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Sto caricando le informazioni... Eros and Magic in the Renaissance (Chicago Original Paperback) (originale 1984; edizione 1987)di Ioan P. Culianu (Autore), Margaret Cook (Autore), Ioan P. Couliano (Autore)
Informazioni sull'operaEros e magia nel Rinascimento: la congiunzione astrologica del 1484 di Ioan P. Culianu (1984)
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. Very complex and difficult to understand without background in the subject. Many untranslated passages in French and Latin Eros and Magic in the Renaissance offers a compelling historical theory of modern Western culture, its institutions and their origins. Couliano suggests that modern Western culture was predominantly conceived and developed during the piques of the European Reformation – presented less as a progressive movement than a conservative one – against the idiosyncratic and imaginative excesses of Renaissance ideals. The Renaissance, then, is framed as a period of imaginative and creative acculturation culminating in the institutional reform of the European Reformation. A reform which ultimately sought to establish a ubiquitous social dogma under the pretense of shared communal values. However, Couliano does not accuse any particular order or individual of the Reformation's apparent reactionary agenda, but, instead, explicates the broad stabilizing forces and attributes them to cultural trends emanating from the most influential intellectual circles of the time. The philosophical underpinnings of Western antiquity are mentioned regarding their distinction between reproduction and love and the importance of identifying the universal aspects of the eros and the human soul. By the time we arrive to sixteenth century Europe, this distinction – of reproduction and love – and its importance are found to be conflated not just with one another, but with many other arts, philosophies and theologies. It is no surprise, then, that we find only a few intellects at the time were actually observant enough to see the confusion and also willing to speak out against the popular and appealing theories of the age. Seeing as these efforts were more akin to cultural critiques, Couliano leads us through the relevant works of Ficino and Bruno, among others, in an attempt to establish a potential origin of the modern social institutions. The bulk of Couliano's theory concerns the sixteenth century notion of the Phantasm (roughly today's psychosomatic symptom) and the contested ideas of these terrifying emotional instabilities and their contraction. The leading idea of Phantasmic contraction at the time claimed that Women, in their possession of [fetishized] beauty, were primary vectors of infection. Of course, as this was sixteenth century Europe, the only potential victim here was the Man. The contraction of a Phantasm and its unfolding maladies were deemed quite serious, many even endowing the Phantasm with a deadly objective, and, so its cure was never a guarantee. The potential remedy of the time was one of indulgence. Indulgence in the images of Phantasy and their subsequent representation in the physical and creative work of the infected. The baselessness and arbitrariness of such a simplistic theory was the primary incitation for Bruno's earliest work. He goes so far as to label Patrarch (a well respected Italian Renaissance poet) a "repressed sensualist" and that people like him were "lacking the intelligence to apply himself to better things … thereby yielding to the tyranny of base, idiotic and filthy bestiality." It is with these critiques that Bruno states with clarity that "the realm of physical love must be separated from the realm of divine contemplation," and from here, the germ of his further development of the Phantasm and their subsequent use in particular forms of "social magic". Drawing further support from the culture of the same period, Couliano says that "Machiavelli's Prince is the forebear of the political adventurer, a type that is disappearing." So, it is with Bruno's De Viniculis, that he describes as "the prototype of the impersonal systems of mass media, indirect censorship, [and] global manipulation…" and so Bruno, as suggested by Couliano, appears to be among the first contributors of psychoanalytical theory. It is no wonder, then, that there was no better term for the informing of public opinion, its control and its ability to incite mass action, than the existing term "interpersonal magic." In fact, Couliano makes clear that the Inquisition itself was, at least in part, a final attempt by the decaying institutions and officials of the Church to prevent the spread and further development of what they saw as a contentious and aberrant worldview. This interpretation becomes all the more apparent in considering how rampant the use of these "magicks" were and the Church's confusion in discerning and understanding them. Couliano reveals other cases of "magic" that, while still psychologically directed at particular individuals, were used to curry favors and heighten the prestige of anyone who was willing to determine and convincingly fulfill the desires of a needy patron or