Magic's Reason

2017-12-06 History

Author : Graham M. Jones
Release : 2017-12-06
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 71X/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis Magic's Reason by : Graham M. Jones

Download or read book Magic's Reason written by Graham M. Jones. This book was released on 2017-12-06. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Magic’s Reason, Graham M. Jones tells the entwined stories of anthropology and entertainment magic. The two pursuits are not as separate as they may seem at first. As Jones shows, they not only matured around the same time, but they also shared mutually reinforcing stances toward modernity and rationality. It is no historical accident, for example, that colonial ethnographers drew analogies between Western magicians and native ritual performers, who, in their view, hoodwinked gullible people into believing their sleight of hand was divine. Using French magicians’ engagements with North African ritual performers as a case study, Jones shows how magic became enshrined in anthropological reasoning. Acknowledging the residue of magic’s colonial origins doesn’t require us to dispense with it. Rather, through this radical reassessment of classic anthropological ideas, Magic’s Reason develops a new perspective on the promise and peril of cross-cultural comparison.

Magic, Reason, and Experience

1999-01-01 History

Author : Geoffrey Ernest Richard Lloyd
Release : 1999-01-01
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 284/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis Magic, Reason, and Experience by : Geoffrey Ernest Richard Lloyd

Download or read book Magic, Reason, and Experience written by Geoffrey Ernest Richard Lloyd. This book was released on 1999-01-01. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of the origins and progress of Greek science focuses especially on the interaction between scientific and traditional patterns of thought from the sixth to the fourth century BC. It begins with an examination of how particular Greek authors deployed the category of "magic," sometimes attacking its beliefs and practices; these attacks are then related to their background in Greek medicine and philosophical thought. In his second chapter Lloyd outlines developments in the theory and practice of argument in Greek science and assesses their significance. He next discuses the progress of empirical research as a scientific tool from the Presocratics to Aristotle. Finally, he considers why the Greeks invented science, their contribution to its history, and the social, economic, ideological and political factors that had a bearing on its growth.

Between Magic and Rationality

2015-04-21 Philosophy

Author : Vibeke Steffen
Release : 2015-04-21
Genre : Philosophy
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 137/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis Between Magic and Rationality by : Vibeke Steffen

Download or read book Between Magic and Rationality written by Vibeke Steffen. This book was released on 2015-04-21. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Between Magic and Reality, Vibeke Steffen, Steffen Jöhncke, and Kirsten Marie Raahauge bring together a diverse range of ethnographies that examine and explore the forms of reflection, action, and interaction that govern the ways different contemporary societies create and challenge the limits of reason. The essays here visit an impressive array of settings, including international scientific laboratories, British spiritualist meetings, Chinese villages, Danish rehabilitation centers, and Uzbeki homes, where they encounter a diverse assortment of people whose beliefs and concerns exhibit an unusual but central contemporary dichotomy: scientific reason versus spiritual/paranormal belief. Exploring the paradoxical way these modes of thought push against reason's boundaries, they offer a deep look at the complex ways they coexist, contest one another, and are ultimately intertwined. Vibeke Steffen is associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen, where Steffen Jöncke is senior advisor. Kirsten Marie Raahauge is associate professor in the School of Design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.

Rules, Magic and Instrumental Reason

2013-12-16 Philosophy

Author : Berel Dov Lerner
Release : 2013-12-16
Genre : Philosophy
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 856/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis Rules, Magic and Instrumental Reason by : Berel Dov Lerner

Download or read book Rules, Magic and Instrumental Reason written by Berel Dov Lerner. This book was released on 2013-12-16. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a systematic and critical discussion of Peter Winch's writings on the philosophy of the social sciences. The author points to Winch's tendency to over-emphasize the importance of language and communication, and his insufficient attention to the role of practical, technological activites in human life and society. It also offers an appendix devoted to the controversy between the anthropologists Marshall Sahlins and Gananath Obeyesekere regarding Captain James Cook's Hawaiian adventures. Essential reading for those studying the development of philosophy in the twentieth century, this book will also be of great interest to anthropologists, sociologists, scholars of religion, and all those with an interest in the relationship between philosophy and the social sciences.

Popular eBooks

Magic's Reason

Magic, Reason, and Experience

Between Magic and Rationality

Rules, Magic and Instrumental Reason

You may also like...