Legendary science popularizer Carl Sagan quoted Francis Bacon, a key figure of the Scientific Revolution, as an enemy of superstition, and suggested he was an early advocate of modern scientific naturalism. Never mind Bacon was a firm believer in occult phenomena and proposed experiments to test them – only to advise against such research in … Read more
The history of Cambridge University fundamentally challenges modern assumptions that science has disenchanted the world. As can be expected, this is also reflected in its archival and library holdings. Some of the most curious items held at Cambridge University Library are found in the collection of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), which includes old … Read more
Introductory remarks According to a traditional standard narrative, the ‘decline of magic’ in western intellectual elites since the Enlightenment was the direct and inevitable consequence of advances in science and medicine, which rendered belief in ‘occult’ principles obsolete. Probably the best currently available survey of historical studies casting considerable doubt on this popular view is … Read more