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The Wisdom of Stupidity in Romanticism

The document discusses how Romantic thinkers valued the irrational, foolish, and stupid in reaction to Enlightenment thought. It cites William Blake saying that persisting in folly can lead to wisdom. It also discusses Carl Jung arguing that extracting wisdom from stupidity requires art, and stupidity is the mother of the wise. Similarly, Michel Foucault argued that stupidity is necessary to reconnect with what categories exclude and recapture difference.

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4 views1 page

The Wisdom of Stupidity in Romanticism

The document discusses how Romantic thinkers valued the irrational, foolish, and stupid in reaction to Enlightenment thought. It cites William Blake saying that persisting in folly can lead to wisdom. It also discusses Carl Jung arguing that extracting wisdom from stupidity requires art, and stupidity is the mother of the wise. Similarly, Michel Foucault argued that stupidity is necessary to reconnect with what categories exclude and recapture difference.

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mtbrain
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© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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In the Romantic reaction to Enlightenment wisdom, a valorisation of the irrational, the foolish, and

the stupid emerged, as in William Blake's dictum that "if the fool would persist in his folly he would
become wise;"[17] or Jung's belief that "it requires no art to become stupid; the whole art lies in
extracting wisdom from stupidity. Stupidity is the mother of the wise, but cleverness never."[18]
Similarly, Michel Foucault argued for the necessity of stupidity to re-connect with what our
articulate categories exclude, to recapture the alterity of difference.[19]

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