ABSTRACT
In this chapter and the next, I will sketch out, very broadly, the main philosophical parameters or framework in which the work of enchantment is to take place—this is like, in gardening, preparing the soil, or, in cooking, getting the pans and implements ready. First we need to appreciate the importance of enchantment, which has to do with our cultural context in which the work of enchantment takes place; then we need to appreciate what I have called “the new priority,” which is about our historical position “after the war.” Here I will refer by “the war” to the two World Wars that took up the better part of the first half of the twentieth century and that continues to spill over and break out in other places, right into today. We are conscious of war and peace in a new way which is historically unprecedented.