audience. Ultimately, it is the cultural dialectic which drives and directs social trends in the immediate term and forms particular historical trends in the long term. Given the Reformation was enabled by the arrival of the printing press and the potential mass distribution of ideas, it certainly seems plausible, as Couliano suggests, that the modern theory of scientific philosophy and its social aims has a far more contentious and dubious history than is typically assumed. Couliano includes so much information in this work that I'm hardly contented by my summary above, as it suggests far more linearity than I think is due. However, much of it was thought provoking and interesting and I'd recommend it to anyone with at least some knowledge of Western philosophy and some ideas of the Renaissance notion of magic and phantasy (insofar as they were treated in absolute sincerity), especially if you are interested in the history and/or philosophy of modern science. EROS Y MAGIA EN EL RENACIMIENTO Eros y magia en el Renacimiento es un apasionante estudio sobre la imaginación en el Renacimiento y los cambios provocados después por la Reforma. El autor arranca de las teorias neoplatónicas de Pico de la Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino o Giordano Bruno, para considerar la magia como una ciencia del imaginario, retratando de paso al gran manipulador, el mago renacentista. Culianu sostiene que la magia, en su más alto grado de desarrollo, es un método de control tanto del individuo como de las masas, que se funda en un conocimiento profundo de las pulsiones eróticas personales y colectivas. A través de la imaginación todo puede ser manipulado:; de ahi que el autor no sólo reconozca en la magia a un remoto antecesor del psicoanálisis sino, además, de la psicosociologia aplicada y de la psicologia de las masas. Pero la Reforma, y más tarde la Contrarreforma, impusieron con éxito una radical censura del imaginario, que consiguió acabar con la magia. Censura, según Culianu, que permitió el surgimiento de las ciencias exactas y de la tecnología moderna. loan Petru Culianu (1950-1991) mantuvo una estrecha colaboración con su compatriota rumano Mircea Eliade desde el año 1971, dos años antes del comienzo de su exilio en Estados Unidos. Tras su tesis sobre Marcilio Ficino, realizo un amplio estudio sobre la gnosis y en 1980 se doctoró en la Sorbona. Tras investigar sobre la ascensión a los cielos, publicó en el año 1984 Eros y magia en el Renacimiento. In this invaluable treatment of its topic, Couliano exposes some of the principal rationales underlying magic in early modernity, and explains how those now-antedated forms of sorcery became incomprehensible to moderns. Read alongside D.P. Walker's Spiritual and Demonic Magic, this book does more to illuminate traditional Western occult science than 99 percent of the historical works on the topic that have appeared since it was first published in the 1980s. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
Appartiene alle Collane EditorialiPremi e riconoscimenti
It is a widespread prejudice of modern, scientific society that "magic" is merely a ludicrous amalgam of recipes and methods derived from primitive and erroneous notions about nature. Eros and Magic in the Renaissance challenges this view, providing an in-depth scholarly explanation of the workings of magic and showing that magic continues to exist in an altered form even today. Renaissance magic, according to Ioan Couliano, was a scientifically plausible attempt to manipulate individuals and groups based on a knowledge of motivations, particularly erotic motivations. Its key principle was that everyone (and in a sense everything) could be influenced by appeal to sexual desire. In addition, the magician relied on a profound knowledge of the art of memory to manipulate the imaginations of his subjects. In these respects, Couliano suggests, magic is the precursor of the modern psychological and sociological sciences, and the magician is the distant ancestor of the psychoanalyst and the advertising and publicity agent. In the course of his study, Couliano examines in detail the ideas of such writers as Giordano Bruno, Marsilio Ficino, and Pico della Mirandola and illuminates many aspects of Renaissance culture, including heresy, medicine, astrology, alchemy, courtly love, the influence of classical mythology, and even the role of fashion in clothing. Just as science gives the present age its ruling myth, so magic gave a ruling myth to the Renaissance. Because magic relied upon the use of images, and images were repressed and banned in the Reformation and subsequent history, magic was replaced by exact science and modern technology and eventually forgotten. Couliano's remarkable scholarship helps us to recover much of its original significance and will interest a wide audience in the humanities and social sciences. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)133.4094Philosophy and Psychology Parapsychology And Occultism Specific Topics Witchcraft - Sorcery Biography; History By Place EuropeClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
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