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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Comprehensive but not very helpful for understanding Paracelsus, August 23, 2007
This review is from: The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science (Hardcover)
The voluminous study written by P. Ball bears evident mark of his profession, that is of his being physicist. One has to appreciat how many historical topics he was able to cover in his book, less impressive is, nevertheless, his ability to discover the most important ones and to explain Paracelsus thought on the ground of the historical context so carefully described. Author's basic despise -- at least that's what I feel in his book -- for questions of theology and religion that, according to him, have at best a historical importance seems to prevent him from better understanding of real problems of Paracelsus, and even of real meaning of his "magic". Well, according to the title, Ball wanted to describe Paracelsus in the context of the "renaissance magic and science", yet this picture would be, and is, distorted if the effort is not made to understand the complex of his thought from his perspective, to find out what for him is important.
Another thing is that Ball works only with english anthologies and even, if I'm not mistaken, only with english written sources in general. Sure, it's not very easy to read Paracelsus in the original Swiss German dialect, yet to me it seems inevitable if one wants to get out of beaten tracks of long rooted, sometimes superficial opinions, and to get inside the text and thoughts.
So, if you want to read a reliable and better balanced study on Paracelsus' natural philosophy as well as on his theology (and you are not craving for an "esoteric" interpretation) read rather Andrew Weeks' nicely short monograph on Paracelsus and keep reservation about Ball's book: historically he seems to have found the proper sources to use, but systematically he's then not going deep enough to discover the "real" Paracelsus. If you read in German check the brand new and very valuable, although a little difficult-to-read, book by M. Bergengruen (Meiner 2007). Or just reach for the old, eventhough also partly one-sided "Introduction" by W. Pagel to add some more insights in the paracelsian thought.
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24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
More about science's arrogance than Paracelsus, November 30, 2007
This review is from: The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science (Hardcover)
I very much looked forward to reading this book, as I have been interested in Paracelsus for many years. But it does not strike me that Ball is interested in Paracelsus. Quite the contrary--throughout the book, he evidences his disdain for Paracelsus. As I read along, I found myself wondering why he had chosen to write the book at all.
Important ideas that Paracelsus is credited with developing or originating are missing in Ball's treatment. For example, the Doctrine of Signatures, which Paracelsus developed and which was taken up by later medical Paracelsians and became widespread, gets hardly any attention. In fact, I learned more about Paracelsian ideas from Principe's recent book on Boyle as alchemist, which I happened to read at the same time. Principe did not feel obliged to sneer at Paracelsus at every turn.
I also found that the organization of the book was problematic. For instance, a chapter might be named for the time Paracelsus spent in Ingolstadt, but that chapter does not actually discuss it.
If you are interested in Paracelsus, this is not the book for you. If, in contrast, you are interested in snickering at the past from what you imagine to be the exalted heights of scientific rationalism, this book will very much gratify your sense of self-importance.
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21 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Thinker at the Start of Science, May 3, 2006
This review is from: The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science (Hardcover)
Philip Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim came from the time of Erasmus, Luther, and Copernicus, and was in his way as influential as those giants, but he is hardly remembered now. Even by the name Paracelsus, which he took following the fashion of the humanists of his day to Latinize their names, he is unknown to most, though he makes personal appearances in the writings of Browning, Borges, Jung, and even A. J. Rowling, and his personal characteristics have been encompassed in the characters of Faust and Prospero. He wrote many books, almost none of which appeared during his lifetime, full of weird attempts to connect everything in the universe with everything else. He understood that matter was permeated by spirit, and that there were influences on both by astral bodies. His writings of occult science and theology are full of secret signs and symbols and neologisms that have defied any subsequent explanation. You don't have to try to get through his books; Philip Ball has done so, and seems to have absorbed every other aspect of medieval and Renaissance thought, to produce _The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science_ (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). A big, generous, and detailed look at this alchemist's life and times, and importantly his way of thinking, Ball's book is continually surprising about the man, the reactions to him, and his influence.
One of Paracelsus's biggest achievements is that he did renounce the reliance on Aristotle and Galen; he insisted on finding out for himself what was true and not being bound by the prior abstract arguments of what had to be true. He was thus skeptical of the main currents of thought in cosmology and medicine, and in favor of learning from experience. Without a systematic methodology, however, he assimilated magical and alchemical thought in his own idiosyncratic way, taking what he fancied and fitting it in to his grand scheme. Even Ball admits that Paracelsus made no major discovery that is still part of science. So what is the fascination (and to be sure, the subject of this fine biography comes across as a fascinating man)? It turns out that he had some good ideas and useful practical applications. He emphasized the power of natural remedies, rather than the moribund concepts of balancing humors that were the standards of his age. Much of his success as a doctor was due to his advocacy of minimal treatment, rather than the phlebotomy, cautery, or amputations by which other doctors could turn even minor ailments into mortal injuries. He evaluated the sicknesses of miners and wrote the first manual of occupational health. At risk to himself, he investigated the plague. He believed that chemical processes, not demons, were responsible for madnesses of different kinds. When other medics considered the illnesses of women beneath their attention, he wrote specifically about them. At a time when it was unusual for anyone to venture more than a few miles from home, Ball chronicles Paracelsus's travels to Germany, Spain, Britain, Russia, Egypt and Greece. He was from time to time a military surgeon or royal physician, depending upon what the needs were and how his luck held out. Sometime he had to travel because a city or university expelled him; he never avoided disputes or criticism.
Paracelsus died in 1541. Not only were most of his books printed after his death, the interest in his way of looking at the world increased, and he never lost fame as a healer. In the waves of cholera in the early nineteenth century, crowds came to the churchyard in Salzburg where he is buried, seeking the intervention of the secular saint. His specific teachings are still valued by those who believe in "magick", but they have given way to more scientific explanations and cures. Ball's fine biography not only shows how this remarkable man with often loony ideas helped break away from blind reliance on past theories, but how the break was the spark that eventually led to modern chemical and medical thought. It is thus not only the story of Paracelsus's life but of an important change in human understanding.
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