The problem of disenchantment : scientific naturalism and esoteric discourse, 1900-1939 / Egil Asprem.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Asprem, Egil, author.

Series:

Studies in the history of religions ; Volume 147.

Numen Book Series, 0169-8834 ; Volume 147

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religion.

Science.

Occultism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (643 p.)

Place of Publication:

Leiden, Netherlands : Brill, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Problem of Disenchantment offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to the intellectual history of science, religion, and “the occult” in the early 20th century. By developing a new approach to Max Weber’s famous idea of a “disenchantment of the world”, and drawing on an impressively diverse set of sources, Egil Asprem opens up a broad field of inquiry that connects the histories of science, religion, philosophy, and Western esotericism. Parapsychology, occultism, and the modern natural sciences are usually viewed as distinct cultural phenomena with highly variable intellectual credentials. In spite of this view, Asprem demonstrates that all three have met with similar intellectual problems related to the intelligibility of nature, the relation of facts to values, and the dynamic of immanence and transcendence, and solved them in comparable terms.

Contents:

Preliminary Material

Introduction: The Limits of Reason

1 From Process to Problem

2 Science as Worldview

3 Brave New World: An Introduction to Part Two

4 Physical Science in a Modern Mode

5 The Meaning of Life: Mechanism and Purpose in the Sciences of Life and Mind

6 Five Schools of Natural Theology: Reconciling Science and Religion

7 Against Agnosticism: Psychical Research and the Naturalisation of the Supernatural

8 Laboratories of Enchantment: Parapsychology in Search of a Paradigm

9 Professionals Out of the Ordinary: How Parapsychology Became a University Discipline

10 Esoteric Epistemologies

11 The Problems of a Gnostic Science: The Case of Theosophy’s Occult Chemistry

12 Perceiving Higher Worlds: Two Perspectives

Conclusion: Implications for the Study of Science, Religion, and Esotericism

Bibliography

Index of Names

Index of Subjects.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

90-04-25494-3

OCLC:

886678392

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004254947 DOI