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April 13th, 2009
 | 08:40 am
The Nature of Magic
In the Middle Ages, "magic" meant employing some nature of a material body to achieve an effect without knowing the nature that achieved it. Thus, chewing willow bark would relieve a headache somehow. It was the "somehow" that made it magic. Had they known the nature of willow bark and how it influenced bodily humours, it would not have been magic. The causes would have been "manifest" (apparent) rather than "occult" (hidden). This was quite different from sorcery, although there is obvious scope for both quacks and superstition when the natures are occult. [Superstition is when the effect is falsely ascribed to the nature of the matter, such as might happen from a spurious correlation or post hoc, propter hoc reasoning.] Since then, of course, the terms "magic" and "occult" have taken on the odor of "unnatural" or "supernatural" rather than merely "unknown nature."
Knowledge............Causes are
Art........................manifest.....................Know how
Magic....................occult..........................Know somehow
Superstition............nonexistent...............post hoc/propter hoc
With this in mind, the following ruminations of The Maverick Philosopher tickled my funny bone.
To round out today's ruminations, let us consider the materialist who ascribes to the grey stuff in our skulls the magical property of giving rise to consciousness, self-consciousness, conscience, and intentionality. Can we not tax such a materialist with superstition? Is he not ascribing magical powers to matter, powers that material objects cannot possess? In a slogan: To impute meaning to meat is magical! Mind means (intends) what is other than it. If you impute this power to mere matter, then you are arguably superstitious.
"But brains just are semantic engines; they have the intentional power!" If the materialist can get away with that little outburst, then the religionist can get away with imputing to a plastic icon on a dashboard the power of averting automotive mishap.
Brains exist and consciousness exists. (Dennett be damned; his eliminativism about consciousness, not the man himself.) It is natural to wax Searlean and say that brain activity causes consciousness. But if we have no idea HOW brain activity could cause consciousness, then how [does] saying that it does differ from saying that the St. Christopher medal causes safe passage through the friendly skies?
By me, it's not clear whether "The brain gives rise to consciousness somehow" is magic or superstition, depending on whether the "somehow" is the null set or not. Is it the equivalent of chewing willow bark, or the equivalent of post hoc/propter hoc? Until then, "IT JUST DOES!" is an ejaculation of faith. Alleluia. May the Singularity come soon.
- The universe is matter without any intrinsic meaning.
- The human mind is simply an attribute of matter.
- The human mind creates meaning.
How anyone can believe all three is a puzzlement. If the mind is an attribte of a wad of gray matter packed in a bone box, then it is part of the universe. If the universe is meaningless, there is no way that a inconsequential slivver of it can create meaning.
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| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | April 15th, 2009 12:19 am (UTC) |
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One of the famous Salamanca School natural law guys (from the attempted reboot of scholasticism during Spain's Golden Age) also did a law lecture on magic. I found a Spanish translation of it, and plan to post it somewhere.
The amusing thing is that the university at Salamanca, like the one in Sevilla, was rumored in Spanish folklore to harbor secret wizard colleges, described in various degrees of luridness. (I like the one where the students spent seven years in a cave underneath the town, getting their degree while gradually killing each other off or getting killed by spells. Winner take degree. Sorta like Survivor: Wizard School.)
So when Father got up to give his amusing theoretical lecture on the place of magic in the law, you know that lecture hall was probably crammed with students, sure that they were finally going to learn The Truth about the secret wizard degree program.
I've taken the plunge and sent along a story with "magic" to a major SF publication.
With, due to my inherent caution, a mention it takes place in a parallel universe.
(Okay, okay, I only employ the term UNIverse for lack of a better common word.)
Good. That saves us all from the puzzle of how there can be more than one of something that is UNI- |
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