Knowing Demons, Knowing Spirits, Scientiae 2016 (Oxford 5-7 July)

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Call for Papers

Date: 

July 5, 2016 to July 7, 2016

Location: 

United Kingdom

Subject Fields: 

History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Intellectual History, Early Modern History and Period Studies, Medieval and Byzantine History / Studies

Knowing Demons, Knowing Spirits

CFP: Scientiae 2016 (Oxford 5-7 July)

Demons and spirits were an integral part of the early modern world; they were part of nature and their actions could be detected across the breadth of creation. As such, an awareness and understanding of the nature and behaviour of spirits—whether benevolent or malevolent—was fundamental to the knowledge-making practices that characterised the period between 1400 and 1700.

Yet the discourses centring upon demons and spirits were not static. Far from being closed and accepted uncritically, what constituted accurate, authentic and verifiable knowledge of demons and spirits—and their field of action—shifted in response to changes in the intellectual priorities of different communities of practices over time. As much as any other scientia, these discourses were reworked and reconditioned by the far-reaching changes in religion and natural philosophical practice that are often singled out as diagnostic of the period. But they were also challenged by new understandings about the relationship between authority and experience, by debates over the nature of evidence and knowledge acquisition, and the sorts of conclusions it was they appropriate to draw from such apparent “facts.”

Papers are invited for two inter-related sessions for Scientiae 2016 that investigate issues to do with the knowledge of demons and spirits (both in the sense of human knowledge of demons and spirits, and demonic and spiritual knowledge of creation) and their field of action in the period loosely bounded by the years 1400 and 1700.

Please submit abstracts and a short biography (no more than 300 words) to Richard Raiswell at rraiswell@upei.ca by 10 November 2015.

Contact Info: 

Richard Raiswell,
Dept. of History,
Univ. of PEI

Contact Email: 

rraiswell@upei.ca

URL: 

http://scientiae.co.uk/oxford-2016/