The Latin superstitio and its earlier Greek equivalent deisidaimonia both began their career as neutral or positive terms. Deisi could mean fear, but also “awe” or “respect,” and daimones could be gods, goddesses, semi-divinities, or…
Tag: rationality
Wouter Hanegraaff on the victory of science
[W]e enter a period in which Christianity slowly but surely loses its hegemonic position in intellectual discourse, while academic historians of philosophy abandon the currents and ideas associated with “Platonic Orientalism” as unworthy of serious…
Wouter Hanegraaff on religionism & eclectism
Due to their utter incompatibility with the findings of modern historical criticism, these two traditional perspectives [apologetic and anti-apologetic currents] were unable to keep up with scholarly progress in the study of ancient religions, and…
Wouter Hanegraaff on the Enlightment paradigm as the beginning of the eclipse of ‘Western esotericism’
The “Enlightenment paradigm” announced so clearly in [Christoph August] Heumann’s Acta Philosophorum was the beginning of the eclipse of “Western esotericism” in modern intellectual discourse. So far, the “pagan” philosophies associated with Platonic Orientalism had…
Wouter Hanegraaff on the anti-apologetic foundations of the history of philosophy as a modern discipline
Like Savonarola, Gianfrancesco [Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s nephew & follower of Savonarola] points to sacred scripture as the sole, exclusive and absolutely infallible source of true knowledge: the certainty given by absolute…
Wouter Hanegraaff on the historiographical foundations of the Western esotericism
Before moving on to the anti-apologetic reaction, it is important to provide a brief evaluation of what the preceding discussion contributes to the leading problematics of this book as a whole. I have been arguing…
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C.D.B. Bryan: miscellaneous
Later in the afternoon Jenny Randles speaks of “an interesting study in which individuals were asked to describe imaginary abductions.” She explains that if such a study indicated there were significant similarities between a “fantasized…
Д.Е. Галковскій: разное
Вообще, нужен опыт овладения национальной идеей. Она очень сильна и на неподготовленные натуры может воздействовать разрушительно (злоба и т.д.). Эта идея иррациональна и может подчинить себе разум, разрушить его до основания и включить в свою…
Brian Martin on expertise & citizen science in public scientific controversies
To examine this issue, it’s useful to look at the role of expertise in public scientific controversies. Vaccination proponents sometimes say that in order to have any credibility, it’s necessary to have appropriate credentials and…
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Brian Martin on ‘boundary-work’
There are boundaries between countries and there are also less tangible boundaries between sets of ideas. One special boundary is between science and non-science. This can also be called a difference or distinction or demarcation.…