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Cited by 87Historical Philosophy and ScienceHistorical, Religious, and Philosophical StudiesReligious Studies and Spiritual Practices

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Analogy versus identity: the rejection of occult symbolism, 1580–1680

Vickers, Brian·2010·Occult and scientific mentalities in the Renaissance
DOI 10.1017/cbo9780511572999.005
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Abstract

It is my contention that the occult and the experimental scientific traditions can be differentiated in several ways: in terms of goals, methods, and assumptions. I do not maintain that they were exclusive opposites or that a Renaissance scientist's allegiance can be settled on an either/or, or yes/no, basis. Rather, in many instances, especially in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a spectrum of beliefs and attitudes can be distinguished, a continuum from, say, absolutely magical to absolutely mechanistic poles, along which thinkers place themselves at various points depending on their attitudes to certain key topics. One of these topics, not much discussed so far, is the relationship between language and reality. In the scientific tradition, I hold, a clear distinction is made between words and things and between literal and metaphorical language. The occult tradition does not recognize this distinction: Words are treated as if they are equivalent to things and can be substituted for them. Manipulate the one and you manipulate the other. Analogies, instead of being, as they are in the scientific tradition, explanatory devices subordinate to argument and proof, or heuristic tools to make models that can be tested, corrected, and abandoned if necessary, are, instead, modes of conceiving relationships in the universe that reify, rigidify, and ultimately come to dominate thought. One no longer uses analogies: One is used by them. They become the only way in which one can think or experience the world.

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Metadata

Authors
Vickers, B.
Corresponding author
Vickers, Brian
ORCID
Vickers, Brian
Venue
Occult and scientific mentalities in the Renaissance
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Published
2010-02-02
Pages
95-164
DOI
10.1017/cbo9780511572999.005
OpenAlex
W1535312625
Cited by
87
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 2 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 2
FWCI
24.11
Type
book chapter
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Historical Philosophy and Science
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
Keywords
Renaissance science, experimental science, magic, analogy, language and reality, metaphor, reification, mechanistic worldview, early modern natural philosophy, occultism

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