Two portraits of Italian violinist Paganini, top by Delacroix, bottom by Ingres

Those following after the (mostly French) Continental schools of Enlightenment, by contrast, tended towards A World Half Full and Rousseau Was Right that is, mankind is a blank slate which is mostly influenced by its environment, and thus not inherently "selfish" or "selfless" inasmuch as simply interested in self-preservation and seeking comfort. They believe that we don't need destroying humanity and recreating it anew, because our selfish genes can be harnessed for the Greater Good if they can be used as rewards for productive behaviourthis is why they advocate utilitarianism, democracynoteIndividuals ambitious for political power must serve the people and compete with other similarly-ambitious people while the people know of their misdeeds, thus keeping them relatively honest and to a lesser extent the incentives provided by industrial capitalism.noteIndividuals ambitious for wealth must manufacture something that society values in order to deserve it, and the competition forces them to continue producing better inventions, possibly forever, as long as everyone is honest. Unfortunately Social Darwinism takes the "competition drives innovation" part to the genocidal extreme. Romanticists generally agree with the "bastardy animals" idea, but they tend to accept it and not the "utilitarianism converts bastardy animalness into prosperity" solution.

For an example of how this works, consider the important proto-postmodern text Dialectic of Enlightenment, which critiqued modernism and Enlightenment as being nothing other than an extended, totalitarian form of the same (Romantic) primitive world-mythology that grips all people - "[M]yth is already enlightenment; and enlightenment reverts to mythology."

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It goes much deeper than that. Madoka transforms from a girl who hates herself toa happy girl who essentially kills herself and disembodies her spirit in order to create a new system where all magical girls are saved while the Energy system is not compromised. Madoka let the Kyubey exist to prevent Entropy and give humanity civilization, only that the worst and unnecessary waste products of the Puella Magi system (witches) are gone. Given that she simultaneously assists Kyubey in his goal of preventing the heat-death of the universe, and that she gives up her self to help fix the world, it seems like a rather Enlightened work to me. If Madoka straight-up wished that Kyubey didn't exist and accepted her life as "naked and living in caves" while the universe dies from entropy, it would be Romanticist.

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Romanticism Versus Enlightenment - TV Tropes