#romanticism — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #romanticism, aggregated by home.social.
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The #RomanticPeriodPoetryArchive's updated networks view introduces pivoting and faceting, adds a browsable index of concepts, and aggregates large clusters, rendering the corpus's contextual relations legible for #comparative study:
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This day 141 years ago: Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)’s death date.
Poetry available in the #RomanticPeriodPoetryArchive:
https://www.romanticperiodpoetry.org/authors/#id/pers00608 -
"Venice: The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore," Joseph Mallard William Turner, 1834.
Turner (1775-1831) was THE great English Romantic painter, and in his sometimes violent and turbulent sea paintings, an early precursor to Expressionism.
He began drawing as a teenager, and at 14 was accepted as a student at the prestigious Royal Academy. When only in his 20s, he was capturing top honors at exhibitions, which angered some there. Turner was the son of a barber, and some of the more upper-crust members resented him. He distanced himself from the Academy by 1800 but by then had his own gallery (run by his proud papa) and attracted many commissions.
He traveled around Europe, and especially loved Venice, which was the subject of quite a few remarkable works. Here we have a picture-postcard view of the Dogana palace and the church of San Giorgio Maggiore, with fishing boats at dock and crowded gondolas plying the canals. It's beautiful without being overly idealized.
If you like his work, check out the 2014 movie "Mr. Turner."
From the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
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Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun…James Hutton met Robert Burns in 1787. Later that year, Burns chose to visit some of the sites discussed in Hutton’s THEORY OF THE EARTH. Is there an echo of Hutton’s “deep time” – oceans evaporating, rocks melting – to be heard in Burns’s “A Red, Red Rose” (pub. 1794)?
2/3
https://sunnydunny.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/robert-burns-and-geology/
#Scottish #literature #RobertBurns #poem #poetry #romanticism #Enlightenment #18thcentury #DeepTime #science #geology
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Genealogical Diagram: From Romanticism to Marxism, National Socialism, and Fascism
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ROUSSEAU & ROMANTICISM │ │ Natural self • Emotion • Authenticity │ │ Anti-rationalism • Volk (Herder) │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ KANT (Critical Philosophy) │ │ Limits of reason • Transcendental subject │ │ Moral autonomy • Noumena/phenomena │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ FICHTE & EARLY GERMAN IDEALISM │ │ The “I” posits itself • Struggle • Nationalism │ │ State as moral educator • Volk as spiritual unity │ └─────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ SCHELLING (Nature Philosophy) │ │ Romantic metaphysics • Nature as Spirit │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ HEGEL (High German Idealism) │ │ Dialectic • Spirit • History • State │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ │ ┌───────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ ┌──────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ │ MARXISM │ │ NATIONAL SOCIALISM │ │ FASCISM │ │ (Hegel inverted; │ │ (Fichtean nationalism; │ │ (Romantic will; myth; │ │ class dialectic) │ │ anti-Hegel due to Marx) │ │ State as unity) │ └──────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ ┌──────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ │ COMMUNISM │ │ HITLERISM / NAZISM │ │ MUSSOLINI’S FASCISM │ │ (Proletarian state) │ │ (Rosenberg uses Fichte, not │ │ (Sorel + nationalism + │ │ │ │ Hegel; Volk + race + State) │ │ modernist authoritarianism) │ └──────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘How to Read the Genealogy
1. Rousseau & Romanticism — the emotional and moral root system
Rousseau and the early Romantic movement sit at the same level because they are essentially two expressions of the same worldview. Rousseau provides the philosophical core; Romanticism turns it into a cultural force.
Together they supply the soil from which later ideologies grow:
- authenticity over rationalism
- the natural self as morally pure
- suspicion of civilisation and modernity
- the heroic individual
- the Volk as an organic cultural community (Johann Gottfried Herder’s contribution)
- emotion as a guide to truth
This is the pre‑ideological foundation that later thinkers will systematise, politicise, or weaponise.
2. Kant — the bridge from Romantic sentiment to philosophical structure
Immanuel Kant is not a Romantic, but he provides the crucial intellectual machinery that makes German Idealism possible:
- the transcendental subject
- the limits of empirical reason
- the autonomy of the moral will
- the distinction between appearance and reality
Kant gives later thinkers the architecture they need to turn Romantic intuitions into philosophical systems.
3. Fichte & Early German Idealism — the nationalist and voluntarist turn
Fichte stands at the same level as Early German Idealism because he is its first full expression. He radicalises Kant and fuses him with Romantic nationalism.
