Intellectual history
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| + | [[Image:Diagram of the human mind, from Robert Fludd (1574-1637), Utriusque cosmic maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica.jpg|thumb|left|200px|''[[Mundus Intellectualis]]'' illustration from ''Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica'', page 217 by Robert Fludd, depicting a diagram of the human mind]] | ||
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| + | "One [[belief]], more than any other, is responsible for the slaughter of individuals on the altars of the great historical [[Ideal (ethics) |ideals]] [...]. This is the belief that somewhere, in the past or in the future [...] there is a [[teleology|final solution]]." --''[[Two Concepts of Liberty]]'' (1958) by Isaiah Berlin | ||
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| + | "In its treatment of [[the passions]], as in its treatment of [[metaphysics]], the [[Enlightenment]] was not an age of [[reason]] but a revolt against [[rationalism]]." --''[[The Enlightenment: An Interpretation]]'' (1969) by Peter Gay | ||
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| + | "[[If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts]]."--"Sex and Violence, or Nature and Art" in ''[[Sexual Personae]]'' (1990) by Camille Paglia | ||
| + | <hr> | ||
| + | “That [[Know thyself|self-knowledge]] is the highest aim of philosophical inquiry appears to be generally acknowledged” --''[[Essay on Man (Ernst Cassirer)|Essay on Man]]'' | ||
| + | <hr> | ||
| + | "The concept of history first reaches maturity in the work of [[Vico]] and [[Herder]]." --''[[Essay on Man (Ernst Cassirer)|Essay on Man]]'' | ||
| + | <hr> | ||
| + | "In short, I suggest that at least part of the [[thick description]] of what ''[[The Thinker|le Penseur]]'' is trying to do in saying things to himself is that he is trying, by success/failure tests, to find out whether or not the things that he is saying would or would not be utilisable as leads or pointers."--"[[The Thinking of Thoughts: What is 'Le Penseur' Doing?|What is 'Le Penseur' Doing?]]", 1968, Gilbert Ryle | ||
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| + | [[Image:The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg.jpg|thumb|200px|''[[The Bookworm]]'' (c. 1850) by Carl Spitzweg]] | ||
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| - | '''Intellectual history''' refers to the [[history]] of human thoughts in [[writing|written form]]. This history cannot be considered without the knowledge of the men and women who created, discussed, wrote about and in other ways were concerned with [[idea]]s. ''Intellectual history'' is closely related to the [[history of philosophy]] and the [[history of ideas]]. Its central premise is that ideas do not develop in isolation from the people who create and use them and that one must study [[ideas]] not as abstract propositions but in terms of the [[culture]], lives and historical contexts that produced them. | + | '''Intellectual history''' (also the '''history of ideas''') is the study of the [[history of human thought]] and of [[Intellectual|intellectuals]], people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with [[ideas]]. The investigative premise of intellectual history is that ideas do not develop in isolation from the thinkers who conceptualize and apply those ideas; thus the historian of intellect studies ideas in two contexts: (i) as abstract propositions for critical application; and (ii) in concrete terms of culture, life, and history. |
| - | ''Intellectual history'' aims to understand ideas from the past by understanding them in context. The term 'context' in the preceding sentence is ambiguous: it can be political, cultural, intellectual and social. One can read a text both in terms of a chronological context (for example, as a contribution to a discipline or tradition as it extended over time) or in terms of a contemporary intellectual moment (for example, as participating in a debate particular to a certain time and place). Both of these acts of contextualization are typical of what intellectual historians do, nor are they exclusive. Generally speaking, intellectual historians seek to place concepts and texts from the past in multiple contexts. | + | As a field of intellectual enquiry, the history of ideas emerged from the European disciplines of ''[[Kulturgeschichte]]'' (Cultural History) and ''[[Geistesgeschichte]]'' (Intellectual History) from which historians might develop a global intellectual history that shows the parallels and the interrelations in the history of critical thinking in every society. Likewise, the history of [[reading]], and the [[history of the book]], about the material aspects of [[Book|book production]] (design, manufacture, distribution) developed from the history of ideas. |
