| Title: | Occult |
| Original Title: | Occulte |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 11 (1765), p. 332 |
| Author: | Unknown |
| Translator: | Steve Harris [San Francisco State University] |
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.885 |
| Citation (MLA): | "Occult." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Steve Harris. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2010. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.885>. Trans. of "Occulte," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 11. Paris, 1765. |
| Citation (Chicago): | "Occult." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Steve Harris. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.885 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Occulte," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 11:332 (Paris, 1765). |
Occult. Used to describe secret, hidden or invisible things. The occult sciences are Magic, Necromancy, Kabbalah, etc., all frivolous sciences, without any real effects. See Magic, Kabbalah, Necromancy, etc.
Agrippa wrote several books of occult philosophy, filled with foolishness and dreams. Fludd wrote nine volumes on the Kabbalah or occult science, where nearly everything is wrapped up in figures and Hebrew characters. See Rosecrucianism.
The ancient philosophers saw occult qualities, virtues and sources as the origin of phenomena for which they could not find a reasonable cause.
If by the term occult quality these philosophers meant nothing but a cause for which the nature and manner of action is unknown , one must acknowledge that their philosophy is, in several regards, wiser than ours. See Attraction and Newtonianism.