The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences Paperback – May 16, 2017
by Jason Ananda Josephson Storm (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars 29 ratings
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A great many theorists have argued that the defining feature of modernity is that people no longer believe in spirits, myths, or magic. Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm argues that as broad cultural history goes, this narrative is wrong, as attempts to suppress magic have failed more often than they have succeeded. Even the human sciences have been more enchanted than is commonly supposed. But that raises the question: How did a magical, spiritualist, mesmerized Europe ever convince itself that it was disenchanted?
Josephson-Storm traces the history of the myth of disenchantment in the births of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, folklore, psychoanalysis, and religious studies. Ironically, the myth of mythless modernity formed at the very time that Britain, France, and Germany were in the midst of occult and spiritualist revivals. Indeed, Josephson-Storm argues, these disciplines' founding figures were not only aware of, but profoundly enmeshed in, the occult milieu; and it was specifically in response to this burgeoning culture of spirits and magic that they produced notions of a disenchanted world.
By providing a novel history of the human sciences and their connection to esotericism, The Myth of Disenchantment dispatches with most widely held accounts of modernity and its break from the premodern past.
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Print length
400 pages
Language
English
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Publication date
May 16, 2017
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"The implications of this book are vast and potentially revolutionary for the humanities. Josephson-Storm's mastery over the history of western philosophy, his sharp eye for the magical lives of the intellectuals, and his expertise in Japanese religion render his voice uniquely multidimensional, utterly original, and eerily persuasive. I am deeply excited about The Myth of Disenchantment and what it portends for both our academic fields and our human futures."
-Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred
"I know of no other study that offers such an ambitious reassessment of the genealogy of the notion of disenchantment. Building on impressive historical research, Josephson-Storm offers innovative readings of foundational social scientific and theoretical texts. This book is a major addition to the critical literature exploring the origins and nature of modernity."
-Randall Styers, author of Making Magic: Religion, Magic, and Science in the Modern World
"The Myth of Disenchantment is a work of considerable clarity and directness. . .notable for its lucidity. . . . The Myth of Disenchantment is essential reading for those interested in the history of the modern humanities. It is directly engaged in this emerging field, investigating the figures and practices that constitute the history of the study of religion, critical theory, and other 'human sciences.' It features insightful syntheses of previous work, as well as original research into both obscure and well-worn areas of inquiry. . . offers a strong basis for future work."
-History of Humanities
"The author displays impressive erudition in tackling what is, by any standards, a massive undertaking. . . Josephson-Storm exhaustively traces the development of Western thought on this subject through history to the present time, and convincingly argues that the magic never really went away after all. . . .While the underlying theme is eminently simple and understandable, some of the philosophical arguments become immensely complex. This book is a serious academic work. . .yet he reveals a capacity for lightness of touch. . . The Myth of Disenchantment is a most stimulating and informative book."
-Magonia Review of Books
"This is a significant book. The Myth of Disenchantment is ambitious and well written, horizon broadening and provocative. . . . It forces the sociologist to reconsider whether secularization and disenchantment are necessarily causally linked, and it vexes the science of religion's self-understanding as a disciplinary tradition with a safe distance from the object it interprets and explains. In other words, the book is definitely recommended for critical reading."
-Jørn Borup, Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift
"The Myth of Disenchantment is a model monograph: a work that condenses a dizzying array of information into a tightly woven and significant argument and then relays it in easily understandable and enjoyable prose. Its impact on the field at large is sure to be felt."
-Journal of the American Academy of Religion
From the Author
I think of a book as opening a dialogue with readers. In this respect, I want to be more open to email contact and conversation than is typical for academic authors. I'm always happy to discuss issues the book evokes, answer questions, or provide clarifications. You can email me via contact information on my academic website at Williams College or contact me on my blog (google Absolute-Disruption or find the link on my Amazon Author Page). I may not reply immediately, but I will respond.
More about The Myth of Disenchantment can be found on my blog, which also includes errata and additional content (eventually including interviews with me about the book).
For faculty members teaching the book, I'm also potentially available to Skype into your class. For this contact me through my college email.
