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New page: '''''Intellectual history''''' refers to the history of the people who create, discuss, write about and in other ways propagate ideas. Although the field emerged from European disc...
'''''Intellectual history''''' refers to the [[history]] of the people who create, discuss, write about and in other ways propagate [[idea]]s. Although the field emerged from European discourses of [[Kulturgeschichte]] and [[Geistesgeschichte]], the historical study of ideas has engaged not only western intellectual traditions, including, but not limited to, those in the [[far east]], [[near east]], [[mid-east]] and [[Africa]].
''Intellectual history'' is closely related to the [[history of philosophy]] and the [[history of ideas]]. Its central perspective suggests that ideas do not change in isolation from the people who create and use them and that one must study the [[culture]], lives and environments of people to understand their notions and ideas. This is also frought with the sentiment of hostility towards, or mistrust of, intellectuals and intellectual pursuits known as [[anti-intellectualism]]. This may be expressed in various ways, such as attacks on the merits of science, education, or literature.
==Europe and the West==
An [[intellectual]] is one who tries to use his or her intellect to work, study, reflect, speculate on, or ask and answer questions with regard to a variety of different ideas. There are, broadly, three modern definitions at work in discussions about intellectuals. First, 'intellectuals' as those deeply involved in ideas, books, the life of the mind. Second, 'intellectuals' as a recognizable occupational class consisting of lecturers, professors, lawyers, doctors, scientist, etcetera. Third, cultural "intellectuals" are those of notable expertise in culture and the arts, expertise which allows them some cultural authority, and who then use that authority to speak in public on other matters.
The social/intellectual context in the writings of western [[European history]] includes:
{{Col-begin}}
{{Col-1-of-2}}
;*[[The Enlightenment]]: [[Human rights]], new science, [[democracy]] (scholarly sources; [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]], [[Wilhelm Dilthey]]).
;*[[The Royal Society]]: A secular creation of an intellectual world led by figures such as [[Isaac Newton]], [[Robert Hooke]], [[Christopher Wren]], [[Joseph Addison]], [[Bishop Sprat]].
;*[[The Encyclopaedists]]: The creation of central repositories of knowledge available to all outside of academies, including mass market encyclopaedias and dictionaries: [[Denis Diderot|Diderot]], [[Samuel Johnson]], [[Voltaire]].
;*[[Romanticism]] : Individual, subjective, imaginative, personal, visionary (scholarly sources [[Thomas Carlyle|Carlyle]], [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau]], [[Sidney Hook|Hook]], [[Johann Gottfried Herder|Herder]]).
;*[[Post-romanticism]]: Reaction to [[naturalism (philosophy)|naturalism]], opposes external-only observations by adding internal observations (scholarly sources [[August Comte|Comte]], [[Leopold von Ranke|von Ranke]]).
;*[[Modernism]] : Rejects Christian academic scholarly tradition (scholarly sources [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], [[Jacob Burckhardt]], [[Beard]], [[Ferdinand de Saussure]], [[Sigmund Freud]], [[Carl Jung]]).
{{Col-2-of-2}}
;*[[Existentialism]]: Pre- and post-WW2 rejection of Western norms and cultural values. [[Martin Heidegger]], [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], [[Simone de Beauvoir]], [[Albert Camus]], [[Hannah Arendt]], [[Hans Jonas]], [[Karl Löwith]], [[Herbert Marcuse]], [[Claude Levi-Strauss]], [[Martin Buber]], [[Edmund Husserl]]. Engaged with the intellectual prominence of fascism and socialism in Europe during in the 1930s and 1940s, which they saw needed both repudiation and study, as a way to re-establish the individual against the values of a hostile and destructive series of communities creating alienation, isolation, and individual meaninglessness.
;*[[Postmodernism]] : Rejects Modernism, [[meta-narrative]] - multiple perspective, role of individual (scholarly sources [[Jean-François Lyotard|Lyotard]], [[Michel Foucault|Foucault]], [[Roland Barthes|Barthes]]).
;*[[Structuralism]] : Many phenomena do not occur in isolation but in relation to each other (scholarly sources [[Clifford Geertz|Geertz]], [[Claude Lévi-Strauss|Levi-Strauss]]).
;*[[Poststructuralism]] :[[Deconstruction]], destablizes the relationship between language and objects the language refers to (scholarly sources [[Jean-François Lyotard|Lyotard]], [[Jacques Derrida|Derrida]], [[Michel Foucault|Foucault]]).
{{Col-end}}
==Asia and the Far East==
Central to development of intellectual history has been the birth of scholarship in ancient China, the creation of [[Confucianism]] with its extensive exegesis of the texts of Confucius, and the active part of scholars in governments. In Korea, the [[yangban]] scholar movement drove the development of [[Traditional Korean thought|Korean intellectual history]] from the late [[Goryeo]] to the golden age of intellectual achievement in the [[Joseon]] dynasty.
In ancient [[China]] ''literati'' referred to the government officials who formed the ruling class in China for over two thousand years. These ''[[scholar-bureaucrats]]'' were a [[status group]] of educated [[laymen]], not ordained [[priest]]s. They were not a [[hereditary]] group as their position depended on their knowledge of writing and literature. After 200 B.C. the system of selection of candidates was influenced by [[Confucianism]] and established its ethