Philosophy 2006
The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Witchcraft
Tentative Reading Schedule – 2011-2012
Lecturer: Sean Coughlin
[K] Klaits, Joseph. Servants of Satan: The Age of the Witch Hunts. Bloomington, IN: University
of Indiana Press, 1987. ISBN: 978-0253204226.
[KP] Kors & Peters (eds.). Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History. 2nd Edition.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. ISBN: 978-0812217513
[C] Coursepack (Will be available at InPrint, UCC 78. I will tell you when it is available.)
Part I: Fall Term
Date
Topic
Sept. 8
Introduction to Part I
(Thurs.)
Reading
Witchcraft Beliefs
Sept. 13
(Tues.)
The Question: What
was the ‘Witchcraze’?
[K] Introduction
Sept. 15
(Thurs.)
Historical Context I
[K] Chapter 1
[KP 1] Augustine
Sept. 20
(Tues.)
Historical Context II
[K] Chapter 1 (continued)
Sept. 22
(Thurs.)
Historical Context III
[C] Brauner, Sigrid. Fearless Wives and Frightened
Shrews: The Construction of the Witch in Early Modern
Germany. Chapter 1: “The Modern Witch: Concept,
History, Context,” pp.3-27.
Sept. 27
(Tues.)
Witchcraft beliefs:
Maleficia
Sept. 29
(Thurs.)
Witchcraft beliefs:
Pacting with the devil
[K] Chapter 2
[KP 24] “Bernardino of Siena Preaches Against women
Sorcerers” (1427)
[KP 46] “The Confessions of the Chelmsford Witches”
(1566)
[K] Chapter 2 (continued)
[KP 18] Pope Gregory IX, Vox in Rama (1233)
[KP 21] Pope John XXII, “Sorcery and the Inquisitors”
(1326)
[KP 34] Kramer, The Malleus Maleficarum (1487),
pp.189-193
Philosophy 2006
The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Witchcraft
Tentative Reading Schedule – 2011-2012
Lecturer: Sean Coughlin
Oct. 4
(Tues.)
Witchcraft beliefs:
Witches’ Sabbats
Oct. 6
(Thurs.)
Witchcraft beliefs:
Women
Oct. 11
(Tues.)
Witchcraft Beliefs
[K] Chapter 3
[KP 28] Errores Gazariorum (1437)
[KP 29] Tholosan, Ut magorum et maleficiorum errores
(1436-37);
[KP 30] Le Franc, The Defender of Ladies (1440)
[KP 34] Kramer, The Malleus Maleficarum (1487),
pp.180-188
[K] Chapter 3 (continued)
[KP 52] The Trial of Marie Cornu (1611)
The Philosophy of Witchcraft Beliefs
Oct. 13
(Thurs.)
Framing the Question
No Reading
Oct. 18
(Tues.)
Witchcraft as Science
Oct. 20
(Thurs.)
The Question:
What is ‘science’?
[C] Brian Easlea, Witch Hunting, Magic and the New
Philosophy. Chapter 1: “The Existence of Witches,” pp. 144.
[C] Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, chs. X,
pp. 111-135 .
Oct. 25
(Tues.)
Fall Mid-Term Exam
(20%)
Location: B&GS 1056
Covers material from Sept 8 – Oct 11, 2011.
*A Review Session will be held at a date/time/place to be determined
with you
Oct. 27
(Thurs.)
Halloween
[Film]
Nov. 1
(Tues.)
Metaphysics of Natural
Magic I: Cosmology
[C] Plato, Timaeus 27D-34B
Nov. 3
(Thurs.)
Metaphysics of Natural
Magic II: Matter and
Form
[C] Aristotle, Physics 2.3; Aristotle, De Caelo 1.1-2
Nov. 8
(Tues.)
Nov. 10
(Thurs.)
Metaphysics of Natural
Magic III: Aquinas
Metaphysics of Natural
Magic IV: A new
cosmology
[KP 13-16] Selections from Aquinas, Summa contra
gentiles & Summa Theologiae
[C] Selections from the Corpus Hermeticum
Philosophy 2006
The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Witchcraft
Tentative Reading Schedule – 2011-2012
Lecturer: Sean Coughlin
Nov. 15
(Tues.)
Nov. 17
(Thurs.)
Metaphysics of Natural
Magic V: Conclusion
Natural Magic I:
Examples
Nov. 22
(Tues.)
Nov. 24
(Thurs.)
Natural Magic II:
[C] Frazer, The Principles of Magic
Principles
Witchcraft Iconography Guest Lecture
Nov. 29
(Tues.)
Dec. 1
(Thurs.)
Natural Magic III:
Ficino
Natural Magic IV:
Bruno
Dec. 6
(Tues.)
Dec. 17
(Sat.)
Review
Winter Term Exam
(30%)
[KP 17] Jacopo Passavanti
[C] R. Kieckheher; Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's
Manual of the Fifteenth Century.
[C] Marsilio Ficino, Three Books of Life (selections)
[C] Giordano Bruno, On Magic (selections)
Location: UCC 31, 9am
Covers material from Sept 8 – Dec 1, 2011.
*A Review Session will be held at a date/time/place to be determined
with you
Part II: Winter Term
Date
Topic
Reading
The Witch Trial
Jan. 10
(Tues.)
Jan. 12
(Thurs.)
Movie Week 1
Jan. 17
(Tues.)
Jan. 19
(Thurs.)
