Description: 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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EAN: 9780300260953
UPC: 9780300260953
ISBN: 9780300260953
MPN: N/A
Book Title: The Decline of Magic: Britain in the Enlightenment
Number of Pages: 256 Pages
Language: English
Publication Name: Decline of Magic : Britain in the Enlightenment
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication Year: 2021
Subject: Modern / 18th Century, General, Europe / Great Britain / General, Modern / 17th Century
Item Height: 0.1 in
Item Weight: 10.9 Oz
Type: Textbook
Author: Michael Hunter
Item Length: 0.8 in
Subject Area: Psychology, History
Item Width: 0.5 in
Format: Trade Paperback