Fichte introduces:
- the self (“I”) as world‑creating
- struggle as the engine of moral development
- the State as educator and moral shaper
- the Volk as a spiritual community defined by language and culture
- the idea that national unity is a moral imperative
This is why the National Socialists later mined him so heavily: he provides a philosophical justification for unity, struggle, and State supremacy without the Marxist baggage attached to Hegel.
4. Schelling — the Romantic metaphysician
Schelling blends Romanticism and Idealism into a metaphysics of nature:
- nature as living Spirit
- the unity of mind and world
- the aesthetic as a path to truth
He is the bridge between Fichte’s voluntarism and Hegel’s system‑building.
5. Hegel — the system‑builder of history and the State
Hegel takes the entire Romantic–Idealist inheritance and turns it into a grand historical machine:
- the dialectic
- Spirit unfolding through conflict
- history as rational development
- the State as the embodiment of ethical life
- freedom as recognition within institutions
Hegel is the pivot point. From him, the ideological branches diverge.
- Marx takes Hegel’s dialectic and flips it upside down: materialism instead of Spirit, class instead of consciousness.
- National Socialists reject Hegel because Marx used him, turning instead to Fichte and Herder.
- Fascists borrow the Romantic–voluntarist elements (myth, will, unity) without the metaphysical system.
6. The Three Ideological Descendants
Marxism
- class struggle
- materialism
- historical determinism
- the dialectic inverted
- the State as instrument of class rule
Marxism is Hegel without Spirit, Romanticism without the individual, and Fichte without the nation.
National Socialism
- racial struggle
- Volk as biological destiny
- State supremacy
- unity through exclusion
- Fichtean nationalism + Herderian cultural unity
Nazism is Fichte radicalised, Herder racialised, and Romanticism weaponised.
Fascism
- myth
- will
- unity
- anti‑liberal modernism
- the State as a living organism
Fascism is Romanticism without Rousseau, Fichte without metaphysics, and Hegel with the “correct” dialectic.
7. The Big Picture
All three ideologies — Marxism, National Socialism, and Fascism — draw from the same Romantic–Idealist well, but each selects different ingredients:
- Marxism takes Hegel’s dialectic and Rousseau’s egalitarian moralism.
- National Socialism takes Fichte’s nationalism and Herder’s Volk metaphysics.
- Fascism takes Romantic will, myth, and the unified State.
They are siblings, not strangers — born from the same intellectual family, but raised in different political households.
#Fascism #Fascists #MarxismAndMarxists #NationalSocialism #Philosophy #Romanticism #Socialism #Socialists -
Genealogical Diagram: From Romanticism to Marxism, National Socialism, and Fascism
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ROUSSEAU & ROMANTICISM │ │ Natural self • Emotion • Authenticity │ │ Anti-rationalism • Volk (Herder) │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ KANT (Critical Philosophy) │ │ Limits of reason • Transcendental subject │ │ Moral autonomy • Noumena/phenomena │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ FICHTE & EARLY GERMAN IDEALISM │ │ The “I” posits itself • Struggle • Nationalism │ │ State as moral educator • Volk as spiritual unity │ └─────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ SCHELLING (Nature Philosophy) │ │ Romantic metaphysics • Nature as Spirit │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ HEGEL (High German Idealism) │ │ Dialectic • Spirit • History • State │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ │ ┌───────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ ┌──────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ │ MARXISM │ │ NATIONAL SOCIALISM │ │ FASCISM │ │ (Hegel inverted; │ │ (Fichtean nationalism; │ │ (Romantic will; myth; │ │ class dialectic) │ │ anti-Hegel due to Marx) │ │ State as unity) │ └──────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ ┌──────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ │ COMMUNISM │ │ HITLERISM / NAZISM │ │ MUSSOLINI’S FASCISM │ │ (Proletarian state) │ │ (Rosenberg uses Fichte, not │ │ (Sorel + nationalism + │ │ │ │ Hegel; Volk + race + State) │ │ modernist authoritarianism) │ └──────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘How to Read the Genealogy
1. Rousseau & Romanticism — the emotional and moral root system
Rousseau and the early Romantic movement sit at the same level because they are essentially two expressions of the same worldview. Rousseau provides the philosophical core; Romanticism turns it into a cultural force.
Together they supply the soil from which later ideologies grow:
- authenticity over rationalism
- the natural self as morally pure
- suspicion of civilisation and modernity
- the heroic individual
- the Volk as an organic cultural community (Johann Gottfried Herder’s contribution)
- emotion as a guide to truth
This is the pre‑ideological foundation that later thinkers will systematise, politicise, or weaponise.
