Magic and the Will to Science

A Political Anthropology of Liminal Technicality

Agnes Horvath (University College Cork, Ireland)

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English

Routledge
30 July 2025

Social theory; Anthropology; Political science & theory

Series: Contemporary Liminality

This book offers a political anthropological perspective on the problematic character of science, combining insights from historical sociology, political theory, and cultural anthropology. Its central idea, departing from the works of Frances Yates and the Gnosticism thesis of Eric Voegelin, is that far from being the radical opposite of magic, modern science effectively grew out of magic, and its varieties, like alchemy, Hermetic philosophy, the occult, Gnosticism, and Neoplatonism. Showing that the desire to use science to solve various – real or presumed – problems of human existence has created a permanent liminal crisis, it contends that the ‘will to science’ is parasitic, existing as it does in sheer relationality, outside of and in between concrete places and communities. A study of the mutual relationship between magic and science in different historical eras, ranging from the Early Neolithic to recent disease prevention ideas, Magic and the Will to Science will appeal to scholars and students of social and anthropological theory, and the philosophy and sociology of science.

By: Agnes Horvath (University College Cork Ireland)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781032457376
ISBN 10: 1032457376
Series: Contemporary Liminality
Pages: 202
Publication Date: 30 July 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Preface Introduction Ch1 Magical doubles as liminal technicity Ch2 Sensuals without borders: artificial man, artificial intelligence Ch3. The cunning of unreason: exposure to harm to transpose into a new status Ch4. Recursive algorithm in the amplification of magic Ch5. The unknown factor of effusion in spiritualised science Ch6. Mind control Ch7. One tower: when the dead seized the living Conclusion Bibliography Name Index Subject Index

Agnes Horvath is a political anthropologist and sociologist. Founding editor of the Journal International Political Anthropology, and president of the International Political Anthropology Association, she was an affiliate visiting scholar and supervisor at Cambridge University from 2011 to 2014. She is the author of Modernism and Charisma and Political Alchemy: Technology Unbounded, the co‑author of The Dissolution of Communist Power: The Case of Hungary, Walking into the Void: A Historical Sociology and Political Anthropology of Walking, and The Political Sociology and Anthropology of the Evil: Tricksterology; and co‑editor of Breaking Boundaries: Varieties of Liminality, Walling, Boundaries and Liminality: A Political Anthropology of Transformations, Divinization and Technology: The Political Anthropology of Subversion, Modern Leaders: In Between Charisma and Trickery, and Liminal Politics in the New Age of Disease: Technocratic Mimetism.

Reviews for Magic and the Will to Science: A Political Anthropology of Liminal Technicality

""Magic has been for too long treated as a residual category rather than a phenomenon with its own significance. This book takes a large step in the path of recovering its ubiquity and bond with the normal."" - Stephen Turner, Distinguished University Professor, University of South Florida ""Magic and the Will to Science asks the question whether we live now in an age of magic, with social media, AI, and algorithms dominating our public and private lives. Horvath gets at the root of this subject by examining how science has transformed nature and our understanding of reality, so we no longer control technology but are controlled by it. To return to an authentic and human existence, we first need to understand the reality in which we live. Magic and the Will to Science does an exemplary job of this and points us to a path of recovering a genuine human existence."" - Lee Trepanier, Chair and Professor of Political Science, Samford University