This
course explores the ways in which boundaries
defining and separating magic, science, and religion emerged in western
thought and culture from late antiquity through the European Enlightenment,
when the definitions generally recognized in western culture today were
delineated. We will consider the nature of "magic," "science" and "religion" in
historical context, the relationship between learned and popular thought
and practice, and the interplay of disciplines we would define oppositionally
(e.g., astrology and astral magic with astronomy, medicine and healing),
while exploring underlying assumptions about God, Nature and natural forces.
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•Francis Bacon, New Atlantis and The Great Instauration,
revised ed., Jerry Weinberger, ed.
•Richard C. Dales, The Scientific Achievement of the Middle Ages
•Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages
•Steven Shapin, The Scientific Revolution
•Voltaire, Candide, Zadig and Other Stories
Also: a set of readings available in pdf format on a blackboard site
and a number of documents linked to the syllabus here
Please bring reading materials to class on
the day(s) they are assigned, including printouts of web documents or
a laptop for viewing them. |
Course
Requirements
Students are expected to attend and participate in every
class. All reading is to be completed before the class for which it
is assigned. Students are required to post
responses to the readings (one to two pages) on Blackboard five times
over the course of the semester. The class participation grade will
be based on attendance, the level of your preparedness and involvement
in discussion, and the posted responses.
Other graded work for the class will consist of a final
research paper (10-12 pages) or equivalent project, a midterm exam, and
a final exam. The grading for the course will be as follows: 20% for
class participation, 20% for the paper, 30% for the midterm exam and
30% for the final.
If you know that you will miss class because you are sick or are away
from school for an emergency, please try to let me know ahead of time,
if possible, via phone or e-mail. More
than three unapproved absences during the semester may result in a lowered
overall grade in addition to an unsatisfactory class participation grade.
Please note that students must complete all written
work in order to receive a passing grade for the class.
Schedule:
Th
January 14 Introduction: Magic, Science, and Religion
as Cultural Constructs
T January 19 Science and Religion
in Greek and Roman Antiquity
Excerpts from Plato's Republic and Timaeus,
Aristotle's On the Heavens, Ptolemy's Almagest,
Galen's Therapeutic Method,
and Pliny's Natural History [Blackboard]
Th January 21 Magic and Miracle in Late Antiquity
G. Luck, Arcana Mundi: Magic and Occult
in the Greek and Roman Worlds, 109-121, and 135-147 [Blackboard]
T January 26 Magic and Miracle in Late Antiquity
Biblical
Texts on Sorcery, Magic, and Miracle; The
Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles Peter and Paul
Th January 28 Paganism, Christianization
and Magic in the Early Middle Ages
Valerie Flint, The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval
Europe, 240-253 and 301-328 [Blackboard]; Gregory
of Tours, Eight Books of Miracles
T February 2 Paganism,
Christianization and Magic in the Early Middle Ages
R. Kieckhefer, Magic, Ch. 3; Anglo
Saxon Charms: Field
Remedy Ritual ; Lacnunga
Elf Charms ; Leechbook,
Book 3 Elf Charms
Th February 4 Learning, "Science," and
the Church in the Early Middle Ages
R. C. Dales, The Scientific Achievement
of the Middle Ages, Introduction and Ch. 1; Richer
of Rheims' Journey to the School at Chartres (10th century)