2. Kant — the bridge from Romantic sentiment to philosophical structure
Immanuel Kant is not a Romantic, but he provides the crucial intellectual machinery that makes German Idealism possible:
- the transcendental subject
- the limits of empirical reason
- the autonomy of the moral will
- the distinction between appearance and reality
Kant gives later thinkers the architecture they need to turn Romantic intuitions into philosophical systems.
3. Fichte & Early German Idealism — the nationalist and voluntarist turn
Fichte stands at the same level as Early German Idealism because he is its first full expression. He radicalises Kant and fuses him with Romantic nationalism.
Fichte introduces:
- the self (“I”) as world‑creating
- struggle as the engine of moral development
- the State as educator and moral shaper
- the Volk as a spiritual community defined by language and culture
- the idea that national unity is a moral imperative
This is why the National Socialists later mined him so heavily: he provides a philosophical justification for unity, struggle, and State supremacy without the Marxist baggage attached to Hegel.
4. Schelling — the Romantic metaphysician
Schelling blends Romanticism and Idealism into a metaphysics of nature:
- nature as living Spirit
- the unity of mind and world
- the aesthetic as a path to truth
He is the bridge between Fichte’s voluntarism and Hegel’s system‑building.
5. Hegel — the system‑builder of history and the State
Hegel takes the entire Romantic–Idealist inheritance and turns it into a grand historical machine:
- the dialectic
- Spirit unfolding through conflict
- history as rational development
- the State as the embodiment of ethical life
- freedom as recognition within institutions
Hegel is the pivot point. From him, the ideological branches diverge.
- Marx takes Hegel’s dialectic and flips it upside down: materialism instead of Spirit, class instead of consciousness.
- National Socialists reject Hegel because Marx used him, turning instead to Fichte and Herder.
- Fascists borrow the Romantic–voluntarist elements (myth, will, unity) without the metaphysical system.
6. The Three Ideological Descendants
Marxism
- class struggle
- materialism
- historical determinism
- the dialectic inverted
- the State as instrument of class rule
Marxism is Hegel without Spirit, Romanticism without the individual, and Fichte without the nation.
National Socialism
- racial struggle
- Volk as biological destiny
- State supremacy
- unity through exclusion
- Fichtean nationalism + Herderian cultural unity
Nazism is Fichte radicalised, Herder racialised, and Romanticism weaponised.
Fascism
- myth
- will
- unity
- anti‑liberal modernism
- the State as a living organism
Fascism is Romanticism without Rousseau, Fichte without metaphysics, and Hegel with the “correct” dialectic.
7. The Big Picture
All three ideologies — Marxism, National Socialism, and Fascism — draw from the same Romantic–Idealist well, but each selects different ingredients:
- Marxism takes Hegel’s dialectic and Rousseau’s egalitarian moralism.
- National Socialism takes Fichte’s nationalism and Herder’s Volk metaphysics.
- Fascism takes Romantic will, myth, and the unified State.
They are siblings, not strangers — born from the same intellectual family, but raised in different political households.
#Fascism #Fascists #MarxismAndMarxists #NationalSocialism #Philosophy #Romanticism #Socialism #Socialists -
Genealogical Diagram: From Romanticism to Marxism, National Socialism, and Fascism
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ROUSSEAU & ROMANTICISM │ │ Natural self • Emotion • Authenticity │ │ Anti-rationalism • Volk (Herder) │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ KANT (Critical Philosophy) │ │ Limits of reason • Transcendental subject │ │ Moral autonomy • Noumena/phenomena │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ FICHTE & EARLY GERMAN IDEALISM │ │ The “I” posits itself • Struggle • Nationalism │ │ State as moral educator • Volk as spiritual unity │ └─────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ SCHELLING (Nature Philosophy) │ │ Romantic metaphysics • Nature as Spirit │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ HEGEL (High German Idealism) │ │ Dialectic • Spirit • History • State │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ │ ┌───────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ ┌──────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ │ MARXISM │ │ NATIONAL SOCIALISM │ │ FASCISM │ │ (Hegel inverted; │ │ (Fichtean nationalism; │ │ (Romantic will; myth; │ │ class dialectic) │ │ anti-Hegel due to Marx) │ │ State as unity) │ └──────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ ┌──────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ │ COMMUNISM │ │ HITLERISM / NAZISM │ │ MUSSOLINI’S FASCISM │ │ (Proletarian state) │ │ (Rosenberg uses Fichte, not │ │ (Sorel + nationalism + │ │ │ │ Hegel; Volk + race + State) │ │ modernist authoritarianism) │ └──────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘How to Read the Genealogy
1. Rousseau & Romanticism — the emotional and moral root system
Rousseau and the early Romantic movement sit at the same level because they are essentially two expressions of the same worldview. Rousseau provides the philosophical core; Romanticism turns it into a cultural force.
