Firstly, and this is an anthropological point, there are still
astrological societies or at least communities in the world so being a
good anthropologist (I hope) it think the amount of criticism that the
astrological world-view receives is a bit suspect: after all there are
some people that would say the social psychological or phenomenological
view is "pseudo-scientific" (sadly it was none other that Feynemann
that said that) so scorning other perpectives, societies and
communities is not something I would recommend (so there Sean). I have
studied astrology from an anthroplogical stand-point to see if there is
anything in it and I would have to conclude that the number of
co-incidences are strange (Syncronicity?) but that the evidence is far
from conclusive either way.
Secondly and this is the cognitive-psychological part. The interesting
thing is that Isaac Newton WAS an astrologer, he really did say what I
quoted. He stood at the very cross-roads between the astrological and
astronomical chasm at the Reformation, Enlightenment and the beginning
of the "Modern" world as we know it. Therefore the fact that it is
possible to study the remains of a view that once dominated the world,
ie the supertitious world-view, is interesting to say the least. To me
it applies to what Weber referred to as the "disenchantment of the
world" where the ancient superstitions were stripped away by the
Protestant capitalist individualists into the stone-cold-sober "modern"
world of the puritans and the protestant ethic not to mention the
spirit of capitalism.
If we apply that thinking to the rise of the market economy; ancient
Rome was to all intents and purposes the first capitalist market
because it had land sales included which at that time probably
contributed to Rome's fragmentation and downfall. It would have been a
very odd place to us where economic decisions were made on the basis of
astrological and superstitious beliefs. The essence of capitalism is
that geezers like Sean came along and said "what a load of brown, mushy
nonesense. I want you all here at nine o'clock sharp and no mucking
abart"..."I don't care where Jupiter is I want these crucifixes made
and I want them made pronto". If I had had been around then I would
have said "how interesting"..the planets effect our everyday life, you
say, hmmmm" and I'd have gone off and studied it. No wonder I turned up
at the university 2000 years late!!!
However, and finally, I must say that the contrasting of superstitious
and capitalist/scientific cognitions is fascinating: Newton didn't want
to publish the Principia because he feared the religious authorities
(fact). Darwin was afraid of publishing his findings (we all know
that). Even in 1859 the superstitious world-view held a lot of
influence. I was going to make a serious point about the flow of ideas
but I won't!
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Feb 13 2001 - 16:23:17 GMT