Book ID: CBB423467195

The Decline of Magic: Britain in the Enlightenment (2020)

unapi

Hunter, Michael Cyril William (Author)


Yale University Press


Publication Date: 2020
Physical Details: 288
Language: English

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.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB423467195/

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Authors & Contributors
Fabiana Lopes da Silveira
Timotin, Andrei
Waters, Thomas
O'Neill, Seamus
Lis, Catharina
Young, Francis
Concepts
Science and religion
Magic
Occult sciences
Gods; deities; spirits
Natural philosophy
Spiritualism
Time Periods
Enlightenment
19th century
18th century
17th century
Modern
Ancient
Places
Great Britain
United States
Hungary
Greece
Germany
France
Institutions
Theosophical Society
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