Together they supply the soil from which later ideologies grow:
- authenticity over rationalism
- the natural self as morally pure
- suspicion of civilisation and modernity
- the heroic individual
- the Volk as an organic cultural community (Johann Gottfried Herder’s contribution)
- emotion as a guide to truth
This is the pre‑ideological foundation that later thinkers will systematise, politicise, or weaponise.
2. Kant — the bridge from Romantic sentiment to philosophical structure
Immanuel Kant is not a Romantic, but he provides the crucial intellectual machinery that makes German Idealism possible:
- the transcendental subject
- the limits of empirical reason
- the autonomy of the moral will
- the distinction between appearance and reality
Kant gives later thinkers the architecture they need to turn Romantic intuitions into philosophical systems.
3. Fichte & Early German Idealism — the nationalist and voluntarist turn
Fichte stands at the same level as Early German Idealism because he is its first full expression. He radicalises Kant and fuses him with Romantic nationalism.
Fichte introduces:
- the self (“I”) as world‑creating
- struggle as the engine of moral development
- the State as educator and moral shaper
- the Volk as a spiritual community defined by language and culture
- the idea that national unity is a moral imperative
This is why the National Socialists later mined him so heavily: he provides a philosophical justification for unity, struggle, and State supremacy without the Marxist baggage attached to Hegel.
4. Schelling — the Romantic metaphysician
Schelling blends Romanticism and Idealism into a metaphysics of nature:
- nature as living Spirit
- the unity of mind and world
- the aesthetic as a path to truth
He is the bridge between Fichte’s voluntarism and Hegel’s system‑building.
5. Hegel — the system‑builder of history and the State
Hegel takes the entire Romantic–Idealist inheritance and turns it into a grand historical machine:
- the dialectic
- Spirit unfolding through conflict
- history as rational development
- the State as the embodiment of ethical life
- freedom as recognition within institutions
Hegel is the pivot point. From him, the ideological branches diverge.
- Marx takes Hegel’s dialectic and flips it upside down: materialism instead of Spirit, class instead of consciousness.
- National Socialists reject Hegel because Marx used him, turning instead to Fichte and Herder.
- Fascists borrow the Romantic–voluntarist elements (myth, will, unity) without the metaphysical system.
6. The Three Ideological Descendants
Marxism
- class struggle
- materialism
- historical determinism
- the dialectic inverted
- the State as instrument of class rule
Marxism is Hegel without Spirit, Romanticism without the individual, and Fichte without the nation.
National Socialism
- racial struggle
- Volk as biological destiny
- State supremacy
- unity through exclusion
- Fichtean nationalism + Herderian cultural unity
Nazism is Fichte radicalised, Herder racialised, and Romanticism weaponised.
Fascism
- myth
- will
- unity
- anti‑liberal modernism
- the State as a living organism
Fascism is Romanticism without Rousseau, Fichte without metaphysics, and Hegel with the “correct” dialectic.
7. The Big Picture
All three ideologies — Marxism, National Socialism, and Fascism — draw from the same Romantic–Idealist well, but each selects different ingredients:
- Marxism takes Hegel’s dialectic and Rousseau’s egalitarian moralism.
- National Socialism takes Fichte’s nationalism and Herder’s Volk metaphysics.
- Fascism takes Romantic will, myth, and the unified State.
They are siblings, not strangers — born from the same intellectual family, but raised in different political households.
#Fascism #Fascists #MarxismAndMarxists #NationalSocialism #Philosophy #Romanticism #Socialism #Socialists -
Genealogical Diagram: From Romanticism to Marxism, National Socialism, and Fascism
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ROUSSEAU & ROMANTICISM │ │ Natural self • Emotion • Authenticity │ │ Anti-rationalism • Volk (Herder) │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ KANT (Critical Philosophy) │ │ Limits of reason • Transcendental subject │ │ Moral autonomy • Noumena/phenomena │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ FICHTE & EARLY GERMAN IDEALISM │ │ The “I” posits itself • Struggle • Nationalism │ │ State as moral educator • Volk as spiritual unity │ └─────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ SCHELLING (Nature Philosophy) │ │ Romantic metaphysics • Nature as Spirit │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ HEGEL (High German Idealism) │ │ Dialectic • Spirit • History • State │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ │ ┌───────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ ┌──────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ │ MARXISM │ │ NATIONAL SOCIALISM │ │ FASCISM │ │ (Hegel inverted; │ │ (Fichtean nationalism; │ │ (Romantic will; myth; │ │ class dialectic) │ │ anti-Hegel due to Marx) │ │ State as unity) │ └──────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ ┌──────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ │ COMMUNISM │ │ HITLERISM / NAZISM │ │ MUSSOLINI’S FASCISM │ │ (Proletarian state) │ │ (Rosenberg uses Fichte, not │ │ (Sorel + nationalism + │ │ │ │ Hegel; Volk + race + State) │ │ modernist authoritarianism) │ └──────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘How to Read the Genealogy
1. Rousseau & Romanticism — the emotional and moral root system
Rousseau and the early Romantic movement sit at the same level because they are essentially two expressions of the same worldview. Rousseau provides the philosophical core; Romanticism turns it into a cultural force.
