Science Pseudo Science And Utopianism In Early Modern Thought

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Science, Pseudo-science, and Utopianism in Early Modern Thought

Author : Stephen A. McKnight
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Science, Pseudo-science, and Utopianism in Early Modern Thought by : Stephen A. McKnight

Download or read book Science, Pseudo-science, and Utopianism in Early Modern Thought written by Stephen A. McKnight and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this important interdisciplinary study, Stephen A. McKnight brings together such prominent scholars as Allen Debus, B. J. T. Dobbs, Klaus Vondung, David Walsh, and Wilbur Applebaum to discuss a major development in cultural, political, and scientific history: a new understanding of the role of magic, alchemy, and other esoteric traditions in the evolution of early modern thought. Twentieth-century historians of science have labeled these traditions "pseudo-science". In the early modern period, however, they were treasured by many philosophers, theologians, and scientists as the prisca theologia, revelations by God to the great wise men of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean, including Hermes Trismegistus, Zoroaster, Moses, Pythogoras(sic), and Plato. Recent research has shown that these materials were earnestly studied by Ficino, Pico, Agrippa, Bruno, Campanella, and Bacon. Even the great patriarch of the Scientific Revolution, Isaac Newton, employed alchemical and theological elements in his work. Science, Pseudo-Science, and Utopianism in Early Modern Thought shows that "pseudo-science", especially magic and alchemy, was a crucial part of the theories and experiments that produced the scientific advances of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In addition, it shows that these traditions have a strong utopian component, depicting man as a "terrestrial god" capable of mastering nature and perfecting society. In the early modern period, this utopian theme became intertwined with the enthusiasm for scientific progress to produce the distinctly modern dream of social perfection through science. Scholars and students of history, philosophy, political science, and theology willfind this a provocative addition to our understanding of the modern world.

Science, Pseudo-Science, and Utopianism in Early Modern Thought

Author : New Library Press.Net
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780795001468
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis Science, Pseudo-Science, and Utopianism in Early Modern Thought by : New Library Press.Net

Download or read book Science, Pseudo-Science, and Utopianism in Early Modern Thought written by New Library Press.Net and published by . This book was released on 2001-06 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Science, Pseudo-science, and Utopianism in Early Modern Thought

Author : Stephen A. McKnight
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (319 download)

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Book Synopsis Science, Pseudo-science, and Utopianism in Early Modern Thought by : Stephen A. McKnight

Download or read book Science, Pseudo-science, and Utopianism in Early Modern Thought written by Stephen A. McKnight and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this important interdisciplinary study, Stephen A. McKnight brings together such prominent scholars as Allen Debus, B. J. T. Dobbs, Klaus Vondung, David Walsh, and Wilbur Applebaum to discuss a major development in cultural, political, and scientific history: a new understanding of the role of magic, alchemy, and other esoteric traditions in the evolution of early modern thought. Twentieth-century historians of science have labeled these traditions "pseudo-science". In the early modern period, however, they were treasured by many philosophers, theologians, and scientists as the prisca theologia, revelations by God to the great wise men of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean, including Hermes Trismegistus, Zoroaster, Moses, Pythogoras(sic), and Plato. Recent research has shown that these materials were earnestly studied by Ficino, Pico, Agrippa, Bruno, Campanella, and Bacon. Even the great patriarch of the Scientific Revolution, Isaac Newton, employed alchemical and theological elements in his work. Science, Pseudo-Science, and Utopianism in Early Modern Thought shows that "pseudo-science", especially magic and alchemy, was a crucial part of the theories and experiments that produced the scientific advances of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In addition, it shows that these traditions have a strong utopian component, depicting man as a "terrestrial god" capable of mastering nature and perfecting society. In the early modern period, this utopian theme became intertwined with the enthusiasm for scientific progress to produce the distinctly modern dream of social perfection through science. Scholars and students of history, philosophy, political science, and theology willfind this a provocative addition to our understanding of the modern world.

The Renaissance Utopia

Author : Chloë Houston
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317017986
Total Pages : 199 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis The Renaissance Utopia by : Chloë Houston

Download or read book The Renaissance Utopia written by Chloë Houston and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-02-24 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of European utopias in context from the early years of Henry VIII’s reign to the Restoration, this book is the first comprehensive attempt since J. C. Davis’ Utopia and the Ideal Society (1981) to understand the societies projected by utopian literature from Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) to the political idealism and millenarianism of the mid-seventeenth century. Where Davis concentrated on understanding utopias historically, Renaissance Utopia also seeks to make sense of utopia as a literary form, offering both a new typology of utopia and a new history of European humanist utopianism. This book examines how the utopia was transformed from an intellectual exercise in philosophical interrogation to a serious means of imagining practical social reform. In doing so it argues that the relationship between Renaissance utopia and Renaissance dialogue is crucial; the utopian mode of discourse continued to make use of aspects of dialogue even when the dialogue form itself was in decline. Exploring the ways in which utopian texts assimilated dialogue, Renaissance Utopia complements recent work by historians and literary scholars on early modern communities by providing a thorough investigation of the issues informing a way of modelling a very particular community and literary mode - the utopia.

Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution

Author : Wilbur Applebaum
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135582556
Total Pages : 1628 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (355 download)

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Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution by : Wilbur Applebaum

Download or read book Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution written by Wilbur Applebaum and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-12-16 with total page 1628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With unprecedented current coverage of the profound changes in the nature and practice of science in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, this comprehensive reference work addresses the individuals, ideas, and institutions that defined culture in the age when the modern perception of nature, of the universe, and of our place in it is said to have emerged. Covering the historiography of the period, discussions of the Scientific Revolution's impact on its contemporaneous disciplines, and in-depth analyses of the importance of historical context to major developments in the sciences, The Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution is an indispensible resource for students and researchers in the history and philosophy of science.

The Third Millennium

Author : David Walsh
Publisher : Georgetown University Press
ISBN 13 : 0878407553
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (784 download)

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Book Synopsis The Third Millennium by : David Walsh

Download or read book The Third Millennium written by David Walsh and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This provocative meditation on the turn of the millennium explores the significance that a celebration of Christ's birth can have beyond the Christian community. Writing from the perspective of Christian philosophy, David Walsh ponders the emergence of modern civilization from the medieval Christian past, concluding that Christian theology grounds the dominant ideas of modern society. He professes the importance and promise of Christianity while rejecting the Gnosticism, advocated by Harold Bloom and others, that places the divine within the self. Affirming Christ's place at the heart of civilization, Walsh argues that the Christian faith has relevance beyond its own boundaries for all traditions that find their common ground in reason. This contemplative book asserts that the Christian millennial jubilee has meaning for all and that it points the way toward the fullness of life in this world as well as in eternity.

Eschatology and the Technological Future

Author : Michael S. Burdett
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317576659
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

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Book Synopsis Eschatology and the Technological Future by : Michael S. Burdett

Download or read book Eschatology and the Technological Future written by Michael S. Burdett and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-05 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rapid advancement of technology has led to an explosion of speculative theories about what the future of humankind may look like. These "technological futurisms" have arisen from significant advances in the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology and are drawing growing scrutiny from the philosophical and theological communities. This text seeks to contextualize the growing literature on the cultural, philosophical and religious implications of technological growth by considering technological futurisms such as transhumanism in the context of the long historical tradition of technological dreaming. Michael Burdett traces the latent religious sources of our contemporary technological imagination by looking at visionary approaches to technology and the future in seminal technological utopias and science fiction and draws on past theological responses to the technological future with Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Jacques Ellul. Burdett’s argument arrives at a contemporary Christian response to transhumanism based around the themes of possibility and promise by turning to the works of Richard Kearney, Eberhard Jüngel and Jürgen Moltmann. Throughout, the author highlights points of correspondence and divergence between technological futurisms and the Judeo-Christian understanding of the future.

