ESOTERICA The Philosophy of Witchcraft
Nov 6, 2026
Why did witch trials flourish as modern philosophy emerged? Explore Agrippa’s defense of an accused woman, medical and skeptical challenges from Weyer, Montaigne, Bacon, and Salazar, and shifting views from Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Bekker. The discussion traces how reason, theology, psychology, and social order collided over witchcraft and demonology.
53:00
Weyer Explained Witchcraft Through Melancholia
- Johann Weyer interpreted alleged witchcraft through medicine, arguing that melancholia produced delusions, false memories, anger, and command voices.
- He believed inquisitorial interrogation and torture transformed vulnerable women's symptoms into an imagined heresy.
Scott Exposed The Social Machinery Of Witch Hunts
- Reginald Scott combined sociological, biblical, legal, and philosophical objections to witch trials.
- He showed how communities blamed marginalized women for dead livestock and failed crops, while demonologists relabeled ordinary crimes as witchcraft.
Bacon Tested Witchcraft With Evidence
- Francis Bacon demanded evidence for extraordinary claims, especially confessions produced under torture.
- Yet he accepted that flying ointments could induce delirium resembling flight and treated witchcraft primarily as false religious belief.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app 1 chevron_right 2 chevron_right 3 chevron_right 4 chevron_right 5 chevron_right 6 chevron_right 7 chevron_right 8 chevron_right 9 chevron_right 10 chevron_right 11 chevron_right 12 chevron_right 13 chevron_right 14 chevron_right 15 chevron_right 16 chevron_right
Intro
00:00 • 3min
The Elaborated Theory of Witchcraft
02:43 • 4min
Agrippa’s Defense of an Accused Witch
06:59 • 4min
Weyer’s Medical Critique of Witch Trials
10:43 • 4min
Scott, Montaigne, and Bacon Test Witchcraft Claims
15:10 • 5min
Salazar Exposes the Basque Witch Panic
20:34 • 3min
Descartes and the Implied End of Witchcraft
23:45 • 3min
Becker’s Emerging Attack on Diabolism
26:43 • 22sec
Hobbes Treats Witchcraft as Social Disorder
27:05 • 3min
Locke and Spinoza Remove Supernatural Intermediaries
29:58 • 3min
Malebranche Distinguishes Real and Imaginary Witches
32:32 • 4min
Leibniz Supports Ending Witch Executions
36:21 • 1min
Glanville and Webster Debate Occult Causation
37:50 • 4min
Bekker’s Final Assault on Witch-Hunting
41:34 • 2min
Philosophical Modernity and Lessons from Witch Trials
43:34 • 2min
Outro
45:26 • 18sec
#
The displaying of supposed witchcraft
John Webster
John Webster’s The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft challenges the demonological explanations defended by Joseph Glanvill.
Webster argues that many marvels attributed to witches and ghosts can arise from natural but hidden forces rather than Satanic intervention.
He therefore rejects the idea that pacts with the Devil provide genuine supernatural power.
The work is notable because its skepticism emerges from Hermetic and occult natural philosophy rather than straightforward materialism.
It demonstrates the complex ways early modern occult thought could undermine, rather than support, traditional witch beliefs.
#
The World Bewitched
Balthasar Bekker
Balthasar Bekker’s The World Bewitched applies Cartesian philosophy, Calvinist theology, scriptural analysis, and emerging science against traditional demonology.
Bekker argues that the Devil lacks substantial independent reality and cannot enter into effective pacts with witches.
He systematically challenges claims about possession, magical powers, supernatural marvels, and the evidentiary basis of witch trials.
His position provoked intense controversy, including ecclesiastical and political proceedings, though he was ultimately acquitted.
The book is often regarded as one of the final decisive intellectual blows against the elaborated theory of witchcraft.
#
The World
Rene Descartes
René Descartes’s The World was an early scientific and cosmological work written during the 1630s.
It sought to explain natural phenomena through matter in motion, mathematical principles, and a mechanistic conception of the physical universe.
Descartes reportedly withheld its publication after Galileo’s condemnation, fearing conflict with ecclesiastical authorities over its cosmological implications.
The work reflects his ambition to extend mathematical reasoning beyond geometry into a comprehensive science of nature.
Although not published during his lifetime, it provides important background for understanding the scientific aspirations behind his philosophical method.
#
Sadducismus triumphatus
or, A full and plain evidence, concerning witches and apparitions. In two parts. The first treating of their possibility. The second of their real existence
Joseph Glanvill
First published posthumously in 1681, Sadducismus Triumphatus argues that witches and apparitions are real and that reports of supernatural events should not be dismissed as fraud or superstition.
The book combines philosophical arguments with collected testimonies and narratives about witchcraft, including an account of Swedish witches; its title refers to the Sadducees, traditionally associated with denying angels and the afterlife.
#1645
• Mentioned in 35 episodes
The Malleus Maleficarum
The Hammer of the Witches
Heinrich Kramer
The Malleus Maleficarum, or "Hammer of Witches," is a treatise on witchcraft written by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger.
Published in 1486, it became a foundational text for witch hunts in early modern Europe.
The book details the authors' beliefs about a global conspiracy of witches led by Satan, outlining methods for identifying and prosecuting them.
It promoted the use of torture to extract confessions and advocated for the death penalty for those found guilty.
The Malleus Maleficarum's influence contributed significantly to the widespread persecution of individuals accused of witchcraft.
Its misogynistic views and promotion of violence continue to be studied and criticized.
#25870
• Mentioned in 3 episodes
Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Cornelius Agrippa
#14770
• Mentioned in 5 episodes
Discovery of Witchcraft
Reginald Scott
#
Cautio criminalis
Friedrich von Spee
Friedrich von Spee pubblicò anonimamente nel 1610 'Cautio Criminalis', un'opera che critica duramente i processi per stregoneria e le pratiche inquisitorie dell'epoca.
L'autore, confessore che aveva assistito alle procedure giudiziarie, documenta come le confessioni estorte con la tortura fossero inaffidabili e come gli imputati venissero sistematicamente maltrattati.
Il libro propone argomentazioni giuridiche e morali volte a fermare la caccia alle streghe e a salvaguardare la dignità umana.
Per la sua onestà intellettuale e il coraggio civile, l'opera è considerata una delle prime critiche moderne alla violenza istituzionalizzata della persecuzione religiosa.
Il testo ebbe grande influenza nei secoli successivi nel riformare pratiche giudiziarie e suscitare dibattito sull'uso della tortura.
#91206
Meditations
Rene Descartes
Meditations presents René Descartes’ systematic attempt to discover beliefs that cannot be doubted.
He considers whether sensory experience might be produced by dreaming, an evil demon, or another deceptive mechanism.
Through this process, he argues that the act of doubting confirms the existence of the doubter, expressed in the famous cogito.
Descartes then attempts to establish God’s existence and use divine perfection to support the reliability of perception and the reality of the external world.
The work profoundly influenced modern epistemology, metaphysics, and debates about skepticism, although later philosophers have challenged several of its arguments.
#
De Praestigiis Daemonum
Johan Weyer
Johan Weyer's book challenged prevailing beliefs about witchcraft and the persecution of accused witches.
Although Weyer accepted some assumptions of his era, he argued that many supposed witches were mentally ill, deceived, or otherwise misunderstood.
Robert Sapolsky highlights Weyer's concern that elderly women might be falsely convicted because atrophied tear glands prevented them from crying during religious tests.
The work represented an early attempt to introduce medical reasoning into an irrational criminal-justice system.
Its limited reformism illustrates how scientific progress can still remain embedded within deeply mistaken broader assumptions.
#
A discourse on method
René Descartes
René Descartes’s Discourse on Method outlines a method for pursuing knowledge through disciplined reasoning and systematic doubt.
Descartes argues that complex problems should be divided into manageable parts and approached in an orderly progression.
The work includes the famous assertion associated with thinking and existence, as well as reflections on mathematics, science, and personal intellectual development.
In the episode, Robert Harrison emphasizes Descartes’s analogy between rational method and the planned organization of urban space.
The book’s influence extends across modern philosophy, science, and European intellectual history.
#8268
• Mentioned in 8 episodes
Theodicy
Leibniz
#220
• Mentioned in 149 episodes
LEVIATHAN
Thomas Hobbes
Published in 1651, 'Leviathan' by Thomas Hobbes is a comprehensive treatise on political philosophy.
The book is divided into four main parts: 'Of Man,' 'Of Commonwealth,' 'Of a Christian Commonwealth,' and 'Of the Kingdom of Darkness.
' Hobbes argues that the natural state of humans is one of conflict and anarchy, and that the best way to achieve peace and security is through the establishment of a commonwealth governed by an absolute sovereign.
This sovereign, which Hobbes terms the 'Leviathan,' has supreme authority over all aspects of governance, including law, religion, and public offices.
Hobbes' work is a foundational text in social contract theory and continues to influence political thought to this day.
#6309
• Mentioned in 11 episodes
Novum organum
Francis Bacon
Novum Organum, written in Latin and published in 1620, is a key work by Francis Bacon that critiques traditional deductive reasoning and Aristotelian logic.
It proposes a new method of scientific inquiry based on inductive reasoning, emphasizing the importance of empirical observation and experimentation.
The book is part of Bacon's larger, unfinished work, Instauratio Magna (The Great Instauration), and it introduces the concept of 'idols' that mislead human reasoning.
Bacon's method involves meticulous observation, the removal of biases, and the systematic gathering of data to form conclusions, laying the groundwork for the modern scientific method.
The apex of the Witch Trials coincided with the emergence of Modern Philosophy. But, what did these new philosophers think about Witches, Witchcraft, Demonology and the trials raging around them? From Agrippa, Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza and beyond, let's explore how the major philosophers of early modernity reasoned about the realm of the supernatural and witchcraft.
Uploaded 17-10-25
Consider Supporting Esoterica!
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/esotericachannel
One Time Donation Support - Paypal Donation - https://www.paypal.me/esotericachannel
Merch - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoydhtfFSk1fZXNRnkGnneQ/store
New to Studying Esotericism? Check out my Reading Guide here - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1caKNlW7sogEF7lAeYNbOQF9pt5O5b70yAXa-icUJO3o/edit?usp=sharing
Rare Occult Books - https://www.esotericaoccultbooks.com/
Recommended Readings:
Levack - The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe
https://amzn.to/3xqE1vr
Levack - The Witchcraft Sourcebook
https://amzn.to/3xn6B0M
Peters - Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History
https://amzn.to/4aP0LUC
Mackay - The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum
https://amzn.to/4cRfIHy
Clark - Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe
https://amzn.to/4cS3Jtk
Hutton - The Witch
https://amzn.to/43TnyML
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices