Symposium: Philosophy and Magic. The Dialectics of Enchantment and Disenchantment in Modern Thought

At the end of The Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche famously argued that European Christian civilization, with its ascetic spirit of philosophy and science, has relentlessly pursued truth to the point of disenchanting the world, evacuating it of all spirits, gods, and genius. By the modern age, this quest had even undermined the very foundation of the Christian search for Truth itself: the belief in a creator God. For modern Europeans, Truth became a problem, a question; and no mystery or enchanting tale could escape the hard mockery of nihilistic questioning. According to this Nietzschean view, only the atheist disenchanter can be a true philosopher in our time.

But has our age truly been disenchanted? Do the strange times we live in - seemingly resisting purely economic, technological, or material explanations - suggest a somewhat different story? Upon closer examination, we might discover that philosophy and even science itself have esoteric, magical qualities.

Join us as we explore the paradoxes of enchantment and disenchantment with Alison and John Milbank, both thinkers interested in the relationship between philosophy, religion, and magic, who have challenged the tale of modernity as one of straightforward disenchantment. It is time to rediscover the wild, magical side of the love of wisdom. The conversation will be moderated by Eirik Fevang, PhD student at the University of Bergen.
Alison Milbank is Professor Emeritus of Theology and Literature at the University of Nottingham and Canon Theologian at Southwell Minster. An Anglican priest and distinguished literary scholar, she specializes in the relationship between religion and culture, with particular expertise in the Gothic, fantasy, and Christian imagination.

John Milbank is Emeritus Professor of Religion, Politics and Ethics at the University of Nottingham, where he is also President of the Centre of Theology and Philosophy. He is the founder of the influential Radical Orthodoxy movement and author of the groundbreaking Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason (1990), which brought about a paradigm shift in contemporary theology.

The series Symposium is a collaboration between Salongen - nettidsskrift for filosofi og idéhistorie and Litteraturhuset i Bergen.

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