The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences

428 Pages·2017·2.254 MB·English

by  Jason A. Josephson-Storm

The Myth of Disenchantment

The Myth of
Disenchantment
Magic, Modernity, and the Birth
of the Human Sciences
Jason Ā. Josephson- Storm
The University of Chicago Press Chicago & London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2017 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical
articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 East
60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2017
Printed in the United States of America
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 40322- 9 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 40336- 6 (paper)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 40353- 3 (e- book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226403533.001.0001
The University of Chicago Press gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Williams
College toward the publication of this book.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Josephson, Jason Ānanda, author.
Title: The myth of disenchantment : magic, modernity, and the birth of the human sciences /
Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm.
Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2017. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2016049463 | isbn 9780226403229 (cloth : alk. paper) | isbn
9780226403366 (pbk. : alk. paper) | isbn 9780226403533 (e-book)
Subjects: lcsh: Science and magic. | Philosophy, Modern. | Myth. | Magic—History. |
Science—Philosophy.
Classification: lcc bf1623.s35 j67 2017 | ddc 001.09/03—dc23 lc record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2016049463
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
The absence of myth is also a myth: the coldest, the purest, the only true myth.
Georges Bataille, “L’absence du mythe,” 1947

C o n t e n t s
Preface and Acknowledgments xi
A Note on Texts and Translations xv
Introduction 1
A Philosophical Archaeology of the Disenchantment of the World 4
Reflexive Religious Studies: The Entangled Formation of Religion,
Science, and Magic 11
Overview of the Work: Europe Is Not Europe 16
1 Enchanted (Post) Modernity 22
Weird America 23
Haunted Europe 30
Conclusion: New Age (Post) Modernists? 34
Part 1: God’s Shadow
2 Revenge of the Magicians 41
Francis Bacon and the Science of Magic 44
The Philosophes and the Science of Good and Evil Spirits 51
Conclusion: The Myth of Enlightenment 58
3 The Myth of Absence 63
Nihilism, Revolution, and the Death of God: F. H. Jacobi and
G. W. F. Hegel 67
The Eclipse of the Gods: Friedrich Schiller 76
The Romantic Spiral: Friedrich Hölderlin 86
A Myth in Search of History: Jacob Burckhardt 89
Conclusion: The Myth of the Modern Loss of Myth 92
viii Contents
4 The Shadow of God 94
Spirits of a Vanishing God 95
The Haunted Anthropologist: E. B. Tylor 98
The Magician and the Philologist: Éliphas Lévi and Max Müller 101
Theosophical Disenchantment: Helena Blavatsky 115
Conclusion: Specters of the Transcendent 120
5 The Decline of Magic: J. G. Frazer 125
The Cultural Ruins of Paganism 128
The Golden Bough before Disenchantment 132
The Departure of the Fairies 135
The Dreams of Magic 140
The Lost Theory: Despiritualizing the Universe 147
Conclusion: A Devil’s Advocate 150
6 The Revival of Magick: Aleister Crowley 153
The Great Beast: A Biographical Sketch 156
The God- Eater and the Golden Bough 159
Disenchanted Magic 169
Conclusion: From The Golden Bough to the Golden Dawn 175
Part 2: The Horrors of Metaphysics
7 The Black Tide: Mysticism, Rationality, and the German Occult Revival 179
Degeneration and Mysticism: Max Nordau 182
Kant as Necromancer: Carl du Prel and Arthur Schopenhauer 184
Hidden Depths: Sigmund Freud 191
Conclusion: The Cosmic Night 206
8 Dialectic of Darkness: The Magical Foundations of Critical Theory 209
The Cosmic Circle 210
Magical Philosophy and Disenchantment: Ludwig Klages 213
The Esoteric Constellations of Critical Theory: Walter Benjamin 226
Conclusion: The Magic of Theory 236
9 The Ghosts of Metaphysics: Logical Positivism and Disenchantment 240
Philosophical Technocracy: Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer 241
Revolutionary Antimetaphysics: Positivist Disenchantment
and Re- enchantment; Rudolf Carnap and Otto Neurath 245
Positivists in Paranormal Vienna: Rudolf Carnap and Hans Hahn 258
Conclusion: The Magic of Disenchantment 268
Contents ix
10 The World of Enchantment; or, Max Weber at the End of History 269
The Disenchantment of the World 270
Weber the Mystic and the Return from the God Eclipse 287
Conclusion: Disenchantment Disenchanted 298
Conclusion: The Myth of Modernity 302
The Myths of (Post) Modernity 304
The Myth of Disenchantment as Regulative Ideal 308
Against the Tide of Disenchantment 314
Notes 317
Index 395