Transhumanism and Transcendence

Author : Ronald Cole-Turner
Publisher : Georgetown University Press
ISBN 13 : 1589017943
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis Transhumanism and Transcendence by : Ronald Cole-Turner

Download or read book Transhumanism and Transcendence written by Ronald Cole-Turner and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-29 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The timeless human desire to be more beautiful, intelligent, healthy, athletic, or young has given rise in our time to technologies of human enhancement. Athletes use drugs to increase their strength or stamina; cosmetic surgery is widely used to improve physical appearance; millions of men take drugs like Viagra to enhance sexual performance. And today researchers are exploring technologies such as cell regeneration and implantable devices that interact directly with the brain. Some condemn these developments as a new kind of cheating—not just in sports but in life itself—promising rewards without effort and depriving us most of all of what it means to be authentic human beings. “Transhumanists,” on the other hand, reject what they see as a rationalizing of human limits, as if being human means being content forever with underachieving bodies and brains. To be human, they insist, is to be restless with possibilities, always eager to transcend biological limits. As the debate grows in urgency, how should theology respond? Christian theologians recognize truth on both sides of the argument, pointing out how the yearnings of the transhumanists—if not their technological methods—find deep affinities in Christian belief. In this volume, Ronald Cole-Turner has joined seasoned scholars and younger, emerging voices together to bring fresh insight into the technologies that are already reshaping the future of Christian life and hope.

The Sabbatean Prophets

Author : Matt GOLDISH
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674037758
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis The Sabbatean Prophets by : Matt GOLDISH

Download or read book The Sabbatean Prophets written by Matt GOLDISH and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the mid-seventeenth century, Shabbatai Zvi, a rabbi from Izmir, claimed to be the Jewish messiah, and convinced a great many Jews to believe him. The movement surrounding this messianic pretender was enormous, and Shabbatai's mission seemed to be affirmed by the numerous supporting prophecies of believers. The story of Shabbatai and his prophets has mainly been explored by specialists in Jewish mysticism. Only a few scholars have placed this large-scale movement in its social and historical context. Matt Goldish shifts the focus of Sabbatean studies from the theology of Lurianic Kabbalah to the widespread seventeenth-century belief in latter-day prophecy. The intense expectations of the messiah in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam form the necessary backdrop for understanding the success of Sabbateanism. The seventeenth century was a time of deep intellectual and political ferment as Europe moved into the modern era. The strains of the Jewish mysticism, Christian millenarianism, scientific innovation, and political transformation all contributed to the development of the Sabbatean movement. By placing Sabbateanism in this broad cultural context, Goldish integrates this Jewish messianic movement into the early modern world, making its story accessible to scholars and students alike. Table of Contents: Preface Prologue 1. Messianic Prophecy in the Early Modern Context 2. Nathan of Gaza and the Roots of Sabbatean Prophecy 3. From Mystical Vision to Prophetic Explosion 4. Opponents and Observers Respond 5. Prophecy after Shabbatais Apostasy Notes Index Reviews of this book: Goldish looks at the Jewish messianic surge of the 17th century, which culminated with the Sabbatean movement, and places it in a broader multidimensional context...He has produced a well-written, scholarly addition and modification to the literature. --Paul Kaplan, Library Journal

From the Labyrinth of the World to the Paradise of the Heart

Author : Vincenzo Pavone
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 9780739122624
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (226 download)

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Book Synopsis From the Labyrinth of the World to the Paradise of the Heart by : Vincenzo Pavone

Download or read book From the Labyrinth of the World to the Paradise of the Heart written by Vincenzo Pavone and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While there is an ever-growing body of literature on the economic, cultural, and political aspects of globalization, there are no critical, up-to-date studies on its philosophical and ideological underpinnings. Vincenzo Pavone fills this gap in the literature by analyzing one of the most interesting actors operating on a global scale: the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Assessing the influence of both seventeenth- and nineteenth-century scientific humanism on the ideas of Julian Huxley, the founding father of modern scientific humanism and the first director of UNESCO, the author discusses the changes that have occurred in UNESCO's self-perception, identity, and vision of globalization, particularly within the context of its four programs-MOST, IBC, the Dakar Framework for Action, and the CCP. Pavone further explores the relationship between scientific humanism and the development of UNESCO, showing how scientific humanism affected the history of UNESCO by inspiring a conception of the organization as truly global.

