Magic, Science, & Religion from Plato to Voltaire

[fitviavi]

The above is the title of an interesting course offered at Boston University this year. I'll paste portions below as the course webpage may disappear in time.

"This course explores the ways in which boundaries defining and separating magic, science, and religion emerged in western thought and culture from late antiquity through the European Enlightenment, when the definitions generally recognized in western culture today were delineated. We will consider the nature of "magic," "science" and "religion" in historical context, the relationship between learned and popular thought and practice, and the interplay of disciplines we would define oppositionally (e.g., astrology and astral magic with astronomy, medicine and healing), while exploring underlying assumptions about God, Nature and natural forces."

Required Texts:

• Francis Bacon, New Atlantis and The Great Instauration, revised ed., Jerry Weinberger, ed.
  
• Richard C. Dales, The Scientific Achievement of the Middle Ages
  
• Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages
  
• Steven Shapin, The Scientific Revolution
  
• Voltaire, Candide, Zadig and Other Stories

Course Schedule:

Jan 14 Introduction: Magic, Science, and Religion as Cultural Constructs
Jan 19 Science and Religion in Greek and Roman Antiquity

Excerpts from Plato's Republic and Timaeus, Aristotle's On the Heavens, Ptolemy's Almagest, Galen's Therapeutic Method, and Pliny's Natural History

Jan 21 Magic and Miracle in Late Antiquity

G. Luck, Arcana Mundi: Magic and Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds, 109-121, and 135-147

Jan 26 Magic and Miracle in Late Antiquity

Biblical Texts on Sorcery, Magic, and Miracle; The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles Peter and Paul

Jan 28 Paganism, Christianization and Magic in the Early Middle Ages

Valerie Flint, The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe, 240-253 and 301-328; Gregory of Tours, Eight Books of Miracles

Feb 2 Paganism, Christianization and Magic in the Early Middle Ages

R. Kieckhefer, Magic, Ch. 3; Anglo Saxon Charms: Field Remedy Ritual ; Lacnunga Elf Charms ; Leechbook, Book 3 Elf Charms

Feb 4 Learning, "Science," and the Church in the Early Middle Ages

R. C. Dales, The Scientific Achievement of the Middle Ages, Introduction and Ch. 1; Richer of Rheims' Journey to the School at Chartres (10th century)

Feb 9 Twelfth Century Learning and Arabic Science: The Islamic World

A. Ede and L. Cormack, eds., A History of Science in Society, 57-73 Excerpts from Al-Ghazali, "Incoherence of the Philosophers" and Maimonides, "Guide of the Perplexed"; Baghdad in the eleventh-century

Feb 11 Twelfth Century Learning and Arabic Science

Kieckhefer, 116-119; R. C. Dales, Scientific Achievement Ch. 2; Excerpt from Peter Abelard, Sic et Non

Feb 18 The Rise of Universities and Control of Knowledge

E. Grant, The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages, 33-53; Stephen of Tournai, An Invective Against the New Learning ; Jacques de Vitry's description of students

Feb 25 Observing the Natural World: Experimental Science

R. C. Dales, Scientific Achievement Ch. 3; Roger Bacon, On Experimental Science

Mar 2 The Medieval Cosmos

E. Grant, "Cosmology"; Genesis 1:1 ; review excerpts from Plato's Timaeus and Aristotle's On the Heavens

Mar 4 Astronomy, Astrology, and Astral Magic

Kieckhefer, 120-133; Dales, Scientific Achievement, Ch.7 and also Ch.8, pp. 139-146; 151 (last two lines on page)-157; Marsilio Ficino: Three Books of Life

Mar 16 Medieval Medicine & Healing

Excerpt from N. Siraisi, Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine ; The case of a woman doctor in Paris; Abu Ali al-Hussain Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina on Medicine

Mar 18 Alchemy and Alchemists

Kieckhefer, 133-139; R. P. Multhauf, "The Science of Matter"; Roger Bacon, excerpts from Radix mundi (Root of the world), in Stanton J. Linden, The Alchemy Reader, 111-122

Mar 23 Common Magic: Thirteenth-Fifteenth Centuries

Kieckefer, Ch. 4; Stephen of Bourbon's account of the cult of the Holy Greyhound (St. Guinefort)

