Francisco de Goya’s - The sleep of reason produces monsters

I recently came across this beautiful etching by Francisco de Goya in a book by Christopher Hitchens.

This is about the power of reason, and its dormancy.

Rationality, the sense of moral honesty with oneself, the willingness to change opinions in face of the evidence and logic.

Otherwise, we’re trapped in darkness of tribal-thinking and falsehoods. Are they owls or are they bats?

According to the Fitzwilliam:

In the 1790s, middle-aged, deaf and weakened by a serious illness, the Spanish artist Goya, began producing what is generally regarded as his most important work. His talents as a portrait painter were already recognised, but it was only after his illness that his imagination truly came to the fore. As the above quotation from the English essayist Joseph Addison and the imagery of this print both suggest, suffering has a tendency to unlock the darker parts of the human mind.