The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance

The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance PDF Author: Wayne Shumaker
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520020214
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Get Book Here

Book Description
"The only short and acceptable summary and analysis of the five Renaissance occult sciences." - Times Literary Supplement "The . . . usefulness of this book for students of Renaissance literature and culture will not soon be ended." - Virginia Quarterly Review "The absence of contaminating traces either of condescension or of credulousness give this absorbing volume a special authority and place on the shelves of any reader or any library where the history of modern thoughts is relevant." - Scientific American "A remarkable summary and analysis of the five systems of esoteric science so influential in the Renaissance." - Milton Quarterly "A magnificent job of tying together a vast number of diverse sources into a unified whole . . . engrossing in its entirety." -The Sciences

The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance

The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance PDF Author: Wayne Shumaker
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520020214
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Get Book Here

Book Description
"The only short and acceptable summary and analysis of the five Renaissance occult sciences." - Times Literary Supplement "The . . . usefulness of this book for students of Renaissance literature and culture will not soon be ended." - Virginia Quarterly Review "The absence of contaminating traces either of condescension or of credulousness give this absorbing volume a special authority and place on the shelves of any reader or any library where the history of modern thoughts is relevant." - Scientific American "A remarkable summary and analysis of the five systems of esoteric science so influential in the Renaissance." - Milton Quarterly "A magnificent job of tying together a vast number of diverse sources into a unified whole . . . engrossing in its entirety." -The Sciences

The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance

The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance PDF Author: Wayne Shumaker
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520340914
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book Here

Book Description
"The only short and acceptable summary and analysis of the five Renaissance occult sciences." - Times Literary Supplement This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1979. "The only short and acceptable summary and analysis of the five Renaissance occult sciences." - Times Literary Supplement This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to se

The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance

The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance PDF Author: Wayne Shumaker
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780520340916
Category : NON-CLASSIFIABLE.
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Get Book Here

Book Description


Occult Scientific Mentalities

Occult Scientific Mentalities PDF Author: Brian Vickers
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521338363
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 428

Get Book Here

Book Description
The essays in this volume present a collective study of one of the major problems in the recent history of science: To what extent did the occult 'sciences' (alchemy, astrology, numerology, and natural magic) contribute to the scientific revolution of the late Renaissance? These studies of major scientists (Kepler, Bacon, Mersenne, and Newton) and of occultists (Dee, Fludd, and Cardano), complemented by analyses of contemporary official and unofficial studies at Cambridge and Oxford and discussions of the language of science, combine to suggest that hitherto the relationship has been too crudely stated as a movement 'from magic to science'. In fact, two separate mentalities can be traced, the occult and the scientific, each having different assumptions, goals, and methodologies. The contributors call into question many of the received ideas on this topic, showing that the issue has been wrongly defined and based on inadequate historical evidence. They outline new ways of approaching and understanding a situation in which two radically different and, to modern eyes, incompatible ways of describing reality persisted side-by-side until the demise of the occult in the late seventeenth century. Their work, accordingly, sets the whole issue in a new light.

The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance

The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Get Book Here

Book Description


Magic, Mystery, and Science

Magic, Mystery, and Science PDF Author: Dan Burton
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253216564
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 414

Get Book Here

Book Description
"[P.D. Ouspensky's] yearning for a transcendent, timeless reality—one that cancels out physical disintegration and death—figures into science at some fundamental level. Einstein found solace in his theory of relativity, which suggested to him that events are ever-present in the space-time continuum. When his friend Michele Besso passed on shortly before his own death, he wrote: 'For us believing physicists the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, even if a stubborn one.'" —from Magic, Mystery, and Science The triumph of science would appear to have routed all other explanations of reality. No longer does astrology or alchemy or magic have the power to explain the world to us. Yet at one time each of these systems of belief, like religion, helped shed light on what was dark to our understanding. Nor have the occult arts disappeared. We humans have a need for mystery and a sense of the infinite. Magic, Mystery, and Science presents the occult as a "third stream" of belief, as important to the shaping of Western civilization as Greek rationalism or Judeo-Christianity. The occult seeks explanations in a world that is living and intelligent—quite unlike the one supposed by science. By taking these beliefs seriously, while keeping an eye on science, this book aims to capture some of the power of the occult. Readers will discover that the occult has a long history that reaches back to Babylonia and ancient Egypt. It proceeds alongside, and frequently mingles with, religion and science. From the Egyptian Book of the Dead to New Age beliefs, from Plato to Adolf Hitler, occult ways of knowing have been used—and hideously abused—to explain a world that still tempts us with the knowledge of its dark secrets.

