TY  - GEN
T1  - The decline of magic : Britain in the Enlightenment
A1  - Hunter, Michael, 1949-
LA  - English
PP  - New Haven
PB  - Yale University Press
YR  - 2020
UL  - https://ebooks.jgu.edu.in/Record/ebsco_acadsubs_on1130903926
AB  - A new history which overturns the received wisdom that science displaced magic in Enlightenment Britain In early modern Britain, belief in prophecies, omens, ghosts, apparitions and fairies was commonplace. Among both educated and ordinary people the absolute existence of a spiritual world was taken for granted. Yet in the eighteenth century such certainties were swept away. Credit for this great change is usually given to science - and in particular to the scientists of the Royal Society. But is this justified? Michael Hunter argues that those pioneering the change in attitude were not scientists but freethinkers. While some scientists defended the reality of supernatural phenomena, these sceptical humanists drew on ancient authors to mount a critique both of orthodox religion and, by extension, of magic and other forms of superstition. Even if the religious heterodoxy of such men tarnished their reputation and postponed the general acceptance of anti-magical views, slowly change did come about. When it did, this owed less to the testing of magic than to the growth of confidence in a stable world in which magic no longer had a place.
OP  - 265
CN  - D250 .H86 2020
SN  - 0300249462
SN  - 9780300249460
SN  - 9780300243581
SN  - 0300243588
KW  - Skepticism : Great Britain : History : 17th century.
KW  - Skepticism : Great Britain : History : 18th century.
KW  - Occultism : Great Britain : History : 17th century.
KW  - Occultism : Great Britain : History : 18th century.
KW  - Spiritualism : Great Britain : History : 17th century.
KW  - Spiritualism : Great Britain : History : 18th century.
KW  - Enlightenment : Great Britain.
KW  - Science and magic : History.
KW  - Faith and reason : History.
KW  - Scepticisme : Grande-Bretagne : Histoire : 17e siècle.
KW  - Scepticisme : Grande-Bretagne : Histoire : 18e siècle.
KW  - Occultisme : Grande-Bretagne : Histoire : 17e siècle.
KW  - Occultisme : Grande-Bretagne : Histoire : 18e siècle.
KW  - Spiritisme : Grande-Bretagne : Histoire : 17e siècle.
KW  - Spiritisme : Grande-Bretagne : Histoire : 18e siècle.
KW  - Siècle des Lumières : Grande-Bretagne.
KW  - Sciences et magie : Histoire.
KW  - Foi et raison : Histoire.
KW  - HISTORY : Europe : Great Britain : General.
KW  - Skepticism
KW  - Enlightenment
KW  - Faith and reason
KW  - Occultism
KW  - Science and magic
KW  - Spiritualism
KW  - Great Britain
KW  - 1600-1799
KW  - History
ER  -