Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 3

History of ideas

The history of ideas is a field of research in history that deals with the expression, preservation, and change of human ideas over
time. The history of ideas is a sister-discipline to, or a particular approach within, intellectual history. Work in the history of ideas
may involve interdisciplinary research in the history of philosophy, the history of science, or the history of literature. In Sweden, the
history of ideas and science or Idé- och lärdomshistoria has been a distinct university subject since 6 November 1932, when Johan
Nordström, a scholar of literature, was appointed professor of the new discipline in a ceremony at Uppsala University (coinciding
with that commemorating the 300-year anniversary of the Battle of Lützen). Today, several universities across the world provide
courses in this field, usually as part of a graduate programme.

Contents
The Lovejoy approach
Unit-ideas
Modern work
Foucault's approach
See also
References
Further reading
External links

The Lovejoy approach


The historian Arthur O. Lovejoy (1873–1962) coined the phrase history of ideas and initiated its systematic study[1] in the early
decades of the 20th century. Johns Hopkins University was a "fertile cradle" to Lovejoy's history of ideas;[2] he worked there as a
professor of history, from 1910 to 1939, and for decades he presided over the regular meetings of the History of Ideas Club.[3]
Another outgrowth of his work is theJournal of the History of Ideas.

Aside from his students and colleagues engaged in related projects (such as René Wellek and Leo Spitzer, with whom Lovejoy
engaged in extended debates), scholars such as Isaiah Berlin,[4] Michel Foucault, Christopher Hill, J. G. A. Pocock, and others have
continued to work in a spirit close to that with which Lovejoy pursued the history of ideas. The first chapter of Lovejoy's book The
Great Chain of Being (1936) lays out a general overview of what he intended to be the programme and scope of the study of the
history of ideas.[1]

Unit-ideas
Lovejoy's history of ideas takes as its basic unit of analysis the unit-idea, or the individual concept. These unit-ideas work as the
building-blocks of the history of ideas: though they are relatively unchanged in themselves over the course of time, unit-ideas
recombine in new patterns and gain expression in new forms in different historical eras. As Lovejoy saw it, the historian of ideas had
the task of identifying such unit-ideas and of describing their historical emer
gence and recession in new forms and combinations.

The unit-idea methodology, intended to extract the basic idea within any philosophical work and movement,[1] also has certain
defining principles: 1) assumptions, 2) dialectical motives, 3) metaphysical pathos, and 4) philosophical semantics. These different
principles define the overarching philosophical movement within which, Lovejoy argues, one can find the unit-idea, which can then
be studied throughout the history of that idea.
Modern work
Quentin Skinner criticizes Lovejoy's "unit-idea" methodology, and he argues that such a "reification of doctrines" has negative
consequences.[5] He emphasizes sensitivity to the cultural context of the texts and ideas being analysed. Skinner's own historical
methodology is based on J.L. Austin's theory of speech acts. Andreas Dorschel criticizes Skinner's restrictive approach to ideas
through verbal language, and points out how ideas can materialize in non-linguistic media or genres such as music and
architecture.[6]

Another important development within the study of ideas has been within the academic discipline of Intellectual History. The
Harvard historian Peter Gordon explains that intellectual history, as opposed to the history of ideas practiced by Lovejoy, studies and
deals with ideas within a broader context.[7] Gordon further emphasises that intellectual historians, as opposed to historians of ideas
and philosophers (History of Philosophy), "tend to be more relaxed about crossing the boundary between philosophical texts and non-
philosophical contexts...[they regard] the distinction between "philosophy" and "non-philosophy" as something that is itself
historically conditioned rather than eternally fixed."[7] Therefore, intellectual history, as a means of reproducing a historically valid
interpretation of a philosophical argument, tends to implement a contextualist approach when studying ideas and broader
philosophical movements.

Foucault's approach
Michel Foucault rejects the idea of the traditional way historians go about writing, which is a narrative. He believed that most
historians preferred to write about long periods of time instead of digging deeper into a more specific history.[8] Foucault argues that
historians should reveal historical descriptions through different perspectives. This is where he comes up with the term “archaeology”
for his method of historical writing. His historical method differs from the traditional sense of historical writing and is divided up into
four different ideas.

The first is that "archaeology" seeks to define the history through philosophical means, which is to say the discourse between
thought, representation, and themes. The second is that, in "archaeology," the notion of discontinuity assumes a major role in the
historical disciplines. The third idea is that "archaeology" does not seek to grasp the moment in history at which the individual and
the social are inverted into one another. And finally the fourth point is that "archaeology" does not seek the truth of history, rather it
seeks the discourse in it.[9]

See also
Age of Enlightenment Ideology
American Enlightenment Intellectual history
Anthropology Introspection
Charismatic leader Isaiah Berlin
Conceptual history Meme
Great Chain of Being Renaissance
Great Conversation Robert Boyle
Herbert Spencer Scottish Enlightenment
Historiography (other approaches to history) Stage theory

References
1. Arthur Lovejoy: The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea(1936), ISBN 0-674-36153-9
2. Ronald Paulson English Literary History at the Johns Hopkins University(https://www.jstor.org/pss/468272) in New
Literary History, Vol. 1, No. 3, History and Fiction (Spring, 1970), pp. 559–564
3. Arthur Lovejoy, Essays in the History of Ideas,ISBN 0-313-20504-3
4. Isaiah Berlin, Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas
, ISBN 0-691-09026-2
5. Quentin Skinner (1969). "Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas".
History and Ideas 8 (1): 3–53.
6. Andreas Dorschel, Ideengeschichte. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,2010. ISBN 978-3-8252-3314-3
7. Peter E. Gordon, "What is intellectual history? A frankly partisan introduction to a frequently misunderstood field"
(htt
p://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/history/files/what_is_intell_history_pgordon_mar2012.pdf). Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
8. Felluga, Dino. "Modules on Foucault: On History"(http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/newhistoricism/modules/fou
caulthistory.html). Introductory Guide to Critical Theory.
9. Foucault, Michel. "Archaeology Of Knowledge, Introduction"(https://foucault.info/doc/documents/archaeologyofknowl
edge/foucault-archaeologyofknowledge-00-intro-html), edited by A. M. Sherida Smith. Vintage, 1982.

Further reading
Horowitz, Maryanne Cline, ed., New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, New York: Scribner, 2004. 6 volumes.
ISBN 978-0684313771.
Moran, Seán Farrell, "Intellectual History/History of Ideas," in: Kelly Boyd, ed.,
The Encyclopedia of Historians and
Historical Writing, Routledge, 1999. ISBN 978-1884964336.
Wiener, Philip P., ed. (1973). Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas(5 volumes, inc.
index)|format= requires |url= (help). New York: Scribner. ISBN 0-684-16418-3.

External links
Wiener, Philip P., ed. (2003) [1974]. Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas
(online)|format= requires |url= (help). Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia, Electronic Text Center. Each
content volume has a separate URL:

1. Volume 1: Abstraction in the Formation of Concepts TO Design Argument


2. Volume 2: Despotism TO Law
3. Volume 3: Law, Concept of TO Protest Movements
4. Volume 4: Psychological Ideas in Antiquity TO Zeitgeist

Journal of the History of Ideas, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1940–present.ISSN 0022-5037

Volumes 1–71 (1940–2010)archived on JSTOR (free read-only access with registration).


Volumes 57-current issue (1996–present)archived on Project MUSE (subscription required).
International Archives of the History of Ideas /Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, Springer, 1963–present.
ISSN 0066-6610

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_ideas&oldid=856288598


"

This page was last edited on 24 August 2018, at 04:54(UTC).

Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of theWikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi