The occult is routinely dismissed in our times as the province of quacks, the irrational, and the superstitious. But during the Renaissance, many of the best minds in Europe studied the philosophy and science of the occult. The period witnessed an outpouring of systematic philosophical and scientific treatises on the occult. References to the occult pervade the works of Shakespeare and other literary writers of the time. Many scholars believe that The Occult Philosophy and the Occult Sciences, with their search for hidden causes, played a decisive role in the rise of modern science. In this special Halloween week episode, John and Ken delve into the Occult Philosophy with Christopher Lehrich from Boston University, author ofThe Occult Mind: Magic in Theory and Practice.
Jon and Ken begin the show by pointing out that alchemy and astrology were actively studied during the Renaissance by some of the brightest thinkers in Europe. In fact, some historians consider the study of the occult to have had a profound influence on the development of modern science as we know it, with both pursuits sharing the goal of illuminating hidden causal connections between objects of experience. Despite this similarity, the two endeavors differ in their methods of inquiry. The hosts ponder modern science’s attitudes toward its mystical predecessor and whether these attitudes are justified.
Christopher Lehrich加入了讨论，他认为研究自然和研究上帝之间的区别是西方思想史上一个相对较新的发展，只在18世纪才开始。因此，阅读现在被认为是具有历史意义的神秘文本的作品需要仔细检查它们的创作背景。Lehrich认为，尽管对神秘智慧的探索很普遍，但它从来都不是主流思想。随着新教改革的到来，路德和加尔文谴责异端做法，开始了神秘哲学实践的稳步下降。
Jon和Ken考虑了语言在各种信仰的精神体系中的重要性。一位听众表示，哲学家们创造的用于描述他们周围世界的技术词汇类似于一种魔法，从稀薄的空气中提取新概念。Lehrich最后断言，像牛顿这样的思想家会对现代科学过分关注物质事实和故意忽视精神领域提出异议。
Comments(4)
Harold G. Neuman
Friday, September 17, 2021 -- 7:14 AM
So, if study of the occult那么，如果对神秘学的研究确实能促进科学的发展，那也可能意味着形而上学也能促进科学的发展?我不知道。只是稍微动了一下。有些情况下，“疯狂的猜测”会导致惊人的发现。所有这些也可能导致一个概念，即相互关联是事物以最佳方式工作的必要条件。正如我现在已经退休的DO所说的那样，这一切都是相互关联的——都是同一个部分的一部分:拿走一个部分，整个部分就会下降。
Tim Smith
Thursday, October 7, 2021 -- 6:49 PM
Occultism is a holistOccultism is a holist philosophy, putatively tied to ancient wisdom and sourced in mystic experience. Christopher Lehrich presents the occult as a style (I'm not sure if that qualifies thought or appeals to an aesthetic, or both – Ken and John didn't follow.) That is a radical rethink as previously I had thought of mystic philosophy as canons that would rise and fall but ultimately transmuted as science found footing; Astrology to Astronomy, Alchemy to Chemistry. That waves of the occult canon persisted to modern-day implied science hadn't broached (maybe can never broach) our ultimate origins and human experience. But if occultism is a style. Hmm. I don't know.
Science can never disprove a style, but occult style can quickly diffuse human thought. Fiction, computer, and role-playing games infuse our modern childhoods. Harry Potter is required reading to understand our children (and fun in a muggle sort of way.) Philosophy will never be rid of occultism when the study of magic, mysticism, and esoterica has to force an academic approach to what was an authentic and unquestioned style in the middle ages and before.
I wonder if the remains of our engineered world will cast the same spell as Hermes Trismegistus and the pyramids did to the ancient and middle age worlds.
As a child, I did a fair bit of fantasy role play and read 'The Sword and the Stone' (my favorite childhood book next to 'Stuart Little'). I also didn't realize the history of the Tarot, the Masonic and New Age movements. There is a call to occultism that is appealing and satisfying in its completeness. There will likely be more and other forms of it going forward, even in the best scientific case.
Harold G. Neuman
Monday, January 31, 2022 -- 4:55 AM
One meaning assigned toOne meaning assigned to occult is: hidden. Humans are an inquisitive lot. Insofar as this has been the case, I think it characteristic that early people, wishing to examine all possibilities, also considered occult practice and thinking, when thinking about philosophy. They, too, questioned many things...not wishing to leave possibilities untapped; stones, unturned. It is not so surprising then.
Daniel
Sunday, July 10, 2022 -- 11:39 AM
Hobbes' nominalist mechanism霍布斯的唯名论机制构成了对神秘原因和作用的直接攻击。在这种观点中，一个延伸到集合中所有成员的象征性引用，相当于宣称一个奇迹已经发生了，因此许多不同的事物被带入到精神的接触中，在霍布斯看来，这必然也是一种物质的事物，通过只触及一个单一的事物。集合隶属度的识别被理解为对不同意义的相同术语的近似使用，因此不同的对象被相同的名称表示，成为实际的束，而不是类似于数学中的理论集。因此，有共性，但不超越名称本身，只有当在意义上使用，才能真正说存在;而它所引起的明显注意是一个激进的个体。这种观点的危险在于，某些事物的真理取决于你如何称呼它，因此，即使是数学的真理似乎也是可选的。这里的辩护似乎是事物本身决定了它们应该被称为什么，即使在选择它们的名字时可能会犯错误。这与巴拉塞尔士的炼金术有何不同?难道在严格明示定义的条件下，铅就不能被称为“黄金”吗?