|
While almost everyone agreed on this goal, they differed as to how it could best be achieved. In general, everyone accepted Locke's psychology—that the human mind was a blank tablet upon which experience wrote the message of life. Further, most intellectuals agreed that the way to happiness was not through saving the soul but through manipulating the environment. However, that was where agreement ended, as it turned out people had very different ideas as to what the ideal environment was or should be. To the Establishment, the old environment was quite good
enough, while reformers were convinced certain changes were needed. In addition, reformers differed among themselves as to who would decide just which changes were necessary. On the one hand, the rationalists tended to believe in a small clique of wise and gifted men who would impartially wield their authority to shape the environment presumably to the mutual advantage of all. Politically, they favored "Enlightened despots", and economically, they encouraged the development of industry, but basically, they were elitists who saw themselves structuring the coming planned society. On the other hand, the romantics were usually more democratic. They believed in the people, who would destroy the existing unnatural, bad, civil environment so that everyone could live happily in the ensuing perfect world. Most of these favored majority rule and assumed some innate wisdom in humanity would guide civilization to a better day. While rationalists and romantics took different paths to happiness, they all worked to discredit the entrenched Establishment (i.e., narrow-minded royalty, biased aristocracy, and closed minded clergy) of the eighteenth century. This is not as surprising as it might seem because, although romanticism began as a revolt against rationalism, they had a lot in common. They were both secular movements based on the assumptions that life on earth could be almost indefinitely improved and that such progress would come through cultural change. Thus, they were often woven together in a single individual. In the truly enlightened person, heart and head were both sound. Emotion and reason were combined and presumably would usher in an era of progress through kindhearted policies based on factual knowledge.
 stupidity.com  Notes |