Mar 25 Learned Magic: Thirteenth-Fifteenth Centuries

Kieckhefer, 140-144 and Ch. 7; Honorius of Thebes, The Sworn Book

Mar 30 Legal Processes Against Magic

Kieckhefer, Ch. 8; Documents from the trial of Tempel Anneke

Apr 1 From Magus to Scientist: The Yates Thesis

Kieckhefer, 144-150; F. Yates, "The Hermetic Tradition in Renaissance Science," Art, Science and History in the Renaissance, C. S. Singleton, ed., 255-274; Excerpt from the Hermetic corpus

Apr 6 Scientific Revolution

Steven Shapin, The Scientific Revolution, pp. 1-8 and Ch. 1

Apr 8 Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Galileo and the new Cosmos

Copernicus, Dedication of the Revolution of the Heavenly Bodies to Pope Paul III; Excerpts from Galileo's Letter to Duchess Christina of Tuscany

Apr 13 The Great Instauration: The Promise of New Learning

Francis Bacon, New Atlantis and The Great Instauration, 35-83; Bacon, Aphorisms

Apr 15 Isaac Newton and the Meaning of Science

John Henry, "Newton, Matter and Magic";Isaac Newton, Excerpts from Principia (1687) and General Scholium, published as an appendix to the second edition of the Principia (1713).

Apr 20 The Enlightenment Invention of the Scientific Revolution

Voltaire: Letters on Descartes and Newton

Apr 27 The Enlightened Rationalist in a Superstitious World

Readings: Voltaire, Zadig

Apr 29 Final paper/projects due: presentations

[LorrB]

A very warm welcome to Fitviavi.
And what an AMAZING first post!!
Thank you so much for that.

I never had the opportunity to go to University, and even it I had I doubt that at that age I would have chosen to study such subjects. It has only been by experience and a natural inclination to the spiritual (rather than the religious) that I find myself with an insatiable appetite for the subjects of this course.

I have already printed off the first "On the Heavens" and it will be my reading matter for this evening... what an opportunity you have given us.

Thanks again Fitviavi... hope you decide to stay around and contribute more to our little forum - all contributions gratefully received.

[LorrB]

PS.... I found it extremely amusing and quite fortuitous that you made the post at 11:11 am

[fitviavi]

Thanks for the warm welcome, LorrB, glad you enjoyed the post

F&F

[LorrB]

Did you do this course yourself?

[fitviavi]

I wish!

[LorrB]

Time is the problem... I tend to have to skim thru books these days. Working full time, carer for an aged parent, etc does not leave much spare time. This forum I do between jobs at work. I type fast

[LorrB]

I have skimmed through some of the links provided by the course (including the Holy Greyhound).

I am left to ponder why such weight is placed on the words of long dead people (who are often at variance over some subjects).

If Socrates is correct and Jesus is in error, or vice versa, where does that leave us?

Surely we are to form our own ideas about things, even if it means assimilating the ideas of others and then subjecting them to our own experiences. This is what I believe the free part of masonry is.

Magic, these days is frowned upon, or worse. Science is ever changing its ideas. Religions for the most part are found to be wanting... having rendered themselves rigid and unyielding to progress/evolution.

If God appears (possible?) to and ancient and talks to him, he is a saint. Followers will kill to protect that which was spoken.

If God appears and talks to your next door neighbour you'd probably think he was nuts. Maybe some of our biblical Brn were nuts too?

Great minds are great minds, but are they infallible is all I am asking.

[paul]

>ways in which boundaries defining and separating magic, science, and religion emerged in western thought and culture from late antiquity

I wonder if the boundaries were not so much emerging but rather we were losing people who could operate across what are now seen as separate streams.

[LorrB]

Modern day living forces us to become too specialised maybe.

I do like to talk to, and read books written by, regular scientists who are also mystics. They can bridge the gap. Fritjof Capra springs to mind, Istzak Bentov, Carl Jung, etc etc.

We are fortunate on this forum to have some highly educated people who can see magic, science and religion for what they are. (Same thing, different language? Is this the real Babel?)