metonymy4u

The western European enlightenment was the exploration of the power of reason over revelation. The notion that pure reason can discover the truths of the universe, be they written in the language of mathematics, deductive logic, or lived experiences. Kant brought this era to an end and ushered in the romantic era, by suggesting that reason does not discover, but only creates. He was left merely with a discovery of the principles of creation, which took the place of the “absolute” of earlier revelations (the empiricists having talked about sense based revelations). Some who followed him remembered Platonism, and tried to re-inject discovery back into the world through the story of the self-actualization of a verbally inclined world spirit, knowable only by the philosopher. But others changed their minds, and wrote poetry instead. Symbolic creation became the essential human pursuit. False though the house of it seems.