Together they supply the soil from which later ideologies grow:
- authenticity over rationalism
- the natural self as morally pure
- suspicion of civilisation and modernity
- the heroic individual
- the Volk as an organic cultural community (Johann Gottfried Herder’s contribution)
- emotion as a guide to truth
This is the pre‑ideological foundation that later thinkers will systematise, politicise, or weaponise.
2. Kant — the bridge from Romantic sentiment to philosophical structure
Immanuel Kant is not a Romantic, but he provides the crucial intellectual machinery that makes German Idealism possible:
- the transcendental subject
- the limits of empirical reason
- the autonomy of the moral will
- the distinction between appearance and reality
Kant gives later thinkers the architecture they need to turn Romantic intuitions into philosophical systems.
3. Fichte & Early German Idealism — the nationalist and voluntarist turn
Fichte stands at the same level as Early German Idealism because he is its first full expression. He radicalises Kant and fuses him with Romantic nationalism.
Fichte introduces:
- the self (“I”) as world‑creating
- struggle as the engine of moral development
- the State as educator and moral shaper
- the Volk as a spiritual community defined by language and culture
- the idea that national unity is a moral imperative
This is why the National Socialists later mined him so heavily: he provides a philosophical justification for unity, struggle, and State supremacy without the Marxist baggage attached to Hegel.
4. Schelling — the Romantic metaphysician
Schelling blends Romanticism and Idealism into a metaphysics of nature:
- nature as living Spirit
- the unity of mind and world
- the aesthetic as a path to truth
He is the bridge between Fichte’s voluntarism and Hegel’s system‑building.
5. Hegel — the system‑builder of history and the State
Hegel takes the entire Romantic–Idealist inheritance and turns it into a grand historical machine:
- the dialectic
- Spirit unfolding through conflict
- history as rational development
- the State as the embodiment of ethical life
- freedom as recognition within institutions
Hegel is the pivot point. From him, the ideological branches diverge.
- Marx takes Hegel’s dialectic and flips it upside down: materialism instead of Spirit, class instead of consciousness.
- National Socialists reject Hegel because Marx used him, turning instead to Fichte and Herder.
- Fascists borrow the Romantic–voluntarist elements (myth, will, unity) without the metaphysical system.
6. The Three Ideological Descendants
Marxism
- class struggle
- materialism
- historical determinism
- the dialectic inverted
- the State as instrument of class rule
Marxism is Hegel without Spirit, Romanticism without the individual, and Fichte without the nation.
National Socialism
- racial struggle
- Volk as biological destiny
- State supremacy
- unity through exclusion
- Fichtean nationalism + Herderian cultural unity
Nazism is Fichte radicalised, Herder racialised, and Romanticism weaponised.
Fascism
- myth
- will
- unity
- anti‑liberal modernism
- the State as a living organism
Fascism is Romanticism without Rousseau, Fichte without metaphysics, and Hegel with the “correct” dialectic.
7. The Big Picture
All three ideologies — Marxism, National Socialism, and Fascism — draw from the same Romantic–Idealist well, but each selects different ingredients:
- Marxism takes Hegel’s dialectic and Rousseau’s egalitarian moralism.
- National Socialism takes Fichte’s nationalism and Herder’s Volk metaphysics.
- Fascism takes Romantic will, myth, and the unified State.
They are siblings, not strangers — born from the same intellectual family, but raised in different political households.
