A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 1 (of 2): During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era

Description

Lynn Thorndike traces the intertwined evolution of occult practice and empirical inquiry across thirteen centuries. This volume examines how alchemy, astrology, and Hermetic philosophy provided the conceptual framework for the Scientific Revolution — not as a replacement, but as a transformation of the same intellectual tradition. Thorndike demonstrates that the boundary between magic and science was historically porous, and that the Enlightenment's rationalism grew directly from the experimental traditions of the medieval and Renaissance periods.\nFor readers of the history of science, occultism, or the intellectual history of Western civilization, this is a rigorous and illuminating account. Thorndike reconstructs the intellectual genealogy of modern science through the lens of its esoteric precursors, showing how the empirical methods of the modern world were forged in the furnaces of alchemy and the observatories of astrologers. This two-volume set is essential reading for anyone interested in how our contemporary worldview emerged from a much more mysterious past.