Science and Magic in the Modern World

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429954700
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis Science and Magic in the Modern World by : Eugene Subbotsky

Download or read book Science and Magic in the Modern World written by Eugene Subbotsky and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-04 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science and Magic in the Modern World is a unique text that explores the role of magical thinking in everyday life. It provides an excellent psychological look at the subconscious belief in magic in both popular culture and society, as well as experimental research that considers human consciousness as a derivative of belief in the supernatural, thus showing that our feelings, emotions, attitudes and other psychological processes follow the laws of magic. This book synthesises the science of ‘natural’ phenomena and the magic of the ‘supernatural’ to present an interesting look at the juxtaposition of the inner and outer selves. Fusing research into psychological disorders, subconscious feelings, as well as the rising presence of artificial intelligence, this book demonstrates how an engagement with magical thinking can enhance one’s creativity and cognitive skills. Science and Magic in the Modern World is an invaluable resource for those studying consciousness, as well as those looking at the effect of magical thinking on religion, politics, science and society.

Making Magic

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0195169417
Total Pages : 299 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (951 download)

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Book Synopsis Making Magic by : Randall Styers

Download or read book Making Magic written by Randall Styers and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2004 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Randall Styers seeks to account for the vitality of scholarly discourse purporting to define and explain magic despite its failure to do just that. He argues that it can best be explained in light of the European and Euro-American drive to establish and secure their own identity as normative.

Magic in the Modern World

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Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271079878
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Magic in the Modern World by : Edward Bever

Download or read book Magic in the Modern World written by Edward Bever and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2017-04-18 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays considers the place of magic in the modern world, first by exploring the ways in which modernity has been defined in explicit opposition to magic and superstition, and then by illuminating how modern proponents of magic have worked to legitimize their practices through an overt embrace of evolving forms such as esotericism and supernaturalism. Taking a two-track approach, this book explores the complex dynamics of the construction of the modern self and its relation to the modern preoccupation with magic. Essays examine how modern “rational” consciousness is generated and maintained and how proponents of both magical and scientific traditions rationalize evidence to fit accepted orthodoxy. This book also describes how people unsatisfied with the norms of modern subjectivity embrace various forms of magic—and the methods these modern practitioners use to legitimate magic in the modern world. A compelling assessment of magic from the early modern period to today, Magic in the Modern World shows how, despite the dominant culture’s emphatic denial of their validity, older forms of magic persist and develop while new forms of magic continue to emerge. In addition to the editors, contributors include Egil Asprem, Erik Davis, Megan Goodwin, Dan Harms, Adam Jortner, and Benedek Láng.

Magic, Science, and Religion in Early Modern Europe

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108591167
Total Pages : 231 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (85 download)

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Book Synopsis Magic, Science, and Religion in Early Modern Europe by : Mark A. Waddell

Download or read book Magic, Science, and Religion in Early Modern Europe written by Mark A. Waddell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-28 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the recovery of ancient ritual magic at the height of the Renaissance to the ignominious demise of alchemy at the dawn of the Enlightenment, Mark A. Waddell explores the rich and complex ways that premodern people made sense of their world. He describes a time when witches flew through the dark of night to feast on the flesh of unbaptized infants, magicians conversed with angels or struck pacts with demons, and astrologers cast the horoscopes of royalty. Ground-breaking discoveries changed the way that people understood the universe while, in laboratories and coffee houses, philosophers discussed how to reconcile the scientific method with the veneration of God. This engaging, illustrated new study introduces readers to the vibrant history behind the emergence of the modern world.

Magic, Mystery, and Science

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Author :
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780253216564
Total Pages : 414 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis Magic, Mystery, and Science by : Dan Burton

Download or read book Magic, Mystery, and Science written by Dan Burton and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[P.D. Ouspensky's] yearning for a transcendent, timeless reality—one that cancels out physical disintegration and death—figures into science at some fundamental level. Einstein found solace in his theory of relativity, which suggested to him that events are ever-present in the space-time continuum. When his friend Michele Besso passed on shortly before his own death, he wrote: 'For us believing physicists the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, even if a stubborn one.'" —from Magic, Mystery, and Science The triumph of science would appear to have routed all other explanations of reality. No longer does astrology or alchemy or magic have the power to explain the world to us. Yet at one time each of these systems of belief, like religion, helped shed light on what was dark to our understanding. Nor have the occult arts disappeared. We humans have a need for mystery and a sense of the infinite. Magic, Mystery, and Science presents the occult as a "third stream" of belief, as important to the shaping of Western civilization as Greek rationalism or Judeo-Christianity. The occult seeks explanations in a world that is living and intelligent—quite unlike the one supposed by science. By taking these beliefs seriously, while keeping an eye on science, this book aims to capture some of the power of the occult. Readers will discover that the occult has a long history that reaches back to Babylonia and ancient Egypt. It proceeds alongside, and frequently mingles with, religion and science. From the Egyptian Book of the Dead to New Age beliefs, from Plato to Adolf Hitler, occult ways of knowing have been used—and hideously abused—to explain a world that still tempts us with the knowledge of its dark secrets.

