One Challenge to a Democracy Founded by Enlightenment Thinkers

Isaiah Berlin argued that the Enlightenment faith in reason was changed by Romanticism. This has profound consequences for democracy.

Enlightenment trust in reason suggests that reality is something that gives way to the scientific method, rational analysis yielding insights about reality. Romanticism, by contrast, suggests invented reality that is the product of the complex mix of values, feelings, and creative ability of individuals and groups. The Enlightenment gave us a new way to look at natural reality. For instance, Benjamin Franklin's lightning rod that treated lightning as a natural phenomenon rather than a divine act. But to the extent that experienced reality becomes something manufactured by consensus rather than given by nature, rational analysis of what we observe gives way to passionate discussion of what we want to see.

This can change political discourse. A purely rational, Enlightenment-based approach might emphasize technocratic decision-making, while a Romantic approach might prioritize the lived experiences, feelings, and intuitions of individuals and groups. Debates about best policies for creating the good life give way to debates about the very definition of the good life. As Louis Menand puts it, "Romanticism rejected the end [goal] of self-understanding and replaced it with the end [goal] of self-creation."

If that end goal is about how an individual creates a life, there is no conflict. If that end goal is about how a people create a nation, there is infinite debate and conflict to follow.