About the Author
Jason Ānanda Josephson-Storm is Chair & Associate professor of the Department of Religion at Williams College. He received his PhD from Stanford University in 2006, his MTS from Harvard University in 2001, and has held visiting positions at Princeton University, École Française d'Extrême-Orient, Paris and Ruhr Universität, Germany. He is also the author of The Invention of Religion in Japan (University of Chicago Press 2012, winner of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion- Distinguished Book of the Year Award-2013), and The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity and the Birth of the Human Sciences (University of Chicago Press, 2017).
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Jason Ananda Josephson Storm
Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm is Professor of Religion and Chair of Science & Technology Studies at Williams College. He received his PhD from Stanford University, his MTS from Harvard University, and has held visiting positions at Princeton University, École Française d'Extrême-Orient, Paris, Ruhr Universität and Universität Leipzig, Germany. He is the author of "The Invention of Religion in Japan" (University of Chicago Press 2012, winner of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion- Distinguished Book of the Year Award) and "The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity and the Birth of the Human Sciences" (2017).
4.8 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States
JS
5.0 out of 5 stars A book of magic
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2017
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After Josephson-Storm's bombshell "The Invention of Religion in Japan," a conscious attempt to build a counter-mythology which invited much interest and criticism, his new book "The Myth of Disenchantment" was highly anticipated in some academic circles. People who jumped to pre-order their copy may be disappointed at first if they have an Aristotelian bent. A lot of it seems like “ad hominem” characterizations of individual thinkers rather than discussing the “essence” of their intellectual program.
I recommend to such a reader a little thought experiment. Close the book, and try to write a paragraph-long history of thought where you explain how it is that academia lost its Christian character in the 19th century and became ruled by secular or atheist forces instead. “As Weber explained, the modern world is a disenchanted one.” But hold on… you just read a book where Josephson-Storm explained in painstaking detail how Weber was fond of mysticism and occultism!
This is the “myth” that he is trying to demonstrate: academics like to mourn how sad it is that the modern world has become past-perfect “disenchanted,” while simultaneously participating in enchanted behaviors that exist very much in their own present day. So even if you yourself sincerely believe in the superiority of positivism, this book will rid you of mythical historicist grounds for your argument: you must return to arguing for positivism on its own merits and not because the current year demands such a thing.
The real conundrum is if you *don’t* believe in positivism, like many of the writers Josephson-Storm discusses. Many humanities scholars use the myth of disenchantment not to cheerlead for atheism, but to apologize for their own commitment to methodological naturalism by appealing to a popular fairy tale (specifically, the tale of the vanishing of the fairies). This book may seem slight in its argument at first, but in fact, having read it closely, it will have a reflective force on your own work: you are no longer able to appeal to “disenchantment” in an honest way.
It is a magic book!
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The Greatest Weight
5.0 out of 5 stars Myths and their consequences
Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2021
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Josephson-Storm analyzes the received notion that modernity is qualified by its being representative of a number of bundled processes- rationalization, industrialization, capitalism, dedivinized nature, and the suppression or rejection of magical or occult practices, etc.- and signifying a definitive rupture with the past and the establishment of a new cultural epoch. This is in large part a myth, though one which has exerted its pressures on various areas of culture, especially the human sciences. The myth of disenchantment, as a sub-species of this myth of modernity, is the focus of this work, which is dismantled through the close examination of the various individuals who are credited with its establishment, who are revealed to be themselves heavily involved in the occult, the paranormal and the magical. This includes scientists such as Bacon and Newton, architects of the disenchantment thesis such as Muller, Frazer, Tylor and Weber, philosophers like Kant, Hegel, and Freud, and the logical positivists (Carnap, Hahn) and their sparring partners the Frankfurt school. Their involvement in such magical currents also reveals the social context in which much of their work occurred, which was filled with occult revivals and magical practices, as evidenced by the central figure of vitalist philosopher (lebensphilosophie) Ludwig Klages and the cosmic circle in fin de siecle Munich, whose wide influence shows up throughout the latter half of the book. The myth of disenchantment thus problematized, Josephson-Storm makes the case that it has functioned more as a disenchanting process than a completed state, and that it really exhibits a schizophrenic character of transforming itself into its opposite (such as disenchantment revealing higher level magical return) or of simultaneously disenchanting and reenchanting. The rupture with the past appears to be quite suspect, but the myth still persists in many disciplines and much popular consciousness, “haunting” the present.