#Fascism #Fascists #MarxismAndMarxists #NationalSocialism #Philosophy #Romanticism #Socialism #Socialists -
Genealogical Diagram: From Romanticism to Marxism, National Socialism, and Fascism
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ROUSSEAU & ROMANTICISM │ │ Natural self • Emotion • Authenticity │ │ Anti-rationalism • Volk (Herder) │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ KANT (Critical Philosophy) │ │ Limits of reason • Transcendental subject │ │ Moral autonomy • Noumena/phenomena │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ FICHTE & EARLY GERMAN IDEALISM │ │ The “I” posits itself • Struggle • Nationalism │ │ State as moral educator • Volk as spiritual unity │ └─────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ SCHELLING (Nature Philosophy) │ │ Romantic metaphysics • Nature as Spirit │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ HEGEL (High German Idealism) │ │ Dialectic • Spirit • History • State │ └───────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘ │ │ ┌───────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ ┌──────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ │ MARXISM │ │ NATIONAL SOCIALISM │ │ FASCISM │ │ (Hegel inverted; │ │ (Fichtean nationalism; │ │ (Romantic will; myth; │ │ class dialectic) │ │ anti-Hegel due to Marx) │ │ State as unity) │ └──────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ ┌──────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ │ COMMUNISM │ │ HITLERISM / NAZISM │ │ MUSSOLINI’S FASCISM │ │ (Proletarian state) │ │ (Rosenberg uses Fichte, not │ │ (Sorel + nationalism + │ │ │ │ Hegel; Volk + race + State) │ │ modernist authoritarianism) │ └──────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘How to Read the Genealogy
1. Rousseau & Romanticism — the emotional and moral root system
Rousseau and the early Romantic movement sit at the same level because they are essentially two expressions of the same worldview. Rousseau provides the philosophical core; Romanticism turns it into a cultural force.
Together they supply the soil from which later ideologies grow:
- authenticity over rationalism
- the natural self as morally pure
- suspicion of civilisation and modernity
- the heroic individual
- the Volk as an organic cultural community (Johann Gottfried Herder’s contribution)
- emotion as a guide to truth
This is the pre‑ideological foundation that later thinkers will systematise, politicise, or weaponise.
2. Kant — the bridge from Romantic sentiment to philosophical structure
Immanuel Kant is not a Romantic, but he provides the crucial intellectual machinery that makes German Idealism possible:
- the transcendental subject
- the limits of empirical reason
- the autonomy of the moral will
- the distinction between appearance and reality
Kant gives later thinkers the architecture they need to turn Romantic intuitions into philosophical systems.
3. Fichte & Early German Idealism — the nationalist and voluntarist turn
Fichte stands at the same level as Early German Idealism because he is its first full expression. He radicalises Kant and fuses him with Romantic nationalism.
Fichte introduces:
- the self (“I”) as world‑creating
- struggle as the engine of moral development
- the State as educator and moral shaper
- the Volk as a spiritual community defined by language and culture
- the idea that national unity is a moral imperative
This is why the National Socialists later mined him so heavily: he provides a philosophical justification for unity, struggle, and State supremacy without the Marxist baggage attached to Hegel.
4. Schelling — the Romantic metaphysician
Schelling blends Romanticism and Idealism into a metaphysics of nature:
- nature as living Spirit
- the unity of mind and world
- the aesthetic as a path to truth
He is the bridge between Fichte’s voluntarism and Hegel’s system‑building.
5. Hegel — the system‑builder of history and the State
Hegel takes the entire Romantic–Idealist inheritance and turns it into a grand historical machine:
- the dialectic
- Spirit unfolding through conflict
- history as rational development
- the State as the embodiment of ethical life
- freedom as recognition within institutions
Hegel is the pivot point. From him, the ideological branches diverge.
- Marx takes Hegel’s dialectic and flips it upside down: materialism instead of Spirit, class instead of consciousness.
- National Socialists reject Hegel because Marx used him, turning instead to Fichte and Herder.
- Fascists borrow the Romantic–voluntarist elements (myth, will, unity) without the metaphysical system.
6. The Three Ideological Descendants
Marxism
- class struggle
- materialism
- historical determinism
- the dialectic inverted
- the State as instrument of class rule
Marxism is Hegel without Spirit, Romanticism without the individual, and Fichte without the nation.
National Socialism
- racial struggle
- Volk as biological destiny
- State supremacy
- unity through exclusion
- Fichtean nationalism + Herderian cultural unity
Nazism is Fichte radicalised, Herder racialised, and Romanticism weaponised.
Fascism
- myth
- will
- unity
- anti‑liberal modernism
- the State as a living organism
Fascism is Romanticism without Rousseau, Fichte without metaphysics, and Hegel with the “correct” dialectic.
7. The Big Picture
All three ideologies — Marxism, National Socialism, and Fascism — draw from the same Romantic–Idealist well, but each selects different ingredients:
- Marxism takes Hegel’s dialectic and Rousseau’s egalitarian moralism.
- National Socialism takes Fichte’s nationalism and Herder’s Volk metaphysics.
- Fascism takes Romantic will, myth, and the unified State.
They are siblings, not strangers — born from the same intellectual family, but raised in different political households.
#Fascism #Fascists #MarxismAndMarxists #NationalSocialism #Philosophy #Romanticism #Socialism #Socialists -
In "Alimentary Orientalism" Yin Yuan follows the politics of tea, sugar & opium in 18th & 19th c Britain: How did British authors portray Otherness & the consumption of the Orient?
#PostColonialStudies #Orientalism #FoodStudies #EnglishLiterature #LiteraryStudies #Romanticism #VictorianLiterature
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Yu Liu's book "From Chinese Cosmology to English Romanticism" covers Anglo-Chinese relations 1600-1830 and their influence (via Spinoza) on #RomanticLiterature - e.g. #Coleridge & #Wordsworth - & art & landscape gardening
#Romanticism #EnglishLiterature #China #philosophy #CulturalStudies
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New book alert 🔔🔔🔔
Gavin Hopps applies theories such as #AffectTheory #EcoTheology #NewMaterialism & #ReEnchantment in his post-secular re-reading of the literature of the #Romantics#Romanticism #RomanticLiterature #LiteraryStudies
Catalogue link: https://opac.sub.uni-goettingen.de/DB=1/XMLPRS=N/PPN?PPN=1928707394
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#52booksin52weeks 50. Set in a Castle - I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith ##ComingOfAge #poverty #romanticism #romance #nature #freedom #history #Modernity #youngadulthood #1930s #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #booktok #booksky #ttrpgpodcast #gamemastersbookclub https://www.k-squareproductions.com/gmbc
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#52booksin52weeks 50. Set in a Castle - I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith ##ComingOfAge #poverty #romanticism #romance #nature #freedom #history #Modernity #youngadulthood #1930s #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #booktok #booksky #ttrpgpodcast #gamemastersbookclub https://www.k-squareproductions.com/gmbc
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#52booksin52weeks 50. Set in a Castle - I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith ##ComingOfAge #poverty #romanticism #romance #nature #freedom #history #Modernity #youngadulthood #1930s #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #booktok #booksky #ttrpgpodcast #gamemastersbookclub https://www.k-squareproductions.com/gmbc
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#52booksin52weeks 50. Set in a Castle - I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith ##ComingOfAge #poverty #romanticism #romance #nature #freedom #history #Modernity #youngadulthood #1930s #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #booktok #booksky #ttrpgpodcast #gamemastersbookclub https://www.k-squareproductions.com/gmbc
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#52booksin52weeks 50. Set in a Castle - I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith ##ComingOfAge #poverty #romanticism #romance #nature #freedom #history #Modernity #youngadulthood #1930s #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #booktok #booksky #ttrpgpodcast #gamemastersbookclub https://www.k-squareproductions.com/gmbc
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Top ten posts in 2025 https://library.hrmtc.com/2026/01/01/top-ten-posts-in-2025/ #2025 #AA #aeon #aeonOfHorus #AeonOfMaat #AeonOfTruthAndJustice #Aiwass #alanMoore #aleisterCrowley #AlexBhattacharji #amalantrahWorking #antiquity #AntonLaVey #ArthurMoros #asAbove #bbc #bestPosts #bestTen #bibliography #blackCube #cathars #charlatan #CharlesStansfeld #christianSects #ChristianTheosophy #churchOfSatan #cinema #darkArts #DavidBeth #divine #doctrinalFaith #ElizabethMarshall #ElsieGrayParker #encounter #fraterAchad #fraudster #GaryParsons #genius #geraldYorke #gnosis #gnostics #god #grimoire #groundOfBeing #hermeticPhilosophy #hermeticism #hermetics #historicalDevelopment #humanBody #innerEnlightenment #ItalianHumanistRenaissance #Jewish #JewishEsotericism #JewishStudies #JohnCoulthart #johnSymonds #Jones #JudithVonHalle #justice #kabbalah #kabbalisticCosmology #karlGermer #KennethGrant #LeslieOdomJr #Liber31 #LondonUnderground #MaIaon #maat #magic #magicalSon #magick #MarlaSegol #master #medievalKabbalah #MichaelBarnam #michaelStaley #middleAges #modernTimes #mountaineer #myth #newAge #NewAgeMovement #OTO #occult #occultism #occultist #PaulMorley #pervert #poet #poetry #postEnlightenment #poster #presentDay #Promethea #prophet #pureRationality #Radio4 #relationship #religion #religiousTraditions #RenaissanceHermeticists #revelatoryExperience #ritual #ritualPractice #RoelofVanDenBroek #RollingStone #romanticism #rosicrucianism #rudolfSteiner #SammyDavisJr #Saturnian #sexMagic #sexuality #soBelow #spiritualAlchemy #summary #summaryOfTheYear #TheBookOfTheLaw #TheEquinoxOfTheGods #TheGreatBeast #theWickedestManInTheWorld #TomasVincente #topPosts #topTen #treeOfLife #trueSelf #truth #westernEsotericism #WesternSexMagic #WhiteLodge #worldView #WouterJHanegraaff -
Read essays on subliminal dream creations in 200 years of #Gothic works - from #Coleridge & #Walpole to #Piranesi #Goya & #Fuseli & #MaryWollstonecraft to #vampires #Marxism & videogames such as #TheWitcher & #Bloodbourne
Find the book here:
https://s.gwdg.de/B3pPBe#LiteraryStudies #GamesStudies #Romanticism #RomanticLiterature
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French-German writer, officer, poet and botanist Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838) tells us about the dangers of letting genAI take over things that are truly ours.
