Religio Philologi: Augustine on Science and Magic

St. Augustine, Confessions Book 10

54. In addition to this there is another form of temptation, more complex in its peril. For besides that concupiscence of the flesh which lies in the gratification of all senses and pleasures, wherein its slaves who are far from You perish, there pertains to the soul, through the same senses of the body, a certain vain and curious longing, cloaked under the name of knowledge and learning, not of having pleasure in the flesh, but of making experiments through the flesh. This longing, since it originates in an appetite for knowledge, and the sight being the chief among the senses in the acquisition of knowledge, is called in divine language, the lust of the eyes. 1 John 2:16 For seeing belongs properly to the eyes; yet we apply this word to the other senses also, when we exercise them in the search after knowledge. For we do not say, Listen how it glows, smell how it glistens, taste how it shines, or feel how it flashes, since all these are said to be seen. And yet we say not only, See how it shines, which the eyes alone can perceive; but also, See how it sounds, see how it smells, see how it tastes, see how hard it is. And thus the general experience of the senses, as was said before, is termed the lust of the eyes, because the function of seeing, wherein the eyes hold the pre-eminence, the other senses by way of similitude take possession of, whenever they seek out any knowledge.

55. But by this is it more clearly discerned, when pleasure and when curiosity is pursued by the senses; for pleasure follows after objects that are beautiful, melodious, fragrant, savoury, soft; but curiosity, for experiment's sake, seeks the contrary of these — not with a view of undergoing uneasiness, but from the passion of experimenting upon and knowing them. For what pleasure is there to see, in a lacerated corpse, that which makes you shudder? And yet if it lie near, we flock there, to be made sad, and to turn pale. Even in sleep they fear lest they should see it. Just as if when awake any one compelled them to go and see it, or any report of its beauty had attracted them! Thus also is it with the other senses, which it were tedious to pursue. From this malady of curiosity are all those strange sights exhibited in the theatre. Hence do we proceed to search out the secret powers of nature (which is beside our end), which to know profits not, and wherein men desire nothing but to know. Hence, too, with that same end of perverted knowledge we consult magical arts. Hence, again, even in religion itself, is God tempted, when signs and wonders are eagerly asked of Him — not desired for any saving end, but to make trial only.

The translation, which has been  borrowed from The New Advent website, is much better than the current Loeb translation.   The context of the passage is Augustine's discussion of the temptations offered by the senses.  In general, I should say at the outset,  that I think Augustine's rejection of physical pleasures and sensory experiences far too extreme.  It derives partly from Plato and Plotinus and partly from his acute sense of guilt and unworthiness.  This is not to say that there is not a great deal to learn from this section.

Augustine has been discussing the temptations offered by the visual experience of beauty.  Like Plotinus, in his great essay on beauty, he believes that material beauty can foreshadow spiritual beauty, but he is fearful--I should say rather much too fearful--that physical beauty is usually a trap.  In paragraphs 55-56, he turns to a sort of analogous temptation of intellectual curiosity.  He correctly "sees" that we use the verb "see" to mean understand, though his verbal analysis works better in Latin than in English.  Augustine, however, only knew one language well.  He dabbled in Greek, but it is not clear how far.  Philosophers often draw conclusions from their own language that would not be valid or make sense in other languages, and this is a particular problem for the so-called analytical philosophers of the last century.

Augustine points out that human beings can find a perverse pleasure in ugly things, such as a lacerated corpse.  He attributes this to curiosity, though I should say, in fact, that there are many possible motives.  People crave superiority over others, and the sight of a corpse is a bit stronger than reading a friend's obituary and saying, "So young, why he is five years younger than I am," meaning, really "Ha ha, I beat you, old friend.  I'm still alive."  When great men and celebrities fall from grace into disgrace, how delightful it is for their inferiors to contemplate the downfall of Richard Nixon or Johnny Depp (whose career is again in the ascendant)  or Geoffrey Epstein.

But Augustine, although I believe he is partly mistaken in attributing our willingness to witness ugliness as the pursuit of pain, is on to something here.  The lust of our eyes leads to a lust of the mind which then seeks to make experiments and gain knowledge.  Here the translator is correct and the translation of experientia as experience is simply wrong .  Experientia is both the process of subjecting things to testing or assaying (the root is cognate with Greek peira, so often mistranslated in the NT as temptation) and also the result of the investigation.

Certain scientific investigators are often willing to torture animals (and humans) and to mutilate corpses as part of their experimental method, and forensic physicians are proverbially indifferent to the sight of human suffering and death.   I don't think Augustine has limited his critique to anatomists, medical investigators, and animal psychologists.  He seems to find the pursuit of secret knowledge unwholesome, though from other passages it is clear he does respect the Greek tradition of making sense of astronomy among other fields of inquiry.  (Goethe, who probably was not thinking of this passage, accuses scientists of his own day of "torturing nature" in order to wrest her secrets.)  Augustine quite correctly relates the curiosity of scientists to the curiosity of magicians and occultists, and he would not be surprised to learn that modern science is an outgrowth not of philosophy but of alchemy, astrology, and Hermetic magic.

We have been reading The Confessions after breakfast, and there is a great deal worth talking about.  I know everyone has limited time, but if there is sufficient interest, we could run slowly through the Confessions,. doing the shorter books in a week, and the longer ones in two or three.