Why was the practice of magic combined with the practice of science during the sixteenth century? Discuss specific examples

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A. Combination of magic and science
1. Western science of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
grew, in part, out of magic
2. Renaissance writers argued that magic was good
a. Marsiglio Ficino (1433–1499), an Italian priest and physician
b. used to heal or to accumulate knowledge of nature
3. distinction between magic and science as means of
attempting to control nature almost vanished in the sixteenth century
a. Renaissance scholars felt inspired to pursue
"Egyptian" wisdom
4. wisdom was supernatural knowledge
a. Doctor Faustus, who sold his soul to the devil in
exchange for magical access to knowledge
b. Habsburg Emperor Rudolf II
1. occultists gathered round him to probe the
secrets of nature and to practice astrology,
alchemy, number-mysticism, and pansophy
2. attempt to classify all knowledge and master the
Universe
5. failure or magic to work but had consequences in science
a. alchemy fed into chemistry, astrology into astronomy,
number-mysticism into mathematics, and pansophy
into the classification of nature
b. outcome of this work included the methods for
classifying plants, animals, and languages that we still use today
6. great figures of the scientific revolution in the Western
world of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries either
started with magic or maintained an interest in it
a. Johannes Kepler (1571–1630 ), who worked out the
path of the planets around the sun
b. Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727 ) was a part-time alchemist
c. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716 ) studied
ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs Chinese divination