The Renaissance magic and mechanical philosophy were common in the sense that they were both hands on and practical. Magic was seen to be practiced rather than understood and mechanical philosophy believed in understanding the universal laws by physically studying the mechanical laws governing it. As discussed in class, another similarity between the two were that they were both reactions of human skepticism of that time, that humans cannot know everything. There were, however, difference between them; firstly, magical belief was the illusion behind everything whereas Rene Descartes believed that due to the fact that he is thinking, he exists, and therefore he is not an illusion. Another difference between the two was that mechanical philosophy
