The Problem of Disenchantment: Scientific Naturalism and Esoteric Discourse, 1900-1939 (SUNY series in Western Esoteric Traditions)

Challenges the conventional view of a “disenchanted” and secular modernity, and recovers the complex relation that exists between science, religion, and esotericism in the modern world. Max Weber famously characterized the ongoing process of intellectualization and rationalization that separates the natural world from the divine (by excluding magic and value from the realm of science, and reason and fact from the realm of religion) as the “disenchantment of the world.” Egil Asprem argues for a conceptual shift in how we view this key narrative of modernity. Instead of a sociohistorical process of disenchantment that produces increasingly rational minds, Asprem maintains that the continued presence of “magic” and “enchantment” in people’s everyday experience of the world created an intellectual problem for those few who were socialized to believe that nature should contain no such incalculable mysteries. Drawing on a wide range of early twentieth-century primary sources from theoretical physics, occultism, embryology, radioactivity, psychical research, and other fields, Asprem casts the intellectual life of high modernity as a synchronic struggle across conspicuously different fields that shared surprisingly similar intellectual problems about value, meaning, and the limits of knowledge. “ The Problem of Disenchantment is, in its entirety, extraordinarily well researched, argued, and written—representing at once the most complete and nuanced treatment of the notion of disenchantment within this network of scientific, religious, philosophical, and esoteric discourses and currents.” — Nova Religio Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction The Limits of Reason Outline of the Book Part 1: From Process to Problem Chapter 1 From Process to Problem Weberians on Disenchantment: Rationality, Modernity, and Western Culture The Dialectic Solution: Dis- and Re-Enchantment Problemgeschichte: A Brief Introduction to the New Problem History The Intellectual Sacrifice and the Three Dimensions of Disenchantment Lighting up the Blind Spot: Disenchantment’s Tertium Quid The Problems of Disenchantment Chapter 2 Science as Worldview Introduction 1 The Poverty of the Re-Enchantment Paradigm 2 The Reach of Science: Naturalism and Scientific Worldviews Victorian Scientific Naturalism: A Historical Perspective Naturalism as a Philosophical Current Naturalism versus Supernaturalism Between Naturalisation and Disenchantment: Mapping the Magical Margin 3 Disenchantment Revisited Towards a Critical Naturalistic Constructionism Conclusion: The Construction and Inversion of a Worldview Part 2: New Natural Theologies Chapter 3 Brave New World: An Introduction to Part Two Chapter 4 Physical Science in a Modern Mode Introduction 1 Science and Memory: A Historiographical Preamble 2 Relativities: A Straight Story Relativities I: The Special Theory, and Some Precursors Relativities II: The General Theory and the Birth of Modern Cosmology 3 The Development of Quantum Physics A Chronological Overview 4 Radioactivity: The Newer Alchemy? The Discovery of Radioactivity, Phase 1: Becquerel and the Curies Radioactivity, Phase 2: Soddy, Rutherford, and the Transmutation of Elements Modern Alchemy and the Problem of Disenchantment 5 Physics, Worldview, and Culture: Revisiting the Forman Thesis Causality and the Weimar Zeitgeist Forman Revised: Criticisms and Re-Evaluation 6 Conclusion: The Forman Thesis and the Problem of Disenchantment The Problem of Disenchantment in Physics The Esoteric Connection (I): Creating Emic Historiographies The Esoteric Connection (II): Conceptual Developments Chapter 5 The Meaning of Life: Mechanism and Purpose in the Sciences of Life and Mind Introduction 1 The Disenchantment of Life Until 1900 2 The Re-Enchantment of Life from 1900 The Meanings of Mechanism The Alternatives at 1900: Mechanism—Organicism/Holism—Vitalism Lessons from Developmental Embryology Conclusions 