Neo-Classical Philosophies

From the latter part of the XVIII century to the present day art and literature and philosophy, and even politics have been influenced, positively or negatively, by a way of feeling which was characteristic of what, in a large sense, may be called the Romantic movement.

Initially the Romantic Movement in its most essential form was a revolt against received ethical and aesthetic standards.

The romantics were not without morals; on the contrary, their moral judgments were sharp and vehement. But they were based on quite other principles than those that had seemed good to their predecessors. Prudence was regarded as the supreme virtue; intellect was valued as the most effective weapon against subversive fanatics; polished manners were praised as a barrier against barbarism. Newton’s orderly cosmos, in which the planets unchangingly revolve about the sun in law-abiding orbits, became an imaginative symbol of good movement. Restraint in the expression of passion was the chief aim of education, and the surest mark of a gentleman.

By that time, many people had grown tired of safety, and had begun to desire excitement. The XIX century revolt against the system of the Holy Alliance took two forms. On one hand, there was the revolt of industrialism, both capitalist and proletarian, against monarchy and aristocracy; this was almost untouched by romanticism, and reverted in many respects, to the XVIII century. This movement is represented by the philosophical radicals, the free-trade movement, and Marxian socialism. Quite different from this was the romantic revolt, which was in part reactionary, in part revolutionary. The romantics did not aim at peace and quite, but at vigorous and passionate individual life. They had no sympathy with industrialism, because it was ugly, because money-grubbing seemed to them unworthy of an immortal soul, and because the growth of modern economic organizations interfered with individual liberty. In the post-revolutionary period they were led into politics, gradually, through nationalism: each nation was felt to have a corporate soul, which could not be free so long as the boundaries of states were different from those of nations. In the first half of the XIX century, nationalism was the most vigorous of the revolutionary principles, and most romantics ardently favored it.

The Romantic Movement is characterized, as a whole, by the substitution of aesthetic for utilitarian standards. The morals of romantics have primarily aesthetic motives, but also of the change of taste which made their sense of beauty different from that of their predecessors.

The temper of romantics is best studied in fiction. They liked what was strange: ghosts, ancient decayed castles, the last melancholy descendants of once great families, practitioners of mesmerism and the occult sciences, falling tyrants and levantine pirates.

The Romantic Movement was at first mainly German. The German romantics admire strong passions, of no matter what kind, and whatever may be their social consequences. Romantic love, especially when unfortunate, is strong enough to win their approval, but most of the strongest passions are destructive - hate and resentment and jealousy, remorse and despair, outraged pride and the fury of the unjustly oppressed, martial ardor and contempt for slaves and cowards. Hence the type of man encouraged by romanticism, especially of the Byronic variety, is violent and anti-social, an anarchic rebel, or a conquering tyrant.

This outlook makes an appeal for which the reasons lie very deep in human nature and human circumstances. By self-interest man has become gregarious, but in instinct he has remained to a great extent solitary; hence the need of religion and morality to reinforce self-interest. But the habit of foregoing present satisfactions for the sake of future advantages is irksome, and when passions are roused the prudent restraints of social behavior become difficult to endure.

Revolt of solitary instincts against social bonds is the key to the philosophy, the politics, the sentiments, not only of what is commonly called the Romantic Movement, but also of its progeny down to the present day. Philosophy, under the influence of German idealism, became solipsistic, and self-development was proclaimed as the fundamental principle of ethics. As regards sentiment, there has to be a distasteful compromise between the search for isolation and the necessities of passion and economics.

The comforts of civilized life are not obtainable by a hermit, and a man who wishes to write books or produce works of art must submit to the ministrations of others if he is to survive while he does his work. Passionate love however is a more difficult matter. So long as passionate lovers are regarded as in revolt against social trammels, they are admired. But in real life the love relation itself quickly becomes a social trammel, and the partner in love comes to be hated, all the more vehemently if the love is strong enough to make the bond difficult to break. Hence love comes to be conceived as a battle, in which each is attempting to destroy the other by breaking through the protecting walls of his or her ego.

The Romantic Movement, in its essence, aimed at liberating humane personality from the fetters of social convention and social morality. In part, these fetters were a mere useless hindrance to desirable forms of activity, for every ancient community has developed rules of behavior for which there is nothing to be said except that they are traditional. But egoistic passions, when once let loose, are not easily brought into subjection to the needs of the society. Christianity had succeeded, to some extent, in taming the Ego, but economic, political, and intellectual causes stimulated revolt against the Churches, and the Romantic Movement brought the revolt into the sphere of morals. By encouraging the new lawless Ego it made social cooperation impossible, and it left its disciples faced with the alternative of anarchy or despotism. Egoism, at first, made men expect from others a parental tenderness, but when they discovered, with indignation, that others had their own Ego, the disappointed desire for tenderness turned to hatred and violence. Man is not a solitary animal, and so long as social life survives, self-realization cannot be the supreme principle of ethics.

The romantic form is to be seen in Byron in a non-philosophical dress, but in Schopenhauer and Nietzsche it has learnt the language of philosophy. It tends to emphasize the will at the expense of the intellect, to be impatient of chains of reasoning, and to glorify violence of certain kinds. In practical politics it is important as an ally of nationalism. In tendency, if not always in fact, it is definitely hostile to what is commonly called reason, and tends to be anti-scientific.

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