Religion, Magic, and Science in Early Modern Europe and America

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Author :
Publisher : Praeger
ISBN 13 : 0275996735
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (759 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion, Magic, and Science in Early Modern Europe and America by : Allison Coudert

Download or read book Religion, Magic, and Science in Early Modern Europe and America written by Allison Coudert and published by Praeger. This book was released on 2011-10-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was a time when highly educated men believed witches flew to "Sabbaths" on broomsticks and the' backs of goats, had sex with the devil, and cooked and ate infant body parts. How did eminent artists, philosophers, and scientists pave the way for the modern age during a period of such outdated perceptions? --

Magic Universe

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Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191622354
Total Pages : 768 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

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Book Synopsis Magic Universe by : Nigel Calder

Download or read book Magic Universe written by Nigel Calder and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2005-10-13 with total page 768 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a marvellously engaging tour covering the whole of modern science, from transgenic crops to quantum tangles. Written by one of the most experienced and well-known names in science writing, it is also assuredly reliable science. Although arranged for convenience and quick reference as a collection of topics in alphabetical order, it is very different from any conventional encyclopedia. Each topic tells a story, making the book eminently browsable. Packed with information, yet carrying its immense learning lightly, this is a book that would appeal to anyone with the slightest interest in how the world works.

Science of the Magical

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 147677711X
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (767 download)

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Book Synopsis Science of the Magical by : Matt Kaplan

Download or read book Science of the Magical written by Matt Kaplan and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-10-25 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "From the author of The Science of Monsters, this engaging scientific inquiry provides a definitive look into the elements of mystical places and magical object--from the philosopher's stone, to love potions to the oracles--from ancient history, mythology, and contemporary culture. Can migrations of birds foretell our future? Do phases of the moon hold sway over our lives? Are there sacred springs that cure the ill? What is the best way to brew a love potion? How do we create mutant humans who regenerate like Wolverine? In Science of the Magical, noted science journalist Matt Kaplan plumbs the rich, lively, and surprising history of the magical objects, places, and rituals that infuse ancient and contemporary myth. Like Ken Jennings and Mary Roach, Kaplan serves as a friendly armchair guide to the world of the supernatural. From the strengthening powers of Viking mead, to the super soldiers in movies like Captain America, Kaplan ranges across cultures and time periods to point out that there is often much more to these enduring magical narratives than mere fantasy. Informative and entertaining, Science of the Magical explores our world through the compelling scope of natural and human history and cutting-edge science."--

Wonder Shows

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Publisher : Rutgers University Press
ISBN 13 : 0813541212
Total Pages : 335 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (135 download)

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Book Synopsis Wonder Shows by : Fred Nadis

Download or read book Wonder Shows written by Fred Nadis and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2005-01-13 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Wonder Shows, Fred Nadis offers a colorful history of these traveling magicians, inventors, popular science lecturers, and other presenters of “miracle science” who revealed science and technology to the public in awe-inspiring fashion. The book provides an innovative synthesis of the history of performance with a wider study of culture, science, and religion from the antebellum period to the present.

Sorcery or Science?

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Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271093072
Total Pages : 233 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Sorcery or Science? by : Ariela Marcus-Sells

