Buddhist Romanticism

and being provocative himself—or else the scientific influence was so
pervasive in the educated circles in which he traveled that he took it for
granted. But trends in the sciences of the time provide the key to
understanding how the early Romantics framed their thoughts about
politics, philosophy, and literature.
All of the Romantics, in their various ways, showed not only a
knowledge of contemporary science but also a conviction that scientific
knowledge was crucial for understanding themselves and the world in
which they lived. Novalis, in his novel, Heinrich von Ofterdingen, stated
explicitly that the education of every good poet should be solidly based on
a study of the latest advances in the sciences. Schelling, when he switched
his studies from theology to philosophy, spent several years reading up on
the sciences, and continued to stay abreast of scientific developments
throughout the early part of his career. Schlegel, on meeting Fichte for the
first time, expressed surprise that such a preeminent philosopher would
express no interest in science or history at all. Schleiermacher sprinkled his
book, Talks on Religion, with frequent allusions to astronomy, chemistry,
and biology. Even Hölderlin, the most poetically inclined of the Romantics,
planned at one point to publish a journal whose mission was to unite the
sciences with the humanities.
So it’s completely in line with the Romantic worldview that we preface
our discussion of Romantic views on politics, philosophy, and literature
with a brief sketch of the scientific trends that exerted the strongest pull on
the Romantic imagination.
There’s a common belief that the early Romantics were anti-scientific,
that they rejected the rationalist scientific approach promoted by the 18th
century Enlightenment in favor of a more introspective, poetic approach,
privileging the importance of their own emotions and imagination over the
hard, dry facts of the material world. And although it is true that the early
Romantics gave great importance to the life of their emotions and
imagination, they felt that they had scientific reasons for doing so. As
children of the Enlightenment, they may have rebelled in some ways
against their parents, but in other ways they inherited many of the
Enlightenment’s tendencies.
One of those tendencies was that, in exploring their emotions and
imagination, they saw themselves as pioneers in the science of the mind.
Furthermore, they saw each human body and mind as a microcosm of
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