Disenchantment, Actually - Doug Sikkema - The New Atlantis
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Disenchantment, Actually
Doug Sikkema
I
f you remember anything from tory of science,” one we tell ourselves
high school science, you may in the modern, secular world: the
remember something of Marie story of disenchantment. Josephson-
Curie. She was a pioneer in chemis- Storm summarizes it as follows:
try and physics, and
the only person ever The Myth of Disenchantment: . . . at a particular
to be awarded Nobel Magic, Modernity, and the moment the dark-
Birth of the Human Sciences ness of supersti-
Prizes in both. Her
By Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm tion, myth, or reli-
research on radioac- Chicago ~ 2017 ~ 400 pp. gion began to give
tivity led her to the $96 (cloth) $32 (paper) way to modern light,
discovery of poloni- exchanging tradi-
um and radium, and helped make tional unreason for technology
possible technologies used in cancer and rationality. When told in a
treatment, nuclear energy, and nucle- soaring tone, this is a tale of tri-
ar weapons. But while readers may umph; and when recounted in
know this synopsis of her life, much a different and descending emo-
less familiar is her abiding fascina- tional register, it can sound like
tion with the paranormal — or that in the inauguration of our tragic
1907 this paragon of scientific ratio- alienation from an idealized past.
nality attended a séance with Eusapia
Palladino, a psychic rumored to make Whichever your take, the narrative
objects move with her mind. abides: Modernity, thus understood,
In The Myth of Dis enchantment: is an age of rationalism, science, and
Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of technology that eventually (and inev-
the Human Sciences, Williams College itably) overcame the mysterious won-
religion professor Jason Ā. Josephson- ders of magic, religion, and supersti-
Storm opens with this anecdote, not- tion. But this story, Josephson-Storm
ing that it doesn’t quite jibe with “the argues, is a myth. Why else, he sug-
single most familiar story in the his- gests, would an esteemed scientist
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like Curie be cavorting with the likes that science necessarily deanimates
of Palladino? nature.”
Part of his evidence comes from The book, however, is less import-
recent polls, which show that belief ant as a history of science and magic
in psychic healing, ghosts, telepa- than as a history of how we came to
thy, witches, reincarnation, and other believe the myth of disenchantment.
paranormal phenomena remains As he traces the story, Josephson-
remarkably high. According to 2005 Storm brilliantly pulls open the cur-
Gallup research, seventy-six percent tain on one of our oft-told and rarely
of Americans “profess at least one questioned modern myths, helping
paranormal belief.” Results from us better to see the motley crew
the large Baylor Religion Survey of responsible for its production.
the same year show that about 80 But if disenchantment is a myth,
percent of respondents believe that just how has it managed to persist
angels probably or absolutely exist, for so long? While Josephson-Storm
and about 66 percent in the case of does a fine job exploring the ori-
demons. gins and story of the disenchantment
While these numbers challenge the myth, his failure to offer an adequate
idea that ours is a disenchanted age, answer to this question leaves much
perhaps such beliefs might still be to be desired in his project. The rea-
expected among the common folk. son for this failure seems to be his
Thus Josephson-Storm places in the restricted understanding of myth as
crosshairs members of the scientific a merely fabricated story or a fiction,
establishment, who we would expect and of disenchantment as something
to be right-thinking. He provides an we should be able to detect easi-
impressive compendium of Curie- ly from people’s behaviors or self-
like anecdotes going back to Bacon, professed beliefs.
Descartes, and Newton, dabblers in
magical thinking all, suggesting that
our default image of the scientist as
hardnosed materialist is more carica-
I n Josephson-Storm’s account, the
myth of disenchantment originat-
ed with the German Romantics and
ture than reality. was crystallized through Friedrich
From these anecdotes, Josephson- Schiller’s influential poem “The
Storm concludes that “we have never Gods of Greece.” First published
been disenchanted.” Thus “we should in 1788, the poem became a key
be less surprised than we usually expression of a nostalgic longing for
are to find scientists of all stripes a time when primordial man was in
keeping company with magicians.” harmonious union with the natural
“Séance and science” have often gone world and the gods who animated it.
hand in hand, and “it is unclear. . . The Romantics bemoaned their age
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when man felt himself no longer a writings it anticipated, was a reaction
part of nature but now a thing apart against a narrow, parochial moment,
from it, no longer a semi-divine par- “a literal secularization” as “German
ticipant in material life’s drama but a states appropriated property pre-
detached observer of it. Schiller: viously belonging to the Church.”
“Many Catholic universities were
. . . Ah! how diff ’rent was it in that suspended, thousands of monasteries
day! were disbanded, and the ecclesiastical
When the people still thy temples
territories previously governed by
crown’d,
bishops were given over to secular
Venus Amathusia!
states.” It is no wonder the gods
When the magic veil of Poesy are thought to have been eclipsed,
Still round Truth entwin’d its lov- Josephson-Storm implies, when sec-
ing chain— ularism turns violent in neighboring
Through creation pour’d Life’s ful- France and the Holy Roman Empire
ness free, (including Germany) collapses soon
Things then felt, which ne’er can thereafter.
feel again. But those most influenced by the
Then to press her ‘gainst the poem — the thinkers who were cru-
breast of Love,
cial in perpetuating the disenchant-
They on Nature nobler power
ment myth — removed it from this
bestow’d,—
context and treated the story of
All, to eyes enlighten’d from above,
Of a God the traces show’d. . . . God’s disappearance as a larger his-
torical development. Hegel, Max
Beauteous World, where art thou Weber, the Scottish anthropologist
gone? O, thou, James George Frazer, Freud, the
Nature’s blooming youth, return German philosopher and psychol-
once more! ogist Ludwig Klages, and other
Ah, but in Song’s fairy region now lesser-known figures all not only
Lives thy fabled trace so dear of referenced Schiller’s poem but large-
yore! ly assumed the broader architectonic
Cold and perish’d, sorrow now the
patterns of history as laid out by
plains,
the German Romantics. This pat-
Not one Godhead greets my long-
ing sight;
tern assumed a linear movement
Ah, the Shadow only now remains of disenchantment, with increased
Of yon living Image bright! alienation of humans from both the
gods and the natural world, culmi-
Josephson-Storm explains that nating in industrialized technologies
in its own time and place Schiller’s and revolutionary political orders.
poem, like the later German Romantic Indeed, through their acceptance and
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issemination of this narrative, these
d But these hopes are frustrated.
thinkers began the important work Now, Josephson-Storm does concede
of encoding the myth, adding texture that the logical positivists attempted
and detail to a world picture that “to refashion philosophy in scientific
arguably still captivates the imagina- terms.” Theirs was “essentially a
tion today. secularization project,” aiming to do
away with notions of God and the
T he remainder of the book moves
on to deal with the myth’s per-
petuation. This is where things start
supernatural. Indeed, the positivists’
aim was broader even than this: They
sought “the elimination of metaphys-
to get a bit fuzzy. ics,” the aspect of philosophy — the
As story after story reveals, many cogito of Descartes, the “thing-in-
of the post-Romantic scientists and itself ” of Kant, the idea of “nothing”
peddlers of the disenchantment nar- in Heidegger — that they thought
rative cultivated a deep and ongoing had become entirely unhinged from
fascination with magic, the occult, human experience and the possi-
and the paranormal, not to mention bility of empirical or logical veri-
religious beliefs of all sorts. None fication. To sum up, according to
of this, Josephson-Storm continu- Josephson-Storm, the positivists
ally reminds us, fits the perception were anti- religion, anti-magic, and
that “people no longer believe in anti-philosophy in the established
magic and spirits.” And while the sense, opposed to anything that
book admirably achieves its aim to evaded rigorous scientific thinking.
“push back against this narrative,” As their forefather Auguste Comte,
one niggling question persists: Why the original positivist of the nine-
then does disenchantment continue teenth century, articulated it, theolo-
to find traction today? gy always gives way to metaphysical
In hopes of an answer to this philosophy, which in turn gives way
question, I approached one of the to science. So, we might think, if we
final chapters, on the Vienna Circle want to find a reason for why the
of logical positivists, with bated myth of disenchantment has sur-
breath. Surely, I thought, these early vived to our time, we should need to
twentieth-century thinkers are the
look no further.
