Why We Practice Magic
press.princeton.edu
Why We Practice Magic
1–10 of 25 posts
Re: Why We Practice Magic
#2[flagged]
Re: Why We Practice Magic
#3[flagged]
It's history.
Long ago people believed the Sun revolved around the Earth.
If someone today writes a history of those times, you are supposed to understand that the author doesn't actually believe the Sun revolves around the Earth, but that they are writing a history of that time period.
Re: Why We Practice Magic
#4[flagged]
> This is the standard of writing that's coming out of Princeton these days?
Well, per TFA, the author is actually Helen De Cruz [0], who is the Danforth Chair in the Humanities and professor of philosophy at Saint Louis University.
Re: Why We Practice Magic
#5[flagged]
[deleted]
Re: Why We Practice Magic
#6[flagged]
What is the error there?
Re: Why We Practice Magic
#7[flagged]
I mean, it makes sense in the context of the next two sentences:
> They conceived of magic as the ability to work wonders, and as such it merited close philosophical attention.
> In Wonderstruck, I treat magic (like science and religion) as a cognitive technology that harnesses our sense of wonder.
Re: Why We Practice Magic
#8[flagged]
What is the error there?
"However" isn't a conjunction. It should be "Not many academic philosophers discuss magic. However, five centuries ago..."
Using "however" the way the author did will trip up a reader expecting correct English -- once you have "Not many philosophers discuss magic, however" you expect the sentence to end, but it doesn't and you have to go back and reinterpret.
Re: Why We Practice Magic
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is the error there?
"However" isn't a conjunction. It should be "Not many academic philosophers discuss magic. However, five centuries ago..." Using "however" the way the author did will trip up a reader expecting correct English -- once you have "Not many philosophers discuss magic, however" you expect the sentence to end, but it doesn't and you have to go back and reinterpret.
Agreed. It should have been a period or or at least a semicolon before "however":
"Not many academic philosophers discuss magic; however, five centuries ago . . ."
In any case, I think the author really meant "although."
Re: Why We Practice Magic
#10The bit about science not being elitist needs a caveat: anyone can try things and make observations, but that doesn't mean other people will believe them. Being trusted as a source of observations and getting them generally accepted is a social process. Consider nutrition, exercise, anything health related. How many people were in your study?
Even then, there's no guarantee. Many papers are ignored.
For some things, cameras help.