"The sleep of reason produces monsters"

This is my first debate, and I am very happy to be able to practice and learn from all the talented people in this site. Also, I am glad to be able to practice my written English, which is not my native language. Thanks to everyone for the comments. My opponent stated: "When you die, your reason sleeps-- permanently. " There is a problem with this argument. I suppose that by "you" my opponent means an individual. Then, he is stating: when an individual dies, his reason sleeps permanently. The definition of "sleep" implies that it is a periodic state. (1) Sleep is identified with death only as an euphemism, but not as a definition. When something "sleeps forever", when there is no reasonable hope for it to awake, it means it is no sleeping, but dead. So, when an idividual dies, reason dies with him, but not sleeps. Is my opponent expecting reason to wake up in a decayed corpse? If not, he is accepting that reason dies with the individual's death, not sleeps. When does reason sleep, then? It is important to understand the Goya's (1746-1828) quote in its context. "In 1798, Goya Painted several portraits which suggest his profound sympathies with the late eighteenth-century Spanish liberalism. " (2) Liberalism promoted education, progress, and natural law, it represented the downfall of the absolute power of the aristocracy and the Roman church, against the emerging bourgeoisie. Clearly, it was a threat to the Spanish Inquisition (1478 to 1843) and the conservatives, which attacked any form of progress and liberalization: "During the Carlist Wars (1833-1876) it was the conservatives who fought the progressists who wanted to reduce the Church's power, amongst other reforms to liberalise the economy. " (3) In this context it is clear that Goya is referring to the fight between two positions: the one of reason, represented by liberals, and the one of the "sleep" of reason, represented by conservatives and the Spanish Inquisition. If the liberals lost the fight, "monsters would be produced". By monsters, Goya was refering to some of the worst tyrants of the Insquisition, such as De Torquemada (XVth century): "The Dominican monk Tomï¿½s de Torquemada, the first Grand Inquisitor, became the symbol of torture and terror. Jews and Muslims in particular were sought out for conversion, and thousands were persecuted even after conversion and accused of being secret heretics. Estimates of the number of burnings at the stake vary widely; but burnings were a daily event, and an estimate of 2,000 deaths while de Torquemada was in charge is definitely not exaggerated. " (4) And he was not wrong, when, in 1814, Ferdinand VII recoverd power from the liberal Cortes de Cï¿½diz, "within a matter of weeks, encouraged by conservatives and backed by the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, he abolished the constitution on 4 May and arrested numerous liberal leaders on 10 May. " (5) And again, the Spanish people were deprived from progress, which slowed the Industrial Revolution in Spain and its colonies; again, they faced the "monsters" of absolute tyrants that obeyed no constitution. In conclusion, the idea portrayed in the Goya's phrase "the sleep of reason produces monsters", that is, the defeat of liberals produces tyrants, is true, according to History. (1) . http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu... (2) . http://www.jstor.org... (3) . http://en.wikipedia.org... (4) . http://www.es.flinders.edu.au...