true culprits; these are the actual dis- But then Josephson-Storm leans
enchanters who bastardized science back on his prior strategy. Through
into scientism and fixed their ideas in numerous examples of how the
the popular imagination, giving this Vienna Circle thinkers were “pro-
myth its teeth. Let’s lay the blame at foundly entranced by the paranor-
the feet of the positivists and finally mal” and “haunted by magic and
put a bow on this project. the ghosts of the very m etaphysics
Winter 2018 ~ 99
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they were working to exclude,” and practices, we are indeed disen-
he doubles down: Not even they chanted in a more fundamental and
were disenchanted. He goes into pervasive way than Josephson-Storm
painstaking detail to trace how the recognizes.
members of the Vienna Circle were, Just recall his origin story
much like Marie Curie, enchanted for a moment and his blind spot
by mesmerism, telepathy, and other becomes apparent. He deems pre-
paranormal activities. Revolutionary Europe to be merely
So the question about disenchant- a “historical moment” the Romantics
ment’s persistence as an idea never were reacting against in their writ-
receives an adequate answer. After ings. In doing so “they were mak-
several hundred pages, the point of ing grand themes out of the spe-
all these anecdotes is just to show, cifics of their local history.” But
repeatedly, that disenchantment is this reading fails to take seriously
only a myth, only a fabricated story. the broader cultural conditions in
which such a political and philosoph-
P erhaps Josephson-Storm never
adequately addresses this ques-
tion because he never fully appre-
ical climate even became possible.
Might it have something to do with
a broader notion of disenchantment,
ciates the powerful ways in which or “dis-God-ing” (to translate from
myths operate, even untrue or ques- Schiller’s “entgötterte Natur”), that
tionable ones. That magic, religion, transcended this particular place and
and superstition have all persisted time? If so, the German Romantics
up to the modern day does not quite may have had real reason for con-
demonstrate his claim that “we have cern, as may have the thinkers who
never been disenchanted” — or, put built on their insights. Perhaps their
another way, that “modernity signals understanding of history’s pattern
a societal fissure” between religion as a linear alienation from God and
and reason “that never occurred.” In nature was questionable, but the idea
his keenness to show that the idea of a dis-godded condition becoming
of disenchantment is undermined by solidified in a theory of progress and
the persistence of both sides of the in revolutionary politics, and of it
binary, he fails to examine a more manifesting in physical form in the
interesting and arguably much more new industrial world, was so terri-
important line of inquiry: how this fying to them precisely because they
myth has altered the conditions in knew these things were greater than
which both religion and science are their particular historical moment.
now practiced. When we consider The only way for the book’s argu-
this, we see that despite the contin- ment to work, then, is to accept at
ued prevalence of enchanting beliefs face value the idea of d
isenchantment
100 ~ The New Atlantis
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as the simple absence of religion and the living things around us,
and magic. But we are actually as pieces of clockwork: items of
disenchanted in a much more pro- a kind that we ourselves could
found way. Yes, religion and magic make, and might decide to remake
remain ubiquitous; but they are now if it suits us better.
performed against a backdrop in
The power of myths is that they
which disenchantment is regarded,
condition our experience, shaping
in ways conscious and unconscious,
how we perceive the world and our
as true. Disenchantment is the
place in it. To say that we are all
default position in the social imag-
disenchanted now means not that
inary, encoded in our language and
we have rid ourselves of the meta-
in all manner of habits and practices
physical or supernatural but that we
that carry as if we inhabit a mecha-
relate to these as a fallen rather than
nistic world. It has become one of the
a reigning order. Disenchantment is
myths we live by, even as we resist it.
the water in which we swim.
The story of Marie Curie that
This is the main thrust of Charles
opened the book actually bears this
Taylor’s A Secular Age (2007). While
point out. That she was there at all
Josephson-Storm briefly mentions
takes so much of Josephson-Storm’s
attention that he fails to look at Taylor early in the book, he misses
how she was there: She attended this key point. Yes, Taylor traces the
the séance not as a believer but as a long and winding story of disen-
physicist investigating the supposed chantment over five centuries and, as
defiance of physical laws. such, might be seen as just another
In The Myths We Live By (2004), perpetuator of the false narrative
the philosopher Mary Midgely help- of the decline of religion and magic
fully expands the definition of myth in the West. But Taylor’s point is
in ways that would have benefited hardly that the secular, disenchanted
Josephson-Storm’s argument: age has done away with these things.
Rather, it is that occult practice and
Myths are not lies. Nor are they belief in God now occur within a
detached stories. They are imag- culture that takes disenchantment as
inative patterns, networks of a basic assumption. He is less inter-
powerful symbols that suggest
ested in what is believed than in what
particular ways of interpreting
is believable, and even as many still
the world. They shape its mean-
ing. For instance, machine imag- do believe in the supernatural of all
ery, which began to pervade our kinds, it seems decidedly less believ-
thought in the seventeenth cen- able than it once did.
tury, is still potent today. We To say that we live in an urban-
still often tend to see ourselves, ized and technological age doesn’t
Winter 2018 ~ 101
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preclude the existence of the Amish; technology assumes or encourages
to argue that U.S. culture dominates a disenchanted view of nature. The
much of Western culture doesn’t development of the microscope, for
preclude the existence of a distinc- instance, allowed us to see particles
tive Canadian culture; and to main- that had existed previously only in
tain that ghosts and spiritual forces theory. This makes easier the belief
have been excised from the world is that what is really real are these
not to preclude that there are still small parts of the deceptive whole
some — even many — who continue our naked eyes grasps. Of course,
to believe in them. But the ways in philosophy can push against this,
which one is Amish, or Canadian, or but the dominant sense in the mod-
a believer are affected by the larger, ern world is that physical reality is
dominant conditions in which one best understood by describing it in
must be any of these. The Amish near terms of its smallest particles. The
the University of Waterloo, Ontario, seemingly neutral microscope, then,
for instance, have unique side-roads can help nudge culture toward the
and demarcated lanes upon which to experience of nature as disenchant-
ride their carriages through urban ed, and God or the gods can come to
sprawl, and must continually negoti- be perceived as less real. Even if the
ate how changing technologies must microscope or the science it enables
be adapted or rejected for their com- don’t necessarily disenchant, science
munity. Canadian classics like This is unequipped to answer metaphysi-
Hour Has 22 Minutes or Little Mosque cal questions, and so without sound
on the Prairie may market themselves philosophy a godless nature is often
as purely Canadian products, but what’s inferred.
they appeal to Canadian audiences Or take neurochemical or compu-
whose appetites are cultivated by U.S. tational explanations for how the
entertainment. This is not to suggest brain works, which often serve to
that reigning myths, or paradigms, suggest that they will one day be able
are not met with resistance. They to explain the entirety of our mental
almost always are. Rather, in the very lives. This is a philosophical leap,
act of resistance the true power of the ignoring among other things that
myth becomes apparent. They have the modern scientific project became
set the parameters, altered the very successful at explaining nature large-
conditions for how others operate. ly because it excluded as a matter
of principle those aspects it could
J ust what signs are there that disen-
chantment is pervasively encoded
into the very structures of Western
not systematically investigate (like
mind and final causes). Yet while the
mysteriousness of the mind should
life? Consider that much of modern at least keep the God option on
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the table, our reductive language positive or negative, however, disen-
often precludes this possibility in chantment has become an integral
ways that would have been foreign to aspect of the modern view of the
many thinkers several centuries ago. world and exerts tremendous pres-
Or consider factory farms, where sure on our language, thoughts, and
much of our processed meat is habits, even as many continue to try
“raised,” to be delivered to our gro- to push against it.
cery stores in neatly plastic-wrapped Myths are at their most potent
packs. There is precious little medi- when they are least visible. Despite
tation on the sanctity and mystery of the rather limited view of myth on
animal life going on in such places, or offer in this otherwise remarkable
in the minds of consumers who rely book, Josephson-Storm’s real gift is
on them. Arguably, such places have in making visible that a deanimated
been created and continue to exist on material world is not simply “the way
the premise of a disenchanted world things are,” but an accomplishment
in which animals are mere automata. of shared human understanding. As
While these are negative examples, such, the myth, in the deeper sense
we should remember too that dis- of the word, is real and powerful, yet
enchantment is hardly all negative, also subject to critique — and per-
as it has helped to make possible a haps, like what came before it, to
host of inarguable goods of scientific replacement.
discovery, such as modern anatomy
and X-rays. It’s difficult to imagine, Doug Sikkema, a graduate student in
at any rate, that modern science American literature at the University of
would have developed the way it did Waterloo, Ontario, is a senior researcher
if materialist doctrines hadn’t been at Cardus and the managing editor of
adopted by many scientists. Whether Comment magazine.
Winter 2018 ~ 103
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