Magic Topic 1 Definitions. Magic (from Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary) 1 a : the use of means (as...

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Magic Topic 1

Definitions

Magic (from Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary)

1 a : the use of means (as charms or spells) believed to have supernatural power over natural forces

b : magic rites or incantations 2 a : an extraordinary power or influence seemingly from a supernatural source

b : something that seems to cast a spell : ENCHANTMENT

3 : the art of producing illusions by sleight of hand

1 a : the use of means (as charms or spells) believed to have supernatural power over natural forces

b : magic rites or incantations 2 a : an extraordinary power or influence seemingly from a supernatural source

b : something that seems to cast a spell : ENCHANTMENT

3 : the art of producing illusions by sleight of hand

"The Way of Wicca""The Way of Wicca"

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The Wicca, Druids, and Pagans of Jacksonville, NC

What is magic?What is magic?

Frazer, The Golden Bough, 1900

Magic is a technique that aims to manipulate impersonal forces

Frazer, The Golden Bough, 1900

Magic is a technique that aims to manipulate impersonal forces

J. G. Frazer

• Magical thought • belief that objects and individuals

• act on each other at a distance,

• through a secret ‘fellow-feeling’ (‘sympathy’)

How does magic differ from religion?

• Tylor (1871), Primitive Culture:– Magic does not entail belief in spiritual beings

• Durkheim, Elementary Forms of Religious life (1951)– Religions involve communities, magic concerns individuals

How does magic differ from religion?

• Malinowski, Magic, Science, and Religion (1948)– Religions have intangible, long term goals, magic concrete and practical

Malinowski 1948Malinowski 1948

Studied Trobriand culture with its diverse aspects of magic, canoe magic, garden magic, language of magic with its special pronunciation

In the Trobriands, 1915-1916 and 1917-1918

Back to Frazer

• Magic as technique with practical goals

LAW OF SYMPATHY

(SYMPATHETIC MAGIC)

Law of Similarity Law of Contact

(Homeopathic Magic)(Contagious Magic)

Magic (acc. to Frazer)

Theoretical Practical

“Science” “Art”

Positive Magic Negative Magic

Sorcery Taboo

Magic and Greek thought

The sources of knowledge

In Homer (8th BCE)…

• I know = I have seen/felt and now I possess a certain sentiment towards…’

Classical Greek Thought

“Classical Greek thought that was grounded in the natural sciences”

“Something unusual happened in Greece ... Whereas the previous great cultures of the Mediterranean had used mythological stories … to explain the operations of the world and of the self, some of the Greeks … instead of reading their ideas into, or out of, ancient scriptures or poems, began to use reason, contemplation, and sensory observation to make sense of reality.”

“Classical Greek thought that was grounded in the natural sciences”

“Something unusual happened in Greece ... Whereas the previous great cultures of the Mediterranean had used mythological stories … to explain the operations of the world and of the self, some of the Greeks … instead of reading their ideas into, or out of, ancient scriptures or poems, began to use reason, contemplation, and sensory observation to make sense of reality.”

“In general, philosophy came into existence when the Greeks discovered their dissatisfaction with supernatural and mythical explanations of reality. Over time, Greek thinkers began to suspect that there was a rational or logical order to the universe.”

Knowledge is based on

– Intuition — Sensory perception» BCE

• Heraclitus (7th-6th)• Parmenides (5th) • Philolaus (5th BCE) Empedocles (5th)

• Plato (5th - 4th BCE) Aristotle (4th)

Heraclitus (6th-5th BCE)Heraclitus (6th-5th BCE)

The underlying harmony of things, Logos, can be perceived intuitively

Parmenides (5th BCE)Parmenides (5th BCE)

The only way towards knowledge is through religious revelation.

Philolaus the Pythagorean (5th BCE)

“Nature requires divine, not human, knowledge.”

Plato (5th - 4th BCE)Plato (5th - 4th BCE)

True knowledge is inborn, and the world we perceive is a mere shadow of the true world of ideas.

Empedocles (5th BCE)Empedocles (5th BCE)

An intelligent use of the sensory evidence available to mortals, is an aid to philosophical instruction.

Aristotle (4th BCE)Aristotle (4th BCE)

Patterns of truth can be found in the perceivable world.

For Plotinus (3rd CE): For Plotinus (3rd CE):

Magical actions can be explained by “sympathy, because there exists both harmony between similar things and repulsion between dissimilar ones …”

many things are being attracted and enchanted, although no one sets them in motion: true magic then is the love there is in the cosmos, and its opposite, the hate.” (Enneades 4.4.40)”

Magic Topic 1 Definitions. Magic (from Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary) 1 a : the use of means (as...

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