In the Shadow of the Enlightenment

In the Shadow of the Enlightenment PDF Author: Herbert Leventhal
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780814749654
Category : Occultism
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Occult Tradition

The Occult Tradition PDF Author: David S. Katz
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0712667865
Category : Occultism
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Get Book Here

Book Description
Is the universe alive? Are there hidden connections within it, revealed in history and in sacred texts? Can we understand or even learn to control these secrets? Have we neglected an entirely separate science that works according to a different set of principles? Certainly by the time of the Renaissance in Europe, there were many thinkers who answered in the affirmative to all of these questions. Despite the growth of modern science and a general disenchantment of the world, the 'occult' or 'esoteric' tradition has evolved in the West, manifesting itself in such diverse groups as the Freemasons, the Mormons, Christian Scientists, the Theosophists, New Ageists and American Fundamentalism. Paradoxically, the turn to science and the triumph of evolution in the nineteenth century produced an explosion of occultism, increasing its power as a kind of super-science. Gothic, fantastic, and supernatural fiction flourished, while Spiritualism emerged as a serious inquiry into the possibility of contacting the dead. After all, if you could communicate with the living at great distances, why should a similar teletechnology not be possible to the other world? Disciplines had not yet hardened, and the borders were as yet undefined between parapsychology and psychology, between mythology and anthropology. Mesmerism became hypnotism, and the subconscious came to be recognized as more than a medium's stomping ground. This book describes the growth and meandering path of the occult tradition over the past five hundred years, and shows how the esoteric world view fits together.

Eros and Magic in the Renaissance

Eros and Magic in the Renaissance PDF Author: Ioan P. Culianu
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226123162
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Get Book Here

Book Description
It is a widespread prejudice of modern, scientific society that "magic" is merely a ludicrous amalgam of recipes and methods derived from primitive and erroneous notions about nature. Eros and Magic in the Renaissance challenges this view, providing an in-depth scholarly explanation of the workings of magic and showing that magic continues to exist in an altered form even today. Renaissance magic, according to Ioan Couliano, was a scientifically plausible attempt to manipulate individuals and groups based on a knowledge of motivations, particularly erotic motivations. Its key principle was that everyone (and in a sense everything) could be influenced by appeal to sexual desire. In addition, the magician relied on a profound knowledge of the art of memory to manipulate the imaginations of his subjects. In these respects, Couliano suggests, magic is the precursor of the modern psychological and sociological sciences, and the magician is the distant ancestor of the psychoanalyst and the advertising and publicity agent. In the course of his study, Couliano examines in detail the ideas of such writers as Giordano Bruno, Marsilio Ficino, and Pico della Mirandola and illuminates many aspects of Renaissance culture, including heresy, medicine, astrology, alchemy, courtly love, the influence of classical mythology, and even the role of fashion in clothing. Just as science gives the present age its ruling myth, so magic gave a ruling myth to the Renaissance. Because magic relied upon the use of images, and images were repressed and banned in the Reformation and subsequent history, magic was replaced by exact science and modern technology and eventually forgotten. Couliano's remarkable scholarship helps us to recover much of its original significance and will interest a wide audience in the humanities and social sciences.

The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age

The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age PDF Author: Frances Yates
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134524412
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Get Book Here

Book Description
It is hard to overestimate the importance of the contribution made by Dame Frances Yates to the serious study of esotericism and the occult sciences. To her work can be attributed the contemporary understanding of the occult origins of much of Western scientific thinking, indeed of Western civilization itself. The Occult Philosophy of the Elizabethan Age was her last book, and in it she condensed many aspects of her wide learning to present a clear, penetrating, and, above all, accessible survey of the occult movements of the Renaissance, highlighting the work of John Dee, Giordano Bruno, and other key esoteric figures. The book is invaluable in illuminating the relationship between occultism and Renaissance thought, which in turn had a profound impact on the rise of science in the seventeenth century. Stunningly written and highly engaging, Yates' masterpiece is a must-read for anyone interested in the occult tradition.