T February 9 Twelfth Century Learning
and Arabic Science: The Islamic World
A. Ede and L. Cormack, eds., A History
of Science in Society, 57-73 [Blackboard]Excerpts
from Al-Ghazali, "Incoherence of the Philosophers" and Maimonides,
"Guide of the Perplexed" [Blackboard]; Baghdad
in the eleventh-century
Th February 11 Twelfth Century Learning
and Arabic Science
Kieckhefer, 116-119; R. C. Dales, Scientific
Achievement Ch. 2; Excerpt
from Peter Abelard, Sic et Non
T February 16 NO CLASS: BU ON MONDAY SCHEDULE
Th February 18 The
Rise of Universities and Control of Knowledge
E. Grant, The Foundations of Modern
Science in the Middle Ages, 33-53 [Blackboard] ; Stephen
of Tournai, An Invective Against the New Learning ; Jacques
de Vitry's description of students
T February 23 MIDTERM
EXAM
Th February 25 Observing
the Natural World: Experimental Science
R. C. Dales, Scientific Achievement Ch.
3; Roger Bacon, On
Experimental Science
T March 2 The
Medieval Cosmos
E. Grant, "Cosmology" [Blackboard] Genesis
1:1 ; review excerpts from Plato's Timaeus [Blackboard] and
Aristotle's On the Heavens
Th March 4 Astronomy, Astrology, and Astral
Magic
Kieckhefer, 120-133; Dales, Scientific
Achievement, Ch.7 and also Ch.8, pp. 139-146; 151 (last two
lines on page)-157; Marsilio
Ficino: Three Books of Life
T March 9 SPRING BREAK
Th March 11 SPRING BREAK
T March 16 Medieval Medicine & Healing
Excerpt from N. Siraisi, Medieval and
Early Renaissance Medicine [Blackboard] ;
The case of a woman doctor in Paris [Blackboard]; Abu
Ali al-Hussain Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina on Medicine
Th March 18 Alchemy
and Alchemists
Kieckhefer, 133-139; R. P. Multhauf, "The
Science of Matter"; Roger Bacon, excerpts from Radix mundi (Root
of the world), in Stanton J. Linden, The Alchemy Reader, 111-122 [Blackboard]
T March 23 Common Magic: Thirteenth-Fifteenth
Centuries
Kieckefer, Ch. 4; Stephen
of Bourbon's account of the cult of the Holy Greyhound (St. Guinefort)
Th March 25 Learned Magic: Thirteenth-Fifteenth
Centuries
Kieckhefer, 140-144 and Ch. 7; Honorius
of Thebes, The Sworn Book
T March 30 Legal Processes Against Magic
Kieckhefer, Ch. 8; Documents from the trial of
Tempel Anneke [Blackboard]
Th April 1 From
Magus to Scientist: The Yates Thesis
Kieckhefer, 144-150; F. Yates, "The Hermetic Tradition
in Renaissance Science," Art, Science and History in the Renaissance,
C. S. Singleton, ed., 255-274 [Blackboard];
Excerpt from the Hermetic corpus,[Blackboard]
T April 6 Scientific Revolution
Steven Shapin, The Scientific Revolution, pp.
1-8 and Ch. 1 [Blackboard]
Th April 8 Copernicus,
Brahe, Kepler, Galileo and the new Cosmos
Copernicus, Dedication
of the Revolution of the Heavenly Bodies to Pope Paul III; Excerpts
from Galileo's Letter to Duchess Christina of Tuscany
T April 13 The
Great Instauration: The Promise of New Learning
Francis Bacon, New Atlantis and The Great
Instauration, 35-83; Bacon, Aphorisms
Th April 15 Isaac
Newton and the Meaning of Science
John Henry, "Newton, Matter
and Magic" [Blackboard]
;Isaac
Newton, Excerpts from Principia (1687) and General
Scholium, published as an appendix to the second
edition of the Principia (1713).
T April 20 The
Enlightenment Invention of the Scientific Revolution
Voltaire:
Letters on Descartes and Newton
Th April 22 MONDAY SCHEDULE: NO CLASS
T April 27 The
Enlightened Rationalist in a Superstitious World
Readings: Voltaire, Zadig
Th April 29 Final
paper/projects due: presentations
Final
Review Session: Friday, April 30, 10:00-11:30 AM Religion
Department Seminar Room (Room 404 at 145 Bay State Rd.) |
Final Exam: Thursday, May 6 9:00-11:00 AM
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