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dlthomas comments on Excluding the Supernatural - Less Wrong
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Daniel Dennett has a cute one like this. Real Magic (the kind in Vegas) is not Real Magic (Abracadabra shazam poof!).
I think my first encounter with this was James Randi, which makes a lot of sense. I don't know if it was originally his, either, though.
Found the quote the other day. Makes sense that Randi knew it too. Apparently Siegel was a magician and professor too, who wrote a book on Indian magic.
youtube, Free Will as Moral Competence, Daniel Dennett at the University of Melbourne, Australia, 15:21 Dennett quotes from "Net of Magic", by Lee Siegel
Quote from book: "I'm writing a book on magic, " I explain, and I'm asked, "Real magic?" By real magic people mean miracles, thaumaturgical acts, and supernatural powers. "No, " I answer: "Conjuring tricks, not real magic."
Dennett: Real magic, in other words, refers to the magic that is not real, while the magic that is real, that can actually be done, is not real magic.
That's the same quirk in natural language by which a heavy drinker is not usually a drinker who weighs a lot. (<Adjective> <noun> can mean ‘a <noun> who/which is <adjective>’, or ‘someone/something who/which is <adjective>ly a <noun>’.)
Thank you for articulating my problem with the "real magic" quote.
Surely real magic is done through yet-unknown means. It might stop being magical some day, once explained (reduced), in compliance with Clarke's 3rd law.