Many such spectres appear in the book, from Kant’s ding an sich (a noumenal transcendent realm that philosophers proceeded to populate with esoteric forms) haunting German idealism to Klages as a “Frankenstein monster” whose work contains (and has inspired) an astonishing diversity of ideas prominent in continental philosophy and critical theory. The monster was a myth, but Klages was the reality. Klages would likely be pleased to hear Josephson-Storm making the case for his outsized influence on critical theory and elsewhere, as he often referred to himself as the most pilfered thinker in philosophy. The recent work of Paul Bishop on Klages (A Vitalist Toolkit) which came out after this work, would have been another useful addition to the account given here of Klages.
All in all, Josephson-Storm has done an admirable job in critiquing and exposing the still prevalent myth of disenchantment. Near the end of the book he declares “we are already free” because the myth was never totally established or even accurate in the context of its own genesis. However, we are certainly not free of the effects of many behaving as if this myth were fact; in the reticence of scholars to disclose the presence of the magical or mystical in their work and lives (Josephson-Storms own grandmother, an anthropologist, waited until after retirement to publicly disclose her own belief in spirits); and in the practices of extractive industry that treats the world as (in Klages terminology) mere things rather than composed of living souls (or interdependent ecosystems), to say nothing of Weber’s “iron cage.” If there is a hopeful note that emerges from this critique, it is that we are not so beset by this myth as we might have assumed, that its hold over us was only ever partial and incomplete, and that if history is any guide, it likely contains the seeds of its own reversal in subsequent magical retrieval and renewal “in a higher key.”
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Jeremy Bellay
5.0 out of 5 stars Disenchanting disenchantment
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2017
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This is the second book by Josephson-Storm after, “The Invention of Religion in Japan”, which I also read and greatly enjoyed. Though the subject matter is very different, Josephson-Storm again supports his arguments with detailed, well told, historical narrative. He characterizes the interactions of key historical thinkers with enchantment/disenchantment, and we are treated to a Frazer who sees magic as aligned with science against populist religion, and Max Weber who’s sympathies don’t align with his famous “disenchantment of the world.” Unlike many academic works, the book is engaging from beginning to end. This is good because the book has a rather strange story to tell of how enchantment and disenchantment have been recruited again and again through the last few centuries (though the focus is the first half of the 20th century) to ennoble and discredit. Like the tension between localism and transnationalism, enchanted and disenchantment seem to engender one another. Intuitively, the work is extremely timely as disenchantment/enchantment are strikingly (and seemingly paradoxically) apparent in our national political discussion and it's unfortunate the book was finished before the surprising result of the last election.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars scholarly perfect. One of the best book I have read ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 22, 2017
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Refreshing, intellectually stimulating, scholarly perfect. One of the best book I have read this year!
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Jason Newcomb
3.0 out of 5 stars Halfway through, I realize I am the wrong audience for this
Reviewed in Canada on August 13, 2020
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The book’s audience seems to be other scholars within the field. As such it comes across as self referential to a dumb like me who just wanted to see how the world is actually enchanted (or perceived as such) despite a prevailing notion that we live in a secular age.
The language seemed to me to be quite jargony and the points of discussion includes a lot of inside baseball talk.
The foreword was barely intelligible to my ear but I was heartened at the first chapter which was argued with a lot more clarity. But by the time I reached the section on “philosophes” I found myself skimming or skipping large chunks of the text and I’ve kept up this reading method until the Crowley/Frazer sections. Surprisingly this has so far made the book a much more enjoyable read and the argumentation seemed clearer.
The title and sleeve design as well as the back cover blurbs and description seemed marketed to me. My natural interests seem to make me taylor made for this book. But in reading it I felt the writing style to be alienating.
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