Hypnosis Between Science and Magic

What if judgment returned to the craft of magic? How would that relieve the burdens of critique and realign its priorities? These questions regarding the value of magic to thinking are at the very heart of the acclaimed philosopher of science Isabelle Stengers' political and philosophical thought and her insistence that ‘the smoke of the burned witches still hangs in our nostrils’. Now, in the first English translation of this classic text, Hypnosis Between Science and Magic provides an entry point to the work of Isabelle Stengers, who has so originally and forcefully shifted how we think about the history of ideas. The book focuses in on an area of her thought that has recurred throughout her career: the presumed antagonism between magic and science, and especially the evacuation of magic from all that is thought to be scientifically valid.

Isabelle Stengers is Professor of Philosophy at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium. Trained both as a chemist and philosopher, Isabelle Stengers has authored or coauthored more than 25 books and 200 articles on the philosophy of science.

Matthew Fuller is Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. He is co-author of Evil Media (2012), Editor of Software Studies: a Lexicon (2008) and co-editor of the Journal Computational Culture.

April Knutson has a PhD in French and is part-time lecturer in the Masters of Liberal Studies Program at the University of Minnesota, USA. She translated Women Who Make a Fuss, the Unfaithful Daughters of Virginia Woolf by Isabelle Stengers and Vinciane Despret (2014).

Andrew Goffey is Senior Lecturer in Media, Culture and Communications at Middlesex University, UK.