Abstract Summary
Beginning in the 1660s, but especially after 1680, critics of astrology began to make historical prophecies of their own. According to this prophecy, one would soon encounter astrological beliefs only in the past, and reason would soon, once for all, reconquer the popular mind from superstition. Pierre Bayle, in his famous Pensées diverses sur la comète (1683), was one of the earliest voices that issued such prophecies, but he was hardly the last. Throughout the Enlightenment, anachronizing became one of the preferred tactics for neutralizing the threat of astrology, and remains so today. In this paper, I would like to discuss the Enlightenment trend of anachronizing astrology from three angles. First, I would like to present it as an instance of ‘philosophic prophecy’ (a neologism recently coined by historian of philosophy Eric Schliesser). Second, I would like to trace connections between the technique of anachronizing astrology on the one hand, and conceptions of the manufacturability of human culture on the other. Third, I would like to trace the connections between this technique and (self-)censorship in print culture.
