On July 16, 1969, million people from all over the country in the USA, converged on CAPE KENNEDY, FLORIDA, to witness the launching of Apollo 11 that carried astronauts to the moon.
On august 15, a good no of people converged on
Readers must be wondering, as to what connection does a rock show have with the launching of Apollo 11?? These two were the greatest news of that year not philosophical theories. These were facts of our actual existence the kind of facts which philosophy has to do nothing with. But if one cares to understand the meaning of these two events – to grasp their roots and their consequences – one will understand the power of philosophy and learn to recognize the specific forms in which philosophical abstractions appear in our actual existence. The issue discussed here is the alleged dichotomy between reason and emotion.
This distinction between reason and emotion has been presented in many variants in the history of philosophy but, there is a very colourful and discrepant view given by FREDRICH NIETZSCHE, in his book, “ THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY FROM THE SPIRIT OF MUSIC”. He observed two opposite elements in Greek tragedy, which he saw as metaphysical principles inherent in the nature of reality. One was the Greek god of light; APOLLO, and the other was the Greek god of wine; DIONYSUS. According to Nietzsche’s metaphysics:
Apollo is the symbol of beauty, order, wisdom, efficacy- that’s the symbol of reason. DIONYSUS on the other hand, is the symbol of drunkenness, wild primeval feeling, orgiastic joy, the dark, the savage, and the unintelligible element in man – i.e. the symbol of emotion.
From a simpler point of view, Apollo is a necessary but an unreliable element thus an inferior guide to existence that gives man a superficial view of reality – the illusion of an orderly universe. Dionysus is the free, unfettered spirit that offers man, by means of a mysterious intuition induced by wine and drugs a more profound vision of a different kind of reality and is thus the superior of the two. Apollo represents the principal of individuality and Dionysus, leads man into complete self forgetfulness and into merging with the oneness of nature. Reason, is the faculty of an individual, to be exercised individually and it is only dark irrational emotions, expunging one’s mind that can enable a man to melt, merge, and dissolve into a mob or a tribe.
So the question which comes up is does it hurt then being an emotional person? The reply to this question isn’t possible in word. The person inclined towards Apollo would simply refute or shun the idea of being emotional, but, at one point all of us feel. An emotional person has a high level of feeling, but it is a good thing. It is not an issue how many times you get hurt, the issue is that you don’t loose the power to feel. When you loose the power to feel, you loose the power to get hurt, which maybe a bright side to most people. But basically it is the power to be happy. You can never fell with your mind; you have to feel with your heart. You got to get that heart broken once so that you can put it together and treasure it.
I think I got deviated from the main stream, what I wanted to deduce is not this, but something drastically different. I want to make it crystal clear to folks out there that, it is not true that reason and emotion are irreconcilable antagonists or that emotions are wild unknowable and ineffable element in human beings. But this is what emotions become for those who don’t know how they feel and who attempt to subordinate reason to their emotions. I want to bring a harmonic relationship between reason and emotions. That they both go hand in hand. And that, a person can neither be completely reasonable nor purely emotional.
During the recent floods in Mumbai, the city was in a condition of disarray. Complete chaos and confusion was the case. But those people weren't a stampeding herd or a manipulated mob. The people didn’t devastate the existing lifestyle, they didn’t throw themselves apart, and they didn’t create any victims. They came as responsible individuals able to project the reality of two or three days ahead and to provide for their own needs. There were people of every age, creed, colour, educational level and economic status. They lived and slept in tents and their cars, some of them in great discomfort yet continued to do so for many days. They projected a general feeling o good will. During those hard times, people sharing a same tent, were strangers, yet they intently heard each other out, tried to ease each other of their pains. It is wonderful to feel, for once, that people aren't vicious, that one doesn’t have to suspect them, and that we've something good in common. They spoke of everything except, the question that is they rational or emotional? Because that didn’t really matter.
So here's my conclusion; this is the genuine feeling of human brotherhood: the brotherhood of values. This is the only authentic form of unity among men – and only values can achieve it. Terms like reason and emotion; rational and irrational; Apollo and Dionysus, disunite us, fragment us and are thus of least importance. What is important is the compassion which one human feels for another when he sees the latter in distress.
