Hypnosis Between Science and Magic

by Isabelle Stengers, April A. Knutson (translator)

What if judgment returned to the craft of magic? How would that relieve the burdens of critique and realign its priorities? These questions regarding the value of magic to thinking are at the very heart of the acclaimed philosopher of science Isabelle Stengers' political and philosophical thought and her insistence that 'the smoke of the burned witches still hangs in our nostrils'.

Now, in the first English translation of this classic text, Hypnosis Between Science and Magic provides an entry point to the work of Isabelle Stengers, who has so originally and forcefully shifted how we think about the history of ideas. The book focuses in on an area of her thought that has recurred throughout her the presumed antagonism between magic and science, and especially the evacuation of magic from all that is thought to be scientifically valid.

169 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Isabelle Stengers is the author of many books on the philosophy of science, and is Professor of Philosophy at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.