewed appreciation for individual subjectivity.
5. This idea contributed to broader cultural shifts, including movements for personal freedom and artistic expression, challenging societal norms based on rationality.

Review Questions

• How did the concept of emotion over reason manifest in the works of Romantic poets?
  • In the works of Romantic poets like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, emotion over reason is evident through their focus on nature and personal experience. They often wrote about deep feelings evoked by natural landscapes, prioritizing emotional responses over logical explanations. This approach allowed them to connect readers with profound sentiments, illustrating how emotion enriches human understanding and creativity.
• Discuss the differences between the Romantic perspective of emotion over reason and the Enlightenment's focus on rationality.
  • The Romantic perspective embraces emotion as a vital source of knowledge and truth, viewing feelings as essential to understanding the human experience. In contrast, the Enlightenment emphasized rational thought, logic, and empirical evidence as pathways to knowledge. While Enlightenment thinkers believed that reason could solve societal issues and improve human life, Romantics argued that neglecting emotions leads to a hollow understanding of humanity, advocating for a balance between intellect and feeling.
• Evaluate how the principle of emotion over reason influenced subsequent artistic movements and societal changes into the 19th century.
  • The principle of emotion over reason significantly influenced later artistic movements such as Symbolism and Impressionism by encouraging artists to explore subjective experiences rather than strictly represent reality. This shift paved the way for modernism, which further emphasized individual perception. Societally, it contributed to changes in attitudes toward personal freedom and expression, inspiring movements such as feminism and civil rights that valued individual emotions and experiences as legitimate grounds for social change.

Related terms

Romanticism: An artistic and intellectual movement that originated in the late 18th century, focusing on emotion, nature, and individualism as reactions against the rationalism of the Enlightenment.

Sentimentalism: A literary and philosophical movement that values emotional experience and moral sentiment, often portraying deep feelings as essential to human experience.

Transcendentalism: A philosophical movement that emerged in the early 19th century, advocating for the inherent goodness of people and nature, emphasizing intuition and emotion over rational thought.