| - | It is important to realize that ''intellectual history'' is not just the history of intellectuals. It studies ideas as they are expressed in texts, and as such is different from other forms of [[cultural history]] which deal also with visual and other non-verbal forms of evidence. Any written trace from the past can be the object of intellectual history. The concept of the [[intellectual]] is relatively recent, and suggests someone professionally concerned with thought. Instead, anyone who has put pen to paper to explore her thoughts can be the object of intellectual history. A famous example of an intellectual history of a non-canonical thinker is [[Carlo Ginzburg]]'s study of a 16th-century Italian miller, Menocchio, in his seminal work [[The Cheese and the Worms]]. | + | The concerns of intellectual history are the intelligentsia and the critical study of the ideas expressed in the texts produced by intellectuals; therein the difference between intellectual history from other forms of [[cultural history]] that study visual and non-verbal forms of evidence. In the production of knowledge, the concept of ''the intellectual'' as a political citizen of public society dates from the 19th century, and identifies a man or a woman who is professionally engaged with [[critical thinking]] that is applicable to improving society. Nonetheless, anyone who explored his or her thoughts on paper can be the subject of an intellectual history such as ''[[The Cheese and the Worms]]'' (1976), [[Carlo Ginzburg]]’s study of the 16th-century Italian miller [[Menocchio]] (1532–1599) and his [[cosmology]], which falls within the genres of cultural history, the [[history of mentalities]], and [[microhistory]]. |
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| - | Although the field emerged from European disciplines of [[Kulturgeschichte]] and [[Geistesgeschichte]], the historical study of ideas has engaged not only western intellectual traditions, but others as well including, but not limited to, those in the [[Far East]], [[Near East]] and [[Africa]]. Increasingly, historians are calling for a [[global intellectual history]] that will show the parallels and interrelations in the history of thought of all human societies. Another important trend has been the [[history of the book]] and of [[Reading_(process)|reading]], which has drawn attention to the material aspects of how books were designed, produced, distributed and read. | + | |
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| - | ==The history of intellectual history== | + | |
| - | Intellectual history as a self-conscious discipline is a relatively recent phenomenon. It has precedents, however, in the [[history of philosophy]], the [[history of ideas]], and in [[cultural history]] as practiced since [[Burckhardt]] or indeed since [[Voltaire]]. The history of the human mind, as it was called in the eighteenth century, was of great concern to scholars and philosophers, and their efforts can in part be traced to [[Francis Bacon]]’s call for what he termed a literary history in his [[The Advancement of Learning]]. However, the discipline of intellectual history as it is now understood emerged only in the immediate postwar period, in its earlier incarnation as “the [[history of ideas]]” under the leadership of [[Arthur Lovejoy]], the founder of the [[Journal of the History of Ideas]]. Since that time, [[Lovejoy]]’s formulation of “unit-ideas” has been discredited and replaced by more nuanced and more historically sensitive accounts of intellectual activity, and this shift is reflected in the replacement of the phrase [[history of ideas]] by ''intellectual history''. | + | |
