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The Iranian MetaphysicalsExplorations in Science, Islam, and the Uncanny$
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The Iranian Metaphysicals: Explorations in Science, Islam, and the Uncanny

Alireza Doostdar

Print publication date: 2018

Print ISBN-13: 9780691163772

Published to Princeton Scholarship Online: September 2018

DOI: 10.23943/princeton/9780691163772.001.0001

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PRINTED FROM PRINCETON SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.princeton.universitypressscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Princeton University Press, 2022. All Rights Reserved. An individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in PRSO for personal use.date: 21 May 2022

Virtuous Caution

Virtuous Caution

Chapter:
(p.58) 5 Virtuous Caution
Source:
The Iranian Metaphysicals
Author(s):

Alireza Doostdar

Publisher:
Princeton University Press
DOI:10.23943/princeton/9780691163772.003.0006

This chapter shows that Shiʻi scholars approach the occult with virtuous caution. The cautious sensibility adopted by some Shiʻi jurists is rooted, on the one hand, in appreciation of the many risks of engaging with the occult. On the other hand, it is based on an understanding that the boundaries between licit and illicit modes of occult practice and the criteria by which virtuous practitioners of the occult are to be distinguished from charlatans are not clear-cut. Virtuous caution allows one to take part in the occult's murky realm and to enjoy certain benefits from it without succumbing to its perils. The chapter considers some of the dangers associated with the occult, including one that has to do with the sociality of sorcery and rumor.

Keywords:   occult, virtuous caution, Shiʻi jurists, sorcery, rumor, cautious sensibility

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