Incitatus

Incitatus was die naam van die perd van die Romeinse keiser, Caligula. Hierdie keiser het homself eenmaal so vir sy Senatore se stiksienigheid vererg het dat hy besluit het om aan sy volbloedhings, genaamd Incitatus, 'n Senaatsetel toe te ken. Volgens die keiser was die swyende teenwoordigheid van Incitatus meer werd as die deurmekaar gebabbel, lewensmoeë en rugstekende gebrek aan oortuigingsmoed van die meeste Senatore.

In die uitstekende (vir jong geeste 'n moet-lees!) essay, "The Sportive Origin of the State" (gepubliseer in die vertaalde boek: History as a System), gebruik die Spaanse filosoof, José Ortega y Gasset, die beeld van Incitatus as aanduiding van die kernonderskeid tussen oorsaaklike verbande in die natuur en die lewensprinsiep van aansporing in die menslike karakter. Dié term is die oorsprong van die Engelse woord "incite" en die Afrikaanse "aanmoedig", en selfs motivering. Ons haal aan in die Engels:

What is Incitement ?

“The expression most fragrant with the scent of life, and one of the prettiest in the dictionary, is to my mind the word ‘incitement.’ It has no meaning except in the disciplines of life.

Physics does not know of it. In physics one thing does not incite another; it causes it and the cause produces an effect in proportion to itself. A billiard ball colliding with another imparts to it an impulse in principle equal to its own; cause and effect are equal.

But when the spur’s point ever so lightly touches its flank, the thoroughbred breaks into a gallop, generously out of proportion to the impulse of the spur. The reaction of the horse, rather than a response to an impulse, is a release of exuberant inner energies. Indeed, a skittish horse, with its nervous head and fiery eye, is a splendid image of stirring life. Thus we imagine the magnificent stallion whom Caligula called Incitatus and made a member of the Roman Senate.”

Jose Ortega y Gasset

1883-1955

Spanish philosopher

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