XII. Romanticism

A striking feature of Rosa’s analysis of modernity is a latent degree of conservatism, which manifests itself in a form of socio-ontological romanticism about the past, notably in relation to premodern societies. This tendency is reflected in Rosa’s focus on the various negative features of modernity, notably those associated with experiences of alienation. Arguably, Rosa pays insufficient attention to the far-reaching implications of the ambivalence that is built into modernity: (1) on the ontological level, in terms of the tension between ‘modernity in itself’ and ‘modernity for itself’; (2) on the normative level, in terms of the tension between ‘dark modernity’ and ‘bright modernity’; (3) and, on the spatiotemporal level, in terms of the tension between ‘backward-looking modernity’ and ‘forward-looking modernity’.