Reason

Reason was described by Plato as being the natural monarch that should rule over spiritedness and emotion.

 

The above image is an etching made by the Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes. The etching contains the words "El sueno de la razon produce monstruos" (in Spanish) translated as “the sleep of reason produces monsters”.

Here, Goya shows a man asleep, his head resting on his folded arms. Owls and bats fly menacingly around his head; at his feet, a lynx sits motionless, alert and staring. Bats, bloodsucking creatures of the night, evoked associations with the devil; owls, were at the time symbols of "mindless stupidities," not, as we might suppose today, of wisdom. Yet there is an intimation of wisdom in this unsettling scene: the ability to see through darkness and perceive truth from error was the special talent of the lynx. It seems the sleeper is none other than the artist himself, offered a piece of artist's chalk by one of the owls. If this is a self-portrait, Goya, at fifty, is a man exhausted; beset by demons that haunt him, assault him, but might, after all, serve to inspire him; a man seeking wisdom, yet subject to a swirling maelstrom of stupidities and evils.

I had a conversation earlier today with a friend, which took a very interesting spin. I shared with her how I was interested in learning more about people's beliefs, more so to do with the religions of the world. She said that I better be careful lest I not stray too far from God. I thought the comment to be absurd. I guess this blog-post is in the context of my thought process that followed thereafter.