Great Ideas of Philosophy

Lecture Twenty-FourLet Us Burn the Witches to Save ThemScope: Natural magic, natural science, and the witch panics form a rich and ominous mixture in the age we reverewith the title “Renaissance.” Here is an age when theory and imagination, fortified by revelation and highstakespolitics, yield much of the best and the worst in us all.As a preoccupation of sorts throughout Europe and the British Isles from 1400 to 1700 (and later), theprosecution and execution of witches would be justified by Scripture, by moral philosophy, and by science.The theoretical grounding of the practice was firm and carefully worked out and was adopted by some ofthe best minds of the ages in which the practice was common. A review of this episode in Western historyreveals the purposes to which great philosophical ideas might be put.OutlineI. The witch hunts spanned three centuries of European history, from about 1400–1700 and were, contrary towhat we might think, based on deeply thought-out considerations on the nature of sin, the nature of humannature, the nature of law, and the nature of crime and punishment.A. Witch persecutions tell us something about the intellectual ethos of a period in which the modern worldwould be introduced to extraordinary scientific achievements. The period includes the lives of Descartes,Newton, Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, and Brahe.B. The witch persecutions constitute an official, systematic program of arrest, interrogation, and trial—theapplication of developed principles of Roman law—presided over by magistrates. Documents are writtenand promulgated that alert officials as to how these trials are to be conducted, what scientific tests andevidence should be used, what punishments are fitting, and so on.C. This is an illuminating chapter in the history of ideas, though not a proud one.II. Every age has its witches, and every age has a theory that confirms the fact that those targeted for scrutiny orabuse are the right ones. This theory is usually based on the view that someone’s conduct or perspective is sounorthodox as to constitute a threat to the received wisdom and core values that keep the community together.A. The history of law includes ample evidence that witchcraft has always been a common target of concern.Western law made provision for witches from Roman times until the 19 th century. Even the ancient Greekshad to deal with property damage brought about by witchcraft.B. By the middle of the 19 th century, this way of understanding offenses would be relegated to the dustbins offailed theory, as the rise of medical jurisprudence replaced the witch theory with the brain theory.C. The Romans understood witches as people who seem to have special powers that are beyond our ownpowers of explanation.1. We see, for example, herbalists in ancient Rome, mostly widows who sell concoctions of herbs to curevarious ailments. They are members of the class of benevolent witches that the Romans referred to aslamia, the “white witch.”2. The law took no notice of the harmless practices of such herbalists but did address forms of witchcraftthat were harmful or destructive.3. In ancient Roman law, witches who were judged responsible for the death of cattle or for barnsburning, for example, faced penalties determined solely by the damage done. They were not punishedbecause their acts were brought about by witchcraft.III. Christianity introduces a new set of problems regarding witchery, based on the central teaching that ourworthiness for praise and blame is logically tied to our moral freedom.A. Praise and blame are reserved for those actions over which we have moral control, those things that comeabout as a result of our intentions; in the law, this is referred to as mens rea. One must have the power toframe the evil intent in the mind.B. This concept is co-extensive with juridical reasoning throughout history. The law punishes what the actordoes when the actor in the circumstance could have done otherwise; the mitigating circumstances of34©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership