Science, Magic, and the Occult from Antiquity to Newton

4.0 credits

This course explores the early history of humans' attempts to explain and control the cosmos, taking into account the real contributions made to early science by areas of inquiry now dismissed as magic or superstition, such as astrology, alchemy, and 'natural magic.' One major theme of the course will be the continuing way in which societies have policed the boundary between what they define as 'magic' and what they dub legitimate 'science.' What is legitimate knowledge about nature, and who gets to define what counts as legitimate? The course will end around 1700, with Newton and the so-called 'scientific Revolution,' and the marginalization of astrology, alchemy and similar fields of inquiry as 'pseudo-sciences' or popular error.