Promoting the existence of witches had become intellectually disreputable by the mid-seventeenth
century, as the ‘new world view’ made them figures of superstition. This new world view was a
philosophical and religious revolution that changed the whole concept of the cosmos and how it
worked. Descartes (1596-1650), who led the philosophical revolution, dismissed traditional
mediaeval philosophy and argued for the existence of universal, observable, mechanical and
describable laws of nature that made the activities of demons and witches unnecessary and
illogical38. Cartesianism and similar belief systems which were rapidly spreading amongst the
populace as part of the religious revolution, also promoted an orderly universe. Russell summarises
succinctly this creed’s view of witchcraft, ‘God would have no wish to upset the laws he himself
had established; much less would he give the Devil power to do so.’