Download or read book Sorcery or Science? written by Ariela Marcus-Sells and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2022-02-24 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sorcery or Science? examines how two Sufi Muslim theologians who rose to prominence in the western Sahara Desert in the late eighteenth century, Sīdi al-Mukhtār al-Kuntī (d. 1811) and his son and successor, Sīdi Muḥammad al-Kuntī (d. 1826), decisively influenced the development of Sufi Muslim thought in West Africa. Known as the Kunta scholars, Mukhtār al-Kuntī and Muḥammad al-Kuntī were influential teachers who developed a pedagogical network of students across the Sahara. In exploring their understanding of “the realm of the unseen”—a vast, invisible world that is both surrounded and interpenetrated by the visible world—Ariela Marcus-Sells reveals how these theologians developed a set of practices that depended on knowledge of this unseen world and that allowed practitioners to manipulate the visible and invisible realms. They called these practices “the sciences of the unseen.” While they acknowledged that some Muslims—particularly self-identified “white” Muslim elites—might consider these practices to be “sorcery,” the Kunta scholars argued that these were legitimate Islamic practices. Marcus-Sells situates their ideas and beliefs within the historical and cultural context of the Sahara Desert, surveying the cosmology and metaphysics of the realm of the unseen and the history of magical discourses within the Hellenistic and Arabo-Islamic worlds. Erudite and innovative, this volume connects the Islamic sciences of the unseen with the reception of Hellenistic discourses of magic and proposes a new methodology for reading written devotional aids in historical context. It will be welcomed by scholars of magic and specialists in Africana religious studies, Islamic occultism, and Islamic manuscript culture.

Martin Gardner's Science Magic

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Author :
Publisher : Courier Corporation
ISBN 13 : 0486152901
Total Pages : 98 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (861 download)

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Book Synopsis Martin Gardner's Science Magic by : Martin Gardner

Download or read book Martin Gardner's Science Magic written by Martin Gardner and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-09-19 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fun and fascinating, 89 simple magic tricks will teach both children and adults the scientific principles behind electricity, magnetism, sound, gravity, water, and more. Only basic everyday items are needed. Includes 89 black-and-white illustrations.

Between Magic and Rationality

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Publisher : Museum Tusculanum Press
ISBN 13 : 8763542137
Total Pages : 382 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (635 download)

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Book Synopsis Between Magic and Rationality by : Vibeke Steffen

Download or read book Between Magic and Rationality written by Vibeke Steffen and published by Museum Tusculanum Press. This book was released on 2015-04-21 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Between Magic and Reality, Vibeke Steffen, Steffen Jöhncke, and Kirsten Marie Raahauge bring together a diverse range of ethnographies that examine and explore the forms of reflection, action, and interaction that govern the ways different contemporary societies create and challenge the limits of reason. The essays here visit an impressive array of settings, including international scientific laboratories, British spiritualist meetings, Chinese villages, Danish rehabilitation centers, and Uzbeki homes, where they encounter a diverse assortment of people whose beliefs and concerns exhibit an unusual but central contemporary dichotomy: scientific reason versus spiritual/paranormal belief. Exploring the paradoxical way these modes of thought push against reason's boundaries, they offer a deep look at the complex ways they coexist, contest one another, and are ultimately intertwined. Vibeke Steffen is associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen, where Steffen Jöncke is senior advisor. Kirsten Marie Raahauge is associate professor in the School of Design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.

The Myth of Disenchantment

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022640336X
Total Pages : 428 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis The Myth of Disenchantment by : Jason Ananda Josephson Storm

Download or read book The Myth of Disenchantment written by Jason Ananda Josephson Storm and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-05-16 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A great many theorists have argued that the defining feature of modernity is that people no longer believe in spirits, myths, or magic. Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm argues that as broad cultural history goes, this narrative is wrong, as attempts to suppress magic have failed more often than they have succeeded. Even the human sciences have been more enchanted than is commonly supposed. But that raises the question: How did a magical, spiritualist, mesmerized Europe ever convince itself that it was disenchanted? Josephson-Storm traces the history of the myth of disenchantment in the births of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, folklore, psychoanalysis, and religious studies. Ironically, the myth of mythless modernity formed at the very time that Britain, France, and Germany were in the midst of occult and spiritualist revivals. Indeed, Josephson-Storm argues, these disciplines’ founding figures were not only aware of, but profoundly enmeshed in, the occult milieu; and it was specifically in response to this burgeoning culture of spirits and magic that they produced notions of a disenchanted world. By providing a novel history of the human sciences and their connection to esotericism, The Myth of Disenchantment dispatches with most widely held accounts of modernity and its break from the premodern past.

