The Meaning of Magic

HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory

Mesopotamian Magic: Textual, Historical and Interpretative Perspectives, 2000

II. Surveys and Studies TzviAbusch Witchcraft and the Anger of the Personal God 81 Stefan M. Maul How the Babylonians Protected Themselves against Calamities Announced by Omens 123 Alasdair Livingstone The Magic of Time 131 Karel van der Toorn Magic at the Cradle:

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2016

***NB: The published version of this paper concludes after Part IV. Part V will be incorporated into a separate article (now in progress).*** Despite its enduring popularity, theatrical magic remains all but ignored by art critics, art historians, and philosophers. This longstanding critical inattention is unfortunate, since magic seems to offer a unique and distinctively intellectual aesthetic experience, and reflection on magic raises a host of interesting philosophical and psychological questions. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to initiate a philosophical investigation of the experience of magic. The paper has five parts. Part one dispels two misconceptions about the nature of magic and discusses the special sort of depiction it requires. Parts two and three lay the groundwork for an account of the experience of magic in terms of Tamar Szabó Gendler's notion of “belief-discordant alief.” On this basis, part four presents an account of the experience of magic and connects it to both the Kantian mathematical sublime and Socratic aporia. Finally, part five introduces two new aesthetic paradoxes and resolves them by appeal, first, to Alison Gopnik’s work on the psychology of explanation, and second, to parallels between magic and horror and humor. The result is a philosophically rich account of the experience of magic that opens new avenues for inquiry with direct relevance to core issues in contemporary aesthetics.

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology, 2021

The word “magic” refers to a broad range of beliefs and practices that include animism, charm(s), divination, enchantment, fantasy, fetish, glamour, illusion, miracles, the occult, shamanism, sorcery, spells, the supernatural, superstition, taboos, trickery, and witchcraft. Magic―once thought a core feature of “primitive societies,” abandoned by more rational, bureaucratic and progressive beliefs―is, in fact, thriving in contemporary life, and central to practices of capitalism as well as to everyday behaviors. Magic is practiced in fields of finance, government, law, medicine and health, technology, advertising, marketing, sports, the gaming industry, and theatrical performances, among other institutions. When situations allow for the assemblage of a “magician,” “rite,” and “representation” within these complex social networks and when professional skills, ideas, conditions, contexts, media, and meanings align, magic acts as an agent of change. Magic is also practiced in everyday s...

In March of 2010 Inter-Disciplinary.Net brought together scholars from around the world to participate in the 1 st Global Conference on Magic and the Supernatural. As the name of the organizing group would suggest, no single disciplinary approach was privileged. Instead, under the guiding hand of Rob Fisher and Stephen Morris as well as the dedicated members of the steering committee, scholars from a variety of disciplinary and geographic perspectives came together in Salzburg, Austria, in order to tackle problems and questions related to magic and the supernatural in what proved to be an immensely fruitful dialogue. At this point the reader might well ask why such an undertaking would occur. After all, in our modern world have we not moved beyond such things as magic? Do we not have a full and complete understanding of the supernatural? Do we really need to devote the intellectual energies of scholars from across the globe to studying such things? The answers would be no, no, and a definitive yes. Furthermore, as the conference showed, questions about magic and the supernatural are not of merely historical interest. These are not simply artefacts of some past from which we have moved on. Rather, if we are to understand the world in which we live we must give serious thought to the magical and the supernatural, for not only have such beliefs shaped the world in which we live, but they are still very much with us. It might be best to begin by asking what we mean by the term 'magic.' That would seem to be a simple enough proposition. After all, most of us grew up with stories of spell-casting heroes and villains, from Merlin in the Arthurian legends to Harry Potter and his nemesis Voldemort in J.K. Rowling's beloved tales. It would seem from reading these tales that magic is the force that allows those skilled in its use to alter reality to suit their whims and which sustains mythical creatures such as faeries and unicorns. But is it really that simple? Consider for a moment the ability to alter reality. How is that different from prayer? As the Polish-born anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski discussed in his classic collection of essays published in 1948 as Magic, Science, and Religion, it is decidedly difficult to work out the boundaries between prayer and magic. In both instances an individual attempts to alter reality, calling on forces beyond those of the natural world to effect a change. This is true whether the hoped-for change is to bring a desired object to hand-as in the case of the accio charm seen in the Harry Potter novels-or the cure of a sick relative. In every case there is no doubt that the individual hoping to make the change is calling on forces beyond those of the natural world in the hopes of bringing about a real and significant effect. Many might object that there is a real and substantive difference between prayer and magic, but from an anthropological perspective it is difficult to