The Alchemical Virgin Mary in the Religious and Political Context of the Renaissance

Author : Urszula Szulakowska
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1443893560
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis The Alchemical Virgin Mary in the Religious and Political Context of the Renaissance by : Urszula Szulakowska

Download or read book The Alchemical Virgin Mary in the Religious and Political Context of the Renaissance written by Urszula Szulakowska and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2017-05-11 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study explores the survival of Roman Catholic doctrine and visual imagery in the alchemical treatises composed by members of the Lutheran and Anglican confessions during the Renaissance and Early Modern periods. It discusses the reasons for such unexpected confessional survivals in a time of extreme Protestant iconoclasm and religious reform. The book presents an analysis of the manner in which Catholic doctrines concerning the Virgin Mary, the Holy Trinity and the Eucharist were an essential factor in the development of alchemical theory and illustration from the medieval period to the seventeenth century. The role of the Joachimites, radical members of the Franciscan Order, in the history of alchemy is an important issue. The Apocalypse of St. John (the Book of Revelation) and other scriptural texts and specifically Roman Catholic Marian devotions are also considered regarding their influences on late medieval alchemy and on the sixteenth and seventeenth century alchemical literature composed by Protestants. Additional issues explored here include the role played by alchemy in strengthening the leaders of the European defence against the invading Ottoman Turks, as well as the importance of the figure of the Virgin Mary as the Apocalyptic Woman in the same cause. Special consideration is given to the role played by the apocalyptic Mary within alchemical texts and pictures as an emblem of the mercurial quintessence and also in her form as the Bride of the scriptural Wisdom books which also entered alchemical discourse. Additional issues discussed in this book include the little-regarded problem of “confessional” alchemy, namely, whether there were distinct “Protestant” and “Roman Catholic” types of alchemy. The treatises under consideration include the Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit (1419; 1433), the Rosarium Philosophorum (1550), Reusner’s Pandora (1582; 1588) and the Pandora of Faustius (1706), as well as the work of Michael Maier, Robert Fludd, Johann Daniel Mylius, Jacob Boehme and pseudo-Nicolas Flamel, among many others. Their works are contextualised within the religious reforms instigated by Martin Luther, as well as within the unorthodox radical theology devised by Paracelsus and his alchemical followers. The Marian theology of Paracelsus is also of particular interest here.

The Scientification of Religion

Author : Kocku von Stuckrad
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
ISBN 13 : 161451349X
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (145 download)

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Book Synopsis The Scientification of Religion by : Kocku von Stuckrad

Download or read book The Scientification of Religion written by Kocku von Stuckrad and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2014-05-08 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The enigmatic relation between religion and science still presents a challenge to European societies and to ideas about what it means to be ‘modern.’ This book argues that European secularism, rather than pushing back religious truth claims, in fact has been religiously productive itself. The institutional establishment of new disciplines in the nineteenth century, such as religious studies, anthropology, psychology, classical studies, and the study of various religious traditions, led to a professionalization of knowledge about religion that in turn attributed new meanings to religion. This attribution of meaning resulted in the emergence of new religious identities and practices. In a dynamic that is closely linked to this discursive change, the natural sciences adopted religious and metaphysical claims and integrated them in their framework of meaning, resulting in a special form of scientific religiosity that has gained much influence in the twentieth century. Applying methods that come from historical discourse analysis, the book demonstrates that religious semantics have been reconfigured in the secular sciences. Ultimately, the scientification of religion perpetuated religious truth claims under conditions of secularism.