Demons of the Modern World

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Publisher : Prometheus Books
ISBN 13 : 1615927239
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (159 download)

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Book Synopsis Demons of the Modern World by : Malcolm Mcgrath

Download or read book Demons of the Modern World written by Malcolm Mcgrath and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2010-10-05 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ...probably the first thorough review of modern demonology...superb. Recommended... - Library Journal...a terrifically contextualized debunking that is sure to generate debate among the faithful. - Publishers Weekly...a fascinating book on the psychology of modern Western culture. - Science & Spirit MagazineThis fascinating discussion of modern demonology focuses on our ability to differentiate the physical world, with its mechanical laws, from the inherently less predictable psychological realm of thoughts and beliefs. McGrath points out that this ability was a hard-won historical development, and today must be learned in childhood through education. Because of this historical background and our rich fantasy life in childhood, each of us unconsciously suspects, or fears, that supernatural forces may break through the borders of our everyday commonsense order at any time. Indeed, at times of personal stress or societal crisis, the modern boundaries between fantasy and reality begin to slip, and then a magical world of demons and other phantasms can come flooding back into our disenchanted reality.Through this innovative thesis McGrath goes a long way toward explaining both our fascination with fantasy entertainment, such as horror stories and films, and bizarre crazes such as witch-hunts, Satanism scares, and even claims of alien abduction. Despite our demystified culture the lure of childhood's magic kingdom with its monstrous shadow realm remains strong.Malcolm McGrath (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a doctoral candidate in political philosophy at Oxford University.

Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays

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Publisher : Read Books Ltd
ISBN 13 : 1473393124
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (733 download)

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Book Synopsis Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays by : Bronislaw Malinowski

Download or read book Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays written by Bronislaw Malinowski and published by Read Books Ltd. This book was released on 2014-04-10 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This vintage book comprises three famous Malinowski essays on the subject of religion. Malinowski is one of the most important and influential anthropologists of all time. He is particularly renowned for his ability to combine the reality of human experience, with the cold calculations of science. An important collection of three of his most famous essays, "Magic, Science and Religion" provides its reader with a series of concepts concerning religion, magic, science, rite and myth. This is undertaken in an attempt to form a definite impression and understanding of the Trobrianders of New Guinea. The chapters of this book include: "Magic, Science and Religion", "Primitive Man and his Religion", "Rational Mastery by Man of his Surroundings", "Faith and Cult", "The Creative Acts of Religion", "Providence in Primitive Life", "Man's Selective Interest in Nature", etcetera. This book is being republished now in an affordable, modern edition - complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

The Decline of Magic

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Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300243588
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis The Decline of Magic by : Michael Hunter

Download or read book The Decline of Magic written by Michael Hunter and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new history that overturns the received wisdom that science displaced magic in Enlightenment Britain--named a Best Book of 2020 by the Financial Times In early modern Britain, belief in prophecies, omens, ghosts, apparitions and fairies was commonplace. Among both educated and ordinary people the absolute existence of a spiritual world was taken for granted. Yet in the eighteenth century such certainties were swept away. Credit for this great change is usually given to science - and in particular to the scientists of the Royal Society. But is this justified? Michael Hunter argues that those pioneering the change in attitude were not scientists but freethinkers. While some scientists defended the reality of supernatural phenomena, these sceptical humanists drew on ancient authors to mount a critique both of orthodox religion and, by extension, of magic and other forms of superstition. Even if the religious heterodoxy of such men tarnished their reputation and postponed the general acceptance of anti-magical views, slowly change did come about. When it did, this owed less to the testing of magic than to the growth of confidence in a stable world in which magic no longer had a place.

The Sorcerer's Tale

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199570906
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis The Sorcerer's Tale by : Alec Ryrie

Download or read book The Sorcerer's Tale written by Alec Ryrie and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An earl's son, plotting murder by witchcraft; conjuring spirits to find buried treasure; a stolen coat embroidered with pure silver; crooked gaming-houses and brothels; a terrifying new disease, and the self-trained surgeon who claims he can treat it. This is the world of Gregory Wisdom, a physician, magician, and consummate con-man in sixteenth-century London. Drawing on previously unknown documents to reconstruct this extraordinary man's career, Alec Ryrie takes us through the cut-throat business of early modern medicine, down to Tudor London's gangland of fraud and organized crime; from the world of Renaissance magi and Kabbalistic conjurers to street-corner wizards; and into the chaotic, exhilarating religious upheavals of the Reformation. On the way, we learn how Tudor England's dignified public face and its rapacious underworld were intimately connected to each other. Gregory Wisdom's career is an object lesson in how to conjure up wealth and respectability from nothing in a turbulent age. Praised as "an excellent snapshot of a time intrigued by the spiritual realm" (Los Angeles Times), this is a unique glimpse into a world intoxicated by new ideas.