Introduction to Part II
Movie Week 2
The Origins of the
Witch Trial
“The Crucible” (1996), adapted from the Arthur Miller,
directed by Nicholas Hynter
“Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills”
(1996), directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
[KP 33] Pope Innocent VIII, Summis desiderantes
affectibus
[KP 34] Kramer and Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum,
p.204-228
Philosophy 2006
The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Witchcraft
Tentative Reading Schedule – 2011-2012
Lecturer: Sean Coughlin
Jan. 24
(Tues.)
Witchcraft & Social
Control
[C] E. Currie, “Crimes without Criminals: Witchcraft and
Its Control in Renaissance Europe.” Law and Society
Review (Vol 3, No. 1, Aug 1968), p.7-32
Supplementary Readings (not required)
[C] Levack, “The Legal Foundations”
[C] Monter, “Witch Trials in Continental Europe: 15601660”
[C] “Laws and Punishments” in Rosen (ed.), Witchcraft in
England, 1558-1618 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts
Press, 1969), p.51-61.
[KP 45] Jean Bodin, On the Demon-Mania of Witches
(1580)
Jan. 26
(Thurs.)
Laws & Punishments
Jan. 31
(Tues.)
Feb. 2
(Thurs.)
Witches and the
Possessed
Identifying Witches I:
Testimony
[K c.5] “Classic Accusers: The Possessed”
[KP 56] “The Devils of Loudon”
[KP 53] “The Prosecutions at Bamberg”
[C] David Hume, “Of Miracles”, An Enquiry Concerning
Human Understanding, Section X
[C] CAJ Coady, “Testimony and Observation”, American
Philosophical Quarterly 10 2 (1973), p.149-55
Feb. 7
(Tues.)
Identifying Witches
II: Tests & Standards
of Evidence
Identifying Witches
III: Torture
[C] Barstow, “Controlling Women’s Bodies: Violence and
Sadism.” Witchcraze (Harper Collins, 1995), p.129-145.
[C] The Swimming Test
[K c.6] “In The Torture Chamber: Legal Reform and
Psychological Breakdown”
[KP 57]: The Trial of Suzanne Gaudry
The Ethics of Torture
[KP 65] Friedrich Spee, Cautio criminalis (1631)
Winter Mid-Term
Exam (20%)
Supplementary Reading (not required)
[C] Foucault, “The Spectacle of the Scaffold”, Discipline
and Punish, p.32-69.
Location: B&GS 1056
Covers material from Jan 10 – Feb 14, 2012.
Feb. 9
(Thurs.)
Feb. 14
(Tues.)
Feb. 16
(Thurs.)
*A Review Session will be held at a date/time/place to be determined
with you
Feb. 21
(Tues.)
Feb. 23
(Thurs.)
Reading Week
No Class
Reading Week
No Class
Philosophy 2006
The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Witchcraft
Tentative Reading Schedule – 2011-2012
Lecturer: Sean Coughlin
The Decline of the Witch Hunts, The Rise of Science
Feb. 28
(Tues.)
Mar. 1
(Thurs.)
Witchcraft, Science &
Skepticism
Montaigne
[KP 60] Scot, Discoverie of Witchcraft
Mar. 6
(Tues.)
Mar. 8
(Thurs.)
Francis Bacon
[C] Francis Bacon, selections from The Advancement of
Learning and the Novum Organum
[C] Robert Boyle, “Excellency of the Mechanical
Hypothesis”
Mar. 13
(Tues.)
Mar. 15
(Thurs.)
Rene Descartes
[C] Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
Thomas Hobbes
[KP 64] Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)
Robert Boyle
[KP 61] Michel de Montaigne, “Concerning Cripples”
Witchcraft and the Irrational
Mar. 20
(Tues.)
Contemporary
Witchcraft in Canada
Guest Lecture: Kevin Marron, author of Witches, Pagans
and Magic in the New Age (McClelland-Bantam Inc.,
Toronto, 1989)
[C] E.E. Evans-Pritchard, “Sorcery and Native Opinion”
and “Witchcraft Among the Azande”
Mar. 22
(Thurs.)
Contemporary
Witchcraft
Mar. 27
(Tues.)
Mar. 29
(Thurs.)
Contemporary
Explanations:
Psychedelics
Contemporary
Explanations: Syphilis
[C] H. Sidky, “Hallucinogenic Drugs and Witches”,
Witchcraft, Lycanthropy, Drugs and Disease (Peter Lang,
1997)
[C] S. Andreski, “The Syphilitic Shock”, in Levack, Witchhunting in Early-Modern Europe: General Studies
(Garland, 1992)
April. 3
(Tues.)
Contemporary
Explanations: Placebo
Apr. 5
(Thurs.)
Science and Control
[C] Hahn, R and Kleinman, A. “Belief as Pathogen, Belief
as Medicine: ‘Voodoo Death’ and the ‘Placebo
Phenomenon’ in Anthropological Perspective.” Medical
Anthropology Quarterly (vol. 14, no. 4, Aug. 1983), p.
3,16-19.
[C] T. Szasz, “In Defense of the Dominant Ethic” and
“The Witch as Mental Patient” in The Manufacture of
Madness (Harper and Row, 1970)
Apr. 10
(Tues.)
The Continuing
Threat of Witchcraft
Final Lecture
*Exam review to be held at a time/date/place TBD
Philosophy 2006
The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Witchcraft
Tentative Reading Schedule – 2011-2012
Lecturer: Sean Coughlin
April 14
(Sat.)
Winter Mid-Term
Exam (20%)
Location: SSC 3018, 7pm
The exam will cover course material from Jan 10 – Apr
10, 2012.