Prefiguring Cyberculture

Author : Darren Tofts
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262701082
Total Pages : 346 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis Prefiguring Cyberculture by : Darren Tofts

Download or read book Prefiguring Cyberculture written by Darren Tofts and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Media critics and theorists, philosophers, and historians of science explore the antecedents of such aspects of contemporary technological culture as the Internet, the World Wide Web, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, virtual reality, and thecyborg.

The Transformations of Magic

Author : Frank Klaassen
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271061758
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis The Transformations of Magic by : Frank Klaassen

Download or read book The Transformations of Magic written by Frank Klaassen and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-06-26 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this original, provocative, well-reasoned, and thoroughly documented book, Frank Klaassen proposes that two principal genres of illicit learned magic occur in late medieval manuscripts: image magic, which could be interpreted and justified in scholastic terms, and ritual magic (in its extreme form, overt necromancy), which could not. Image magic tended to be recopied faithfully; ritual magic tended to be adapted and reworked. These two forms of magic did not usually become intermingled in the manuscripts, but were presented separately. While image magic was often copied in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, The Transformations of Magic demonstrates that interest in it as an independent genre declined precipitously around 1500. Instead, what persisted was the other, more problematic form of magic: ritual magic. Klaassen shows that texts of medieval ritual magic were cherished in the sixteenth century, and writers of new magical treatises, such as Agrippa von Nettesheim and John Dee, were far more deeply indebted to medieval tradition—and specifically to the medieval tradition of ritual magic—than previous scholars have thought them to be.

Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition

Author : Glenn Alexander Magee
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801474507
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (745 download)

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Book Synopsis Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition by : Glenn Alexander Magee

Download or read book Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition written by Glenn Alexander Magee and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Glenn Alexander Magee's pathbreaking book argues that Hegel was decisively influenced by the Hermetic tradition, a body of thought with roots in Greco-Roman Egypt. Magee traces the influence on Hegel of such Hermetic thinkers as Baader, Böhme, Bruno, and Paracelsus, and fascination with occult and paranormal phenomena. Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition covers Hegel's philosophical corpus and shows that his engagement with Hermeticism lasted throughout his career and intensified during his final years in Berlin. Viewing Hegel as a Hermetic thinker has implications for a more complete understanding of the modern philosophical tradition, and German idealism in particular.

Alchemical Belief

Author : Bruce Janacek
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271078030
Total Pages : 238 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Alchemical Belief by : Bruce Janacek

Download or read book Alchemical Belief written by Bruce Janacek and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-08-21 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What did it mean to believe in alchemy in early modern England? In this book, Bruce Janacek considers alchemical beliefs in the context of the writings of Thomas Tymme, Robert Fludd, Francis Bacon, Sir Kenelm Digby, and Elias Ashmole. Rather than examine alchemy from a scientific or medical perspective, Janacek presents it as integrated into the broader political, philosophical, and religious upheavals of the first half of the seventeenth century, arguing that the interest of these elite figures in alchemy was part of an understanding that supported their national—and in some cases royalist—loyalty and theological orthodoxy. Janacek investigates how and why individuals who supported or were actually placed at the traditional center of power in England’s church and state believed in the relevance of alchemy at a time when their society, their government, their careers, and, in some cases, their very lives were at stake.

The Land of Prehistory

Author : Alice Beck Kehoe
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134720653
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (347 download)

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Book Synopsis The Land of Prehistory by : Alice Beck Kehoe

Download or read book The Land of Prehistory written by Alice Beck Kehoe and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-22 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1998. The Land of Prehistory reveals the powerful ideological function American archaeology has naively served, from the discipline's construction in Victorian societal reform movements to the present. Alice Beck Kehoe chronicles major movements and influences such as the support of racist Spencerian evolutionism and Manifest Destiny ideologies, and the 1960s New Archaeology pandering to Big Science money. She concludes with a discussion of the recent revolutionary shift to multicultural voices within the field.