The Decline of Magic Britain in the Enlightenment

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  • Engels
  • Paperback
  • 9780300260953
  • 12 oktober 2021
  • 256 pagina's
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Samenvatting

A provocative account of the seismic shift in attitude toward the supernatural in seventeenth and eighteenth century Britain



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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Taal
en
Bindwijze
Paperback
Oorspronkelijke releasedatum
12 oktober 2021
Aantal pagina's
256
Illustraties
Nee

Betrokkenen

Hoofdauteur
Michael Hunter
Hoofduitgeverij
Yale University Press

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Product breedte
127 mm
Product lengte
197 mm
Studieboek
Nee
Verpakking breedte
127 mm
Verpakking hoogte
197 mm
Verpakking lengte
197 mm
Verpakkingsgewicht
255 g

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9780300260953
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