
Magic, Science and Religion and the Scope of Rationality
Stanley J. Tambiah(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Published on 22. March 1990
Book
Paperback/Softback
200 pages
978-0-521-37631-0 (ISBN)
Description
Professor Tambiah, one of today's leading anthropologists, is known particularly for his penetrating and scholarly studies of Buddhism. In this accessible and illuminating book he deals with the classical opposition between magic, science and religion. He reviews the great debates in classical Judaism, early Greek science, Renaissance philosophy, the Protestant Reformation, and the scientific revolution, and then reconsiders the three major interpretive approaches to magic in anthropology: the intellectualist and evolutionary theories of Tylor and Frazer, Malinowski's functionalism, and Levy Bruhl's philosophical anthropology, which posited a distinction between mystical and logical mentalities. There follows a wide-ranging and suggestive discussion of rationality and relativism. The book concludes with a discussion of thinking in the history and philosophy of science, which suggests interesting perspectives on the classical opposition between science and magic.
Reviews / Votes
"...this book will be of immense benefit to all those involved in the study of the mental and cultural life of humankind." Journal of the American Academy of Religion "This enormously erudite but engaging study offers a tough, critical, and morally sensitive perspective on the history of central issues in anthropological theory. More than either a theoretical manifesto or a philosophical disquisition, it makes the anthropological project and the history of ideas mutually relevant to a degree rarely achieved before now." ChoiceMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
18 Halftones, unspecified; 1 Line drawings, unspecified
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
298 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-37631-0 (9780521376310)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Stanley J. Tambiah
Magic, Science and Religion and the Scope of Rationality
Book
03/1990
Cambridge University Press
€74.90
Shipment within 15-20 days
Previous edition

Stanley J. Tambiah
Magic, Science and Religion and the Scope of Rationality
Book
03/1990
Cambridge University Press
€74.90
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Content
List of plates; Foreword Alfred Harris; Acknowledgements; 1. Magic, science and religion in Western thought: anthropology's intellectual legacy; 2. Anthropology's intellectual legacy (continued); 3. Sir Edward Tylor versus Bronislaw Malinowski: is magic false science or meaningful performance?; 4. Malinowski's demarcations and his exposition of the magical art; 5. Multiple orderings of reality: the debate initiated by Levy-Bruhl; 6. Rationality, relativism, the translation and commensurability of cultures; 7. Modern science and its extensions; Notes; Bibliography; Index.