AllyD reviewed Decline of Magic by Michael Hunter
Declining belief
4 stars
There was a linear scheme where superstitious beliefs and practices such as the persecution of "witches" were blown away by the emergence of science in an irrevocable "disenchantment of the world". This came under challenge both from readings of the paper of such as Newton and Boyle and from the alt.credulity systems swilling around in our times. Among the merits of Hunter's book is the presentation of differing perspectives in the new science (for example, documentation-led or principle-led), and freethinkers' challenges to theology, but also his broader appreciation of the growing influence of the doctors (under which demonic possession could be recharacterised as internal disturbance and thereby psychologised) - this last recalling Szasz. Perhaps most importantly, Hunter seeks to look outside the historian's core assets of published works, seeking the traces of trenchant sceptical ridicule of convention from the new Coffee Houses. From Old Comedy in Greece to the present …
There was a linear scheme where superstitious beliefs and practices such as the persecution of "witches" were blown away by the emergence of science in an irrevocable "disenchantment of the world". This came under challenge both from readings of the paper of such as Newton and Boyle and from the alt.credulity systems swilling around in our times. Among the merits of Hunter's book is the presentation of differing perspectives in the new science (for example, documentation-led or principle-led), and freethinkers' challenges to theology, but also his broader appreciation of the growing influence of the doctors (under which demonic possession could be recharacterised as internal disturbance and thereby psychologised) - this last recalling Szasz. Perhaps most importantly, Hunter seeks to look outside the historian's core assets of published works, seeking the traces of trenchant sceptical ridicule of convention from the new Coffee Houses. From Old Comedy in Greece to the present day, ridicule can be effective in corroding the ideologists' system building. That said, a reviewer of Hunter's recent book on Atheism in the early modern period noted the absence of material on the perspectives of women and on the labouring classes, which could also be said of this book. But that is the situation of those "hidden from history".