3 The Conquest of Consciousness: Psychology and the Place of Mind in Nature From Mind to Behaviour: John B. Watson and the Behaviourist Reform The Battle of Behaviourism: John B. Watson vs. William McDougall 4 Evolution Contra Darwin Conclusion Chapter 6 Five Schools of Natural Theology: Reconciling Science and Religion Introduction: The Revival of Natural Theology 1 The Institutions of Natural Theology The Gifford Lectures The Societies for Psychical Research The Alchemical Society 2 Five Schools of Natural Theology i Ether Metaphysics ii Psychic Enchantment iii Theologies of Emergence iv Modern Alchemy v Quantum Mysticism 3 The Theological Underpinnings of the New Natural Theologies: Panentheism and Cosmotheism Part 3: Laboratories of Enchantment Chapter 7 Against Agnosticism: Psychical Research and the Naturalisation of the Supernatural Introduction 1 The Agnosticism Controversy and the Epistemology of Scientific Naturalism 2 Psychical Research as Open-Ended Naturalism 3 Strategies of Naturalisation 4 Conclusion: Anti-Agnosticism and the Slippery Road to Psychic Enchantments Chapter 8 Laboratories of Enchantment: Parapsychology in Search of a Paradigm Introduction: Three Generations of Psychical Research 1 William James and the Failure of the First Generation 2 The Fragmentation of Psychical Research: The Second Generation The SPR and the Ghostly Return of Frederic Myers Parapsychologie and Métapsychique: Two Continental Schools 3 The Statistical Turn: Quantitative Experimentalist Programmes in Psychical Research John E. Coover and the Stanford Fellowship in Psychical Research, 1912–1917 The Richard Hodgson Memorial Fund: Psychical Research at Harvard, 1916–1926 4 Conclusion: Enchantment and the Reign of Quantity Chapter 9 Professionals Out of the Ordinary: How Parapsychology Became a University Discipline Introduction: How to Become a Scientist When Your Field Does Not Exist 1 Against Agnostics, Sceptics, and Spiritualists: The Boundary-Work of a Conservative Contrarian 2 Reactionary Networks: How Psychical Research Can Save Western Civilisation (According to W. McDougall) 3 Professionals at Last: The Inauguration of the Rhine Era 4 Conclusion: Enchantment in Old Dixie Part 4: Esoteric Epistemologies Chapter 10 Esoteric Epistemologies Introduction: Esotericism 3.0 and the Problem of Disenchantment 1 Rejected Knowledge: Esotericism and Establishment 2 Worldviews: The Disenchantment of Esotericism? 3 Epistemology: Gnosis and the Expansion of Reason 4 Conclusion: Esoteric Knowledge Between Naturalisation and Disenchantment Chapter 11 The Problems of a Gnostic Science: The Case of Theosophy’s Occult Chemistry Introduction: The Problems of a “Gnostic” Science 1 Science and Higher Knowledge in First-Generation Theosophy 2 Visions Beyond Sight: Occult Chemistry and the Problem of Representation Representation, Visualisation, and Scientific Change Promises of a Gnostic Science: The Clairvoyant Perception of Chemical Elements Reading Representations: From Charity to Suspicion The Rhetoric of Representation 3 Science Contra Gnosis: Conceptual Revolutions and the Stagnation of Theosophical Science Conclusion Chapter 12 Perceiving Higher Worlds: Two Perspectives Introduction: A Comparative Approach to Higher Knowledge 1 Two Careers in Occultism Steiner: Philosopher, Theosophist, Anthroposophist Crowley: Prophet of a New Aeon 2 Comparative Gnosis: Geheimwissenschaft Versus Scientific Illuminism ”Occult Science”: Steiner’s Devotional Road to Higher Knowledge Scientific Illuminism: Crowley’s Sceptical Road to Higher Knowledge 3 On Reverence, Scepticism, and Reason Unbound: Concluding Comparisons Between Reverence and Scepticism: Contextual Factors Reason Unbound Conclusion Implications for the Study of Science, Religion, and Esotericism The Contours of a Conceptual Field Natural Theology and the Origin of the Problem of Disenchantment Consequences for the Study of Western Esotericism Consequences for the History of Religion (And Science) Bibliography Manuscript Sources Index of Names Index of Subjects