The Royal Society and the decline of magic
Hunter, Michael (2011) The Royal Society and the decline of magic. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 65 (2), pp. 103-119. ISSN 0035-9149.
Abstract
Whereas some have asserted that the early Royal Society actively sought to discredit magical beliefs, others have seen ideas of this kind as integral to the Society's 'nature' in its early years. This paper argues that, whatever the magical commitments of individual Fellows, the Society's corporate policy simply sidelined such pursuits. Yet, insofar as the result was that magic was excluded by default from the proper realm of scientific enquiry, this attitude was to prove paradoxically influential (although its roots have been retrospectively misconstrued to an extent that is significant in itself).
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keyword(s) / Subject(s): | Royal Society, magic, witchcraft, astrology, boundary work |
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies |
| Depositing User: | Administrator |
| Date Deposited: | 15 Nov 2011 10:39 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 16:56 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/4315 |
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