Here's Peter Schlemihl being offered uncountable riches in return for handing over his shadow:
“During the short time when I enjoyed the happiness of being near you, I observed, Sir,—will you allow me to say so—I observed, with unutterable admiration, the beautiful, beautiful shadow in the sun, which with a certain noble contempt, and perhaps without being aware of it, you threw off from your feet; forgive me this, I confess, too daring intrusion, but should you be inclined to transfer it to me?”
The story does not end well for Schlemihl.
Adelbert von Chamisso, Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (1814). Translated into English by John Bowring (3rd edition 1861). page 31
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/21943/2194
#noAI #noLLM #DoNotSellYourShadow #AdelbertVonChamisso #PeterSchlemihl #RomanticLiterature
#Romanticism -
Many thanks to the program committee and organizers, and to the NASSR executive for a fantastic #NASSR2025!
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Excited to be attending the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism (#NASSR)'s 2025 conference "Romanticism's Commons".
Conference website: https://landing.athabascau.ca/pages/view/23452548/romanticism%E2%80%99s-commons-nassrs-2025-conference-online
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Sneaking into this #MonsterMonday thread thanks to its name is
"William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love" by @philiphoare.bsky.social
Why does #WilliamBlake continue to inspire poets, artists & filmmakers? Find out in this enthusiastic volume -
Putting aside quibbles about whether #PhilipKitcher's critique of #analyticPhilosophy is novel, I found #TimothyWilliamson's critique to be the kind of #romanticism, #anecdote, and unsupported speculation that's dissatisfying and deficient to empirically-oriented #philosophers like #Kitcher (see my #marginalia).
If I were #Kitcher, #Williamson's critique may not provoke a single qualm about my latest #book; it may only reinforce my concern about contemporary analytic #philosophy/#philosophers.
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8 years ago #OTD, David Bowie died.
This essay collection, ed. by James Rovira, connects #DavidBowie & #Romanticism, exploring ideas of #androgyny, space, music & #RomanticLiterature & more!And what a perfect #mashup book cover in the #CasparDavidFriedrich year 2024! #CDF250
⚡️👨🎤🥀
Find the book here in our collection @subugoe
https://opac.sub.uni-goettingen.de/DB=1/XMLPRS=N/PPN?PPN=1842024744
⚡️ -
Edinburgh University Press has included 25 literary studies journals in its #OpenAccess campaign running this January.
This includes free access to #CrimeFictionStudies, #GothicStudies, #JournalOfInklingsStudies, #Romanticism, #Victoriographies, and many others!
Browse them all here: https://www.euppublishing.com/literarystudies
#Journals #CrimeFiction #Gothic #Inklings #Romantics #Victorian #VictorianStudies #FreeAccess #LiteraryStudies
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Quote in [1] from:
Adelbert von Chamisso,
Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (1814).Translated into English by John Bowring (3rd edition 1861). page 31
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/21943/21943-h/21943-h.htm
Thanks to Project Gutenberg:
@gutenberg_org#AdelbertVonChamisso #PeterSchlemihl #RomanticLiterature
#Romanticism[2/2]
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Romanticism is the elated fascination with our ability to tear away the veil of familiarity from things. Gothic is our mounting unease at what might lie behind it. #romanticism #gothic #RomanticLiterature #poetry #literature #philosophy
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So now that the news is out: happy to say I’ve been elected to a 3y term on the board of #nassr (North American Society for the Study of #Romanticism of course!). Thanks to all who voted, and very happy to hear from fellow (or prospective) members of that fabulous society, esp. international. Qs, concerns, &c. I should take into a meeting? Let me know! @litstudies #histodon (Does Romantic studies have a hashtag? #romantidon #romadon ?)