Last week I talked about how Romantics were, in part, rebelling against the ideals set by the Enlightenment. One of those ideals is the notion that reason is more important than feeling because it is our intellect that separates us from the animals and elevates us and if we allow ourselves to be governed by our passions then we lower ourselves to primitive beings. As John Locke said, "Reason must be our last judge and guide in everything."
The Romantics disagreed. They placed feeling and emotions over logic and reasoning. William Wordsworth said, "Water cannot rise higher than its source, neither can human reason." Reason is great and all, but it can only get you so far. Meanwhile, according to William Blake what you need to make that creative leap is imagination. In following only reason the poet (and/or the soul) is allowing themselves to be boxed in. In allowing themselves to be emotionally moved the Romantics believed that they were elevating their spirits. Of course, logic and reasoning were still important, it's just that the Romantics didn't place it in as high regard as their Enlightenment counterparts.
In Supernatural, Sam and Dean aren't exactly known to be the brainiest of people. They tend to unnecessarily state the obvious and sometimes it takes someone else to out what would be an clear connection and other times it seems like they're just not thinking things through all the way. Fans call their brand of reasoning "Winchester Logic".
Now, that's not to say that the boys aren't intelligent. They are. They do some generally do some serious detective work in figuring their monster of the week. The thing is Winchester Logic isn't powered by reasoning and certainly not the kind of reasoning the Enlightenment philosophers and poets boasted about. Winchester Logic is powered by imagination and emotion.
The Winchesters are resourceful. They work best in the heat of the moment, when they rely on their instincts. It seems to be something they learned from their father and the monster hunting culture they grew up in.
Ellen: What kind of demons are these? Holy water and salt roll right off. My daughter may be an idiot, but she's not stupid. She wears an anti-possesion charm. It's all kind of weird, right?
Dean: The whole thing's off.
Ellen: What's your instinct? (5x02)
When they're backs are against the wall and time is running out and they don't try to logic their out the problem; they follow their guts.
Winchester Logic is the Romantics' belief in feeling and imagination over reason put in action. Not only that, it is an example of how it can be used to triumph over the hyper-rational and the establishment. (Yeah, we're gonna keep coming back to that rebellion thing.)
In "On the Head of a Pin" (4x16) Castiel explains that he has been demoted in the angelic ranks because his superiors see that he has "begun to express emotions, doorways to doubt. This can impair my judgment." For angels, emotions are a sign of weakness. Like Enlightenment philosophers they believe that emotions debase us into more lesser, more primitive beings. They, on the other hand, are superior not just because of their Grace but because they don't allow themselves to succumb to their feelings. After all, that's what made Lucifer fall in the first place - he put his feelings first.
The angels try to tempt the boys into accepting their fates as Lucifer and Michael's vessels by first confusing them and promising paradise, as if accepting destiny is the most logical choice to make. When that doesn't work, they intimidate and instill fear.
Zachariah: Wow. Running from angel...On foot...In heaven. With out-of-the-box thinking like that I'm surprised you boys haven't stopped the Apocalypse already. (5x16)
Except, it's with that "out-of-the-box thinking" that they stop the Apocalypse.
With Lucifer inhabiting Sam and Michael in their half-brother Adam, Dean meets them on their battlefield and pleads with Sam, refusing to let his baby brother die alone. Even as Lucifer begins to pummel Dean, he still tries to reassure Sam that things will be okay, that he won't leave him. And then, something happens; something the angels didn't count on.
It wasn't reason that pulled Sam out from under Lucifer's control and it wasn't reason that gave him the strength to do so. In Hymn to Intellectual Beauty and Prometheus Unbound, Percy Shelley states that love is the most important virtue; specifically Eros, romantic and sensual love. For the Winchesters, it is Philia, love of family and friends.
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