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> “pre-1900 texts on alchemy, astrology, magic, and theosophy, I don't understand, what's really the use of any of this stuff except for their insight into his

by vivekd 9y ago

> “pre-1900 texts on alchemy, astrology, magic, and theosophy, I don't understand, what's really the use of any of this stuff except for their insight into history and as precursors to science. There's no way any of this stuff has any meaningful application today. I also don't understand how anyone can find this stuff interesting, they're often boring, hard to read, and filled with obviously erroneous information

TillE 9y ago
It's all part of understanding the culture of the time. Manuscripts generally are quite hard to read: the language, the script, etc.
- sibeliuss 9y ago
  > It's all part of understanding the culture of the time. Fortunately it's not all that -- there are quite a few techniques inside that one can employ (e.g., meditation) to achieve, with practice, certain mystical results
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
poisonarena 9y ago
this is the first time I have ever seen someone hate on medieval manuscripts
Jemmeh 9y ago
You just said it, for the history. It's just interesting to read about people who think so differently and their culture. Sort of like historical science-fiction.
flycaliguy 9y ago
I enjoy old typesetting myself
jimjimjim 9y ago
expanding on your line of thought... why bother doing anything, ever, at all, anywhere? it's all pointless anyway due to the impending heat death of the universe.
xaedes 9y ago
Suppose you have a occult theory of the world that tries to explain certain observations with its own words and structuring of the universe. It may be outdated and its system doesn't fit every observation we made since. But still, if there is some inherent structure we can exploit this system to get another view and new ideas that we then can try to formulate in a modern way. That supposed occult theory can lead to new hypotheses that we can test / try to falsify. Maybe this isn't fruitful, but it certainly could be.

by vivekd 9y ago

TillE 9y ago

It's all part of understanding the culture of the time. Manuscripts generally are quite hard to read: the language, the script, etc.

sibeliuss 9y ago
> It's all part of understanding the culture of the time. Fortunately it's not all that -- there are quite a few techniques inside that one can employ (e.g., meditation) to achieve, with practice, certain mystical results
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

poisonarena 9y ago

this is the first time I have ever seen someone hate on medieval manuscripts

Jemmeh 9y ago

You just said it, for the history. It's just interesting to read about people who think so differently and their culture. Sort of like historical science-fiction.

flycaliguy 9y ago

I enjoy old typesetting myself

jimjimjim 9y ago

expanding on your line of thought... why bother doing anything, ever, at all, anywhere? it's all pointless anyway due to the impending heat death of the universe.

xaedes 9y ago

Suppose you have a occult theory of the world that tries to explain certain observations with its own words and structuring of the universe. It may be outdated and its system doesn't fit every observation we made since. But still, if there is some inherent structure we can exploit this system to get another view and new ideas that we then can try to formulate in a modern way. That supposed occult theory can lead to new hypotheses that we can test / try to falsify. Maybe this isn't fruitful, but it certainly could be.