Professor: Deeana Klepper
Office Hours:
Tuesday 10:30 - 1:00
and by appointment
145 Bay State Road Room 204
(617) 358-0186
dklepper@bu.edu
Teaching Assistant: Brian Jenkin
bjenkin@bu.edu
Course Description
Texts
Course Requirements
Plagiarism Policy
Assignments
Schedule:
January
February
March
April
Course Description:
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.
Required Texts:
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
Voltaire, Candide, Zadig and Other Stories
Also: a set of readings on our Blackboard 8 site and selected internet documents linked to the syllabus
Students are expected to bring reading materials to class on the day(s) they are assigned.
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. Please note that more than two unexcused absences may result in a lowered overall grade in addition to an unsatisfactory class participation grade.
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.
Please note that students must complete all written work in order to receive a passing grade for the class.
Plagiarism Policy: Please read through my plagiarism policy and note that students found to have plagiarized will receive an F for the entire course, not just for the assignment in question.
Assignments:
Reading Responses
Final Project
Th January 15 Introduction: Magic, Science, and Religion as Cultural Constructs
T January 20 Science and Religion in Greek and Roman Antiquity
Readings: Excerpts from Plato's Republic and Timaeus, Ptolemy's Almagest, Galen's Therapeutic Method, Pliny's Natural History [Blackboard]and Aristotle's On the Heavens
Th January 22 Magic, Miracle and Healing in Greek Antiquity
Readings: G. Luck, Arcana Mundi: Magic and Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds, 3-28, 109-121, and 135-147 [Blackboard]
T January 27 Magic, Miracle and Healing in Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity
Readings: G. Luck, Arcana Mundi: Magic and Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds, 457-478 [Blackboard]; Passages from Bible and Talmud; The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles Peter and Paul
Th January 29 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 3 Paganism, Christianization and Magic in the Early Middle Ages
Readings: R. Kieckhefer, Magic, Ch. 3; Anglo Saxon Charms: Field Remedy Ritual ; Lacnunga Elf Charms ; Leechbook, Book 3 Elf Charms
Th February 5 Learning, "Science," and the Church in the Early Middle Ages
Readings: 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 10 Twelfth Century Learning and Arabic Science: The Islamic World
Readings: A. Ede and L. Cormack, eds., A History of Science in Society, 54-73 [Blackboard];Excerpts from Al-Ghazali, "Incoherence of the Philosophers" and Maimonides, "Guide of the Perplexed" [Blackboard]; Baghdad in the eleventh-century
Th February 12 Twelfth Century Learning and Arabic Science
Readings: Kieckhefer, 116-119; R. C. Dales, Scientific Achievement Ch. 2; Excerpt from Peter Abelard, Sic et Non
T February 17 NO CLASS: BU ON MONDAY SCHEDULE
Th February 19 The Rise of Universities and Control of Knowledge
Readings: 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 24 MIDTERM EXAM
Th
February 26 Observing the Natural World and
Experimental Science
Readings: R. C. Dales, Scientific Achievement Ch. 3; Roger Bacon, On Experimental Science
Readings: E. Grant, "Cosmology" [Blackboard] Genesis 1:1 ; review excerpts from Plato's Timaeus [Blackboard] and Aristotle's On the Heavens
Th
March 5 Astronomy, Astrology, and Astral Magic
Readings: 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 10 SPRING BREAK
Th March 12 SPRING BREAK
T March 17 Medieval Medicine & Healing
Readings: 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 19 Alchemy and Alchemists
Readings: 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 24 Common Magic: Thirteenth-Fifteenth Centuries
Readings: Kieckefer, Ch. 4; Stephen of Bourbon's account of the cult of the Holy Greyhound (St. Guinefort)
Th March 26 Learned Magic: Thirteenth-Fifteenth Centuries
Readings: Kieckhefer, 140-144 and Ch. 7; Honorius of Thebes, The Sworn Book
T March 31 Legal Processes Against Magic and the Inquisition
Readings: Kieckhefer, Ch. 8
Th April 2 Witchcraft and Magic in the Early Modern Period
Readings: Documents from the trial of Tempel Anneke [Blackboard]
T April 7 From Magus to Scientist: The Yates Thesis
Readings: 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, The Pimander
Th April 9 Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Galileo and the new Cosmos
Readings: Steven Shapin, The Scientific Revolution, Ch. 1 [Blackboard]; 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 14 The Great Instauration: The Promise of New Learning
Readings: Francis Bacon, New Atlantis and The Great Instauration, 35-83
Web Doc: Bacon, Aphorisms
Th April 16 Isaac Newton and the Meaning of Science
Readings: John Henry, "Newton, Matter and Magic" [Blackboard]Web Docs: Isaac Newton, Excerpts from Principia (1687) and General Scholium, published as an appendix to the second edition of the Principia (1713).
T April 21 The Enlightenment Invention of the Scientific Revolution
Th April 23 MONDAY SCHEDULE: NO CLASS
T April 28 Final paper/projects due: presentations
Th April 30 The Enlightened Rationalist in a Superstitious World
Readings: Voltaire, Zadig
Final Review Session: Monday, May 4, 1-2:30 P.M. Religion Department Seminar Room (Room 404 at 145 Bay State Rd.)
FINAL EXAM : Thursday, May 7, 9-11 AM
And speaking of science, check out the web page of the Greater Boston Darwin Bicentennial: A Yearlong Reflection on the Life and Legacy of Charles Darwin