Magic and the Will to Science by Horvath, Agnes;

Short description:

This book offers a political anthropological perspective on the problematic character of science, showing how science grew out of magic and its variations, whilst demonstrating that the desire to use science to solve various problems of human existence has created a permanent liminal crisis.

Long description:

This book offers a political anthropological perspective on the problematic character of science, combining insights from historical sociology, political theory, and cultural anthropology. Its central idea, departing from the works of Frances Yates and the Gnosticism thesis of Eric Voegelin, is that far from being the radical opposite of magic, modern science effectively grew out of magic, and its varieties, like alchemy, Hermetic philosophy, the occult, Gnosticism, and Neoplatonism. Showing that the desire to use science to solve various – real or presumed – problems of human existence has created a permanent liminal crisis, it contends that the ‘will to science’ is parasitic, existing as it does in sheer relationality, outside of and in between concrete places and communities. A study of the mutual relationship between magic and science in different historical eras, ranging from the Early Neolithic to recent disease prevention ideas, Magic and the Will to Science will appeal to scholars and students of social and anthropological theory, and the philosophy and sociology of science.

"Magic has been for too long treated as a residual category rather than a phenomenon with its own significance. This book takes a large step in the path of recovering its ubiquity and bond with the normal."

- Stephen Turner, Distinguished University Professor, University of South Florida

"Magic and the Will to Science asks the question whether we live now in an age of magic, with social media, AI, and algorithms dominating our public and private lives. Horvath gets at the root of this subject by examining how science has transformed nature and our understanding of reality, so we no longer control technology but are controlled by it. To return to an authentic and human existence, we first need to understand the reality in which we live. Magic and the Will to Science does an exemplary job of this and points us to a path of recovering a genuine human existence."

- Lee Trepanier, Chair and Professor of Political Science, Samford University

Table of Contents:

Preface

Introduction                                                                                                               

Ch1 Magical doubles as liminal technicity                                                               

Ch2 Sensuals without borders: artificial man, artificial intelligence                        

Ch3. The cunning of unreason: exposure to harm to transpose into a new status      

Ch4. Recursive algorithm in the amplification of magic                                          

Ch5. The unknown factor of effusion in spiritualised science                                  

Ch6. Mind control                                                                                                     

Ch7. One tower: when the dead seized the living                                                     

Conclusion                                                                                                                 

Bibliography                                                                                                              

Name Index

Subject Index