Unreason vs. reason

Cults_of_Unreason_1974
Adorable seventies graphic design on the cover of Cults of Unreason (1973).

Of course, the classic illustration of unreason is The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters by Goya, the image of a sleeping artist surrounded by winged ghoulies and beasties unleashed by unreason.

Unreason on the whole is a subject of innumerable greater interest than reason. As such, I’ll take the counter-enlightenment over the enlightenment any day. Conceded, there were interesting aspects of the enlightenment, ignored by history, such as the enlightenment of Thérèse Philosophe. See Robert Darnton’s The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France.