The possibility of a science of magic
Ronald A Rensink
Gustav Kuhn
Frontiers in Psychology, 6: 1576, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01576 [web]
The
past few years have seen a resurgence of interest in the scientific study of
magic. Despite being only a few years old, this “new wave” has already resulted
in a host of interesting studies, often using methods that are both powerful
and original. These developments have largely borne out our earlier hopes (Kuhn
et al., 2008) that new opportunities were available for scientific studies
based on the use of magic. And it would seem that much more can
still be done along these lines.
But
in addition to this, we also suggested that it might be time to consider
developing an outright science of magic—a distinct area of study
concerned with the experience of wonder that results from encountering an
apparently impossible event1. To this end,
we proposed a framework as to how this might be achieved (Rensink and Kuhn,
2015). A science can be viewed as a systematic method of investigation involving
three sets of issues: (i) the entities considered
relevant, (ii) the kinds of questions that can be asked about them, and (iii)
the kinds of answers that are legitimate (Kuhn, 1970). In the case of magic, we
suggested that this could be done at three different levels, each focusing on a
distinct set of issues concerned with the nature of magic itself: (i) the nature of magical experience, (ii) how individual magic
tricks create this experience, and (iii) organizing knowledge of the set of
known tricks in a more comprehensive way (Rensink and Kuhn, 2015). Our
framework also included a base level focused on how the methods of magic could
be used as tools to investigate issues in existing fields of study.
Lamont
(2010) and Lamont et al. (2010) raised a number of concerns about the
possibility of such a science, which we have addressed (Rensink and Kuhn, 2015).
More recently, Lamont (2015) raised a new objection, arguing that although
base-level work (i.e., applications of magic methods) might be useful, there is
too little structure in magic tricks for them to be studied in a systematic way
at the other levels, ruling out a science of magic. We argue here, however,
that although this concern raises some interesting challenges for this science,
it does not negate the possibility that it could exist, and could contribute to
the study of the mind.