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| - | In the [[United Kingdom]], the [[history of political thought]] has been a particular focus since the late 1960s and is associated especially with the Faculty of History at the [[University of Cambridge]], where until recently such scholars as [[John Dunn]] and [[Quentin Skinner]] studied European political thought in its historical context, emphasizing the emergence and development of such concepts as the state and freedom. [[Quentin Skinner|Skinner]] in particular is renowned for his provocative methodological essays, which were and are widely read by philosophers and practitioners of other humanistic disciplines, and did much to give prominence to the practice of intellectual history. | + | |
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| - | In the United States, intellectual history is understood more broadly to encompass many different forms of intellectual output, not just the history of political ideas, and it includes such fields as the history of historical thought, associated especially with [[Anthony Grafton]] of [[Princeton University]] and [[J.G.A. Pocock]] of [[Johns Hopkins University]]. Despite the prominence of early modern intellectual historians (those studying the age from the [[Renaissance]] to the [[Enlightenment]]), the intellectual history of the modern period has also been the locus of intense and creative output on both sides of the Atlantic. Prominent examples of such work include [[Louis Menand]]’s [[The Metaphysical Club]] and [[Martin Jay]]’s [[The Dialectical Imagination]]. | + | |
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| - | In continental Europe, equivalents of intellectual history can be found. An example is [[Reinhart Koselleck]]’s ''Begriffsgeschichte'' (history of concepts), though there are methodological distinctions between the work of Koselleck and his followers and the work of Anglo-American intellectual historians. | + | |
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| - | ==Prominent Individuals== | + | |
| + | ==Prominent individuals== | ||
| *[[Perry Anderson]] | *[[Perry Anderson]] | ||
| - | *[[R.G Collingwood]] | ||
| - | *[[Robert Darnton]] | ||
| *[[Jacques Barzun]] | *[[Jacques Barzun]] | ||
| - | *[[David Bates]] | + | *[[David Bates (historian)|David Bates]] |
| *[[Isaiah Berlin]] | *[[Isaiah Berlin]] | ||
| + | *[[J. W. Burrow]] | ||
| *[[Ernst Cassirer]] | *[[Ernst Cassirer]] | ||
| + | *[[R. G. Collingwood]] | ||
| *[[Merle Curti]] | *[[Merle Curti]] | ||
| + | *[[Robert Darnton]] | ||
| + | *[[Gilles Deleuze]] | ||
| + | *[[John Dunn (political theorist)|John Dunn]] | ||
| *[[Norbert Elias]] | *[[Norbert Elias]] | ||
| - | *[[Lucien Febvre]] | + | *[[Lucien Febvre]] |
| *[[Michel Foucault]] | *[[Michel Foucault]] | ||
| *[[Peter Gay]] | *[[Peter Gay]] | ||
| + | *[[Raymond Geuss]] | ||
| *[[Carlo Ginzburg]] | *[[Carlo Ginzburg]] | ||
| + | *[[Paul Gottfried]] | ||
| *[[Anthony Grafton]] | *[[Anthony Grafton]] | ||
| *[[Roger Griffin]] | *[[Roger Griffin]] | ||
| + | *[[Richard Hofstadter]] | ||
| *[[H. Stuart Hughes]] | *[[H. Stuart Hughes]] | ||
| *[[Russell Jacoby]] | *[[Russell Jacoby]] | ||
| *[[Martin Jay]] | *[[Martin Jay]] | ||
| *[[Tony Judt]] | *[[Tony Judt]] | ||
| + | * [[John Maynard Keynes]] | ||
| *[[Alan Charles Kors]] | *[[Alan Charles Kors]] | ||
| + | * [[Thomas Kuhn]] | ||
| *[[Dominick LaCapra]] | *[[Dominick LaCapra]] | ||
| + | *[[Gilbert LaFreniere]] | ||
| *[[Arthur Lovejoy]] | *[[Arthur Lovejoy]] | ||
| + | * [[Manning Marable]] | ||
| + | *[[Donald Markwell]] | ||
| + | *[[Wilfred M. McClay]] | ||
| *[[Louis Menand]] | *[[Louis Menand]] | ||
| *[[Perry Miller]] | *[[Perry Miller]] | ||
| - | *[[Quentin Skinner]] | ||
| *[[J. G. A. Pocock]] | *[[J. G. A. Pocock]] | ||
| - | *[[John Dunn (political theorist)|John Dunn]] | + | *[[Carl J. Richard]] |
| - | *[[Raymond Geuss]] | + | *[[Edward Said]] |
| *[[Carl Schorske]] | *[[Carl Schorske]] | ||
| + | *[[Quentin Skinner]] | ||
| *[[Fritz Stern]] | *[[Fritz Stern]] | ||
| - | *[[Hayden White]] | + | *[[Sylvana Tomaselli]] |
| *[[Peter Watson (intellectual historian)|Peter Watson]] | *[[Peter Watson (intellectual historian)|Peter Watson]] | ||
| + | *[[Tara Westover]] | ||
| + | *[[Hayden White]] | ||
| + | *[[Stanley Wolpert]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==See also== | ||
| + | * [[Cambridge School (intellectual history)]] | ||
| + | * [[Global intellectual history]] | ||
| + | * [[Great Conversation]] | ||
| + | * [[History of ideas]] | ||
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"One belief, more than any other, is responsible for the slaughter of individuals on the altars of the great historical ideals [...]. This is the belief that somewhere, in the past or in the future [...] there is a final solution." --Two Concepts of Liberty (1958) by Isaiah Berlin "In its treatment of the passions, as in its treatment of metaphysics, the Enlightenment was not an age of reason but a revolt against rationalism." --The Enlightenment: An Interpretation (1969) by Peter Gay "If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts."--"Sex and Violence, or Nature and Art" in Sexual Personae (1990) by Camille Paglia “That self-knowledge is the highest aim of philosophical inquiry appears to be generally acknowledged” --Essay on Man "The concept of history first reaches maturity in the work of Vico and Herder." --Essay on Man "In short, I suggest that at least part of the thick description of what le Penseur is trying to do in saying things to himself is that he is trying, by success/failure tests, to find out whether or not the things that he is saying would or would not be utilisable as leads or pointers."--"What is 'Le Penseur' Doing?", 1968, Gilbert Ryle |
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Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual history is that ideas do not develop in isolation from the thinkers who conceptualize and apply those ideas; thus the historian of intellect studies ideas in two contexts: (i) as abstract propositions for critical application; and (ii) in concrete terms of culture, life, and history.
As a field of intellectual enquiry, the history of ideas emerged from the European disciplines of Kulturgeschichte (Cultural History) and Geistesgeschichte (Intellectual History) from which historians might develop a global intellectual history that shows the parallels and the interrelations in the history of critical thinking in every society. Likewise, the history of reading, and the history of the book, about the material aspects of book production (design, manufacture, distribution) developed from the history of ideas.
The concerns of intellectual history are the intelligentsia and the critical study of the ideas expressed in the texts produced by intellectuals; therein the difference between intellectual history from other forms of cultural history that study visual and non-verbal forms of evidence. In the production of knowledge, the concept of the intellectual as a political citizen of public society dates from the 19th century, and identifies a man or a woman who is professionally engaged with critical thinking that is applicable to improving society. Nonetheless, anyone who explored his or her thoughts on paper can be the subject of an intellectual history such as The Cheese and the Worms (1976), Carlo Ginzburg’s study of the 16th-century Italian miller Menocchio (1532–1599) and his cosmology, which falls within the genres of cultural history, the history of mentalities, and microhistory.
[edit]
Prominent individuals
- Perry Anderson
- Jacques Barzun
- David Bates
- Isaiah Berlin
- J. W. Burrow
- Ernst Cassirer
- R. G. Collingwood
- Merle Curti
- Robert Darnton
- Gilles Deleuze
- John Dunn
- Norbert Elias
- Lucien Febvre
- Michel Foucault
- Peter Gay
- Raymond Geuss
- Carlo Ginzburg
- Paul Gottfried
- Anthony Grafton
- Roger Griffin
- Richard Hofstadter
- H. Stuart Hughes
- Russell Jacoby
- Martin Jay
- Tony Judt
- John Maynard Keynes
- Alan Charles Kors
- Thomas Kuhn
- Dominick LaCapra
- Gilbert LaFreniere
- Arthur Lovejoy
- Manning Marable
- Donald Markwell
- Wilfred M. McClay
- Louis Menand
- Perry Miller
- J. G. A. Pocock
- Carl J. Richard
- Edward Said
- Carl Schorske
- Quentin Skinner
- Fritz Stern
- Sylvana Tomaselli
- Peter Watson
- Tara Westover
- Hayden White
- Stanley Wolpert
[edit]
See also
- Cambridge School (intellectual history)
- Global intellectual history
- Great Conversation
- History of ideas
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Intellectual history" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
