Definition of superstition

I enjoy my literature review on superstition a lot. I have been reading these books and an immediate sense I get is that there is a difficulty to pin down what it is as there is no way to differentiate superstition from other belief and action. On whose authority do we take a belief or an attitude to be superstitious? If we turn to religious authority, there is a continuing debate whether superstition can be distinguished from religion or is the latter itself, as Cattell puts it, just “silly superstition”. If we turn to science, experts often have different opinions and even if scientific community can come to a consensus, other group may not necessarily agree with them. If we leave to “the reasonable man in present-day Western society” or the consensus of the educated people to decide what superstitious belief is, we cannot avoid complicating the debate with cultural and historical issues. I know that it is beyond my paper to enlighten how superstition should be defined. For the aims of my paper, I think it is best to stay away from the above contentious areas and settle with Zusne & Jones’ (1989) definition that superstition is a “(a) specific, circumscribed belief or act that (b) involves magical thinking, either actually or as a remnant, held or engaged in because (c) it is culturally transmitted or learned through fortuitous reinforcement and (d) is resorted to under conditions of uncertainty. To act on a superstition is to become momentarily a magician on a small scale” (pg. 242).

More reading and writing for now...