{"id":3250,"date":"2015-03-27T18:00:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T23:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/?p=3250"},"modified":"2015-03-27T17:58:57","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T22:58:57","slug":"freethought-fridayreads-the-last-witchfinder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/2015\/03\/27\/freethought-fridayreads-the-last-witchfinder\/","title":{"rendered":"Freethought #FridayReads \u2013 The Last Witchfinder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steven Pinker has written, on occasion<\/a>, about the power of the novel to raise moral consciousness:<\/p>\n

Realistic fiction, for its part, may expand readers’ circle of empathy by seducing them into thinking and feeling like people very different from themselves. Literature students are taught that the 18th century was a turning point in the history of the novel. It became a form of mass entertainment, and by the end of the century almost a hundred new novels were published in England and France every year. And unlike earlier epics which recounted the exploits of heroes, aristocrats, or saints, the novels brought to life the aspirations and losses of ordinary people.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At roughly the same time as the novel was remaking itself as a literary genre, the era of witch hunters was coming to an end in Europe<\/a>, as writers like Joseph Addison raised awareness of and empathy towards the victims (typically elderly women) who suffered as a result of the Witchcraft Acts<\/a> in Britain. In\u00a0this predawn twilight, as the Dark Ages slowly yielded to the Enlightenment, the witchfinders found themselves losing their grip on power just as the scientists were beginning to take hold of the public imagination. Fittingly, then, this era serves as James\u00a0Morrow’s\u00a0historical backdrop for “an Armaggedon of ideas” between\u00a0Principia Mathematica <\/em>on the one hand\u00a0Malleus Maleficarum <\/em>on the other. This book is quintessentially rationalist fiction, not in the usual preachy, pedantic, or instructional way, but inasmuch as\u00a0it continually centers upon the ancient conflict between those who would impose their ideas upon the world and those who allow the world to shape their ideas.<\/p>\n

\"tlw\"<\/a>The\u00a0protagonist is an aspiring woman scientist called\u00a0Jennet Stearne, the antagonist a professional witchfinder named\u00a0Walter Stearne, her aunt’s\u00a0brother-in-law.\u00a0While Jennet seems like an amalgam of general human virtue, Walter cuts much closer to reality and feels much like he is based upon the world’s first documented serial killer, the English witch-hunter\u00a0Matthew Hopkins<\/a>. Early on in the narrative, we come to witness a vivid depiction of\u00a0cruelty and credulity that drove their trade, and come to loathe witchfinders for what they truly\u00a0were. Rationalism does not stand alone, here, it is supported and encouraged the compassion of Humanism.<\/p>\n

If you find yourself wondering how an author widely known for writing fantasy could come to write historical fiction, fear not, one of the central conceits of this tome\u00a0is the wildly fantastical notion that books take on lives of their own\u2014quite literally:<\/p>\n

May I speak candidly, fleshling, one rational creature to another, myself a book and you a reader? Even if the literature of confession leaves you cold, even if you are among those who wish that Rousseau had never bared his soul and Augustine never mislaid his shame, you would do well to lend me a fraction of your life. I am Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, after all\u2014in my native tongue, Philosophi\u00e6 Naturalis Principia Mathematica, the Principia for short\u2014not some tenth-grade algebra text or guide to improving your golf swing. Attend my adventures and you may, Dame Fortune willing, begin to look upon the world anew.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My advice, dear reader, is that you follow the advice of this book<\/a>. Attend its adventures carefully, and come to see our\u00a0world through the lens of rationalism. The\u00a0struggle between faith-based condemnation<\/a> and rational humanism is not going away any time soon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steven Pinker has written, on occasion, about the power of the novel to raise moral consciousness: Realistic fiction, for its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,12,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-freethought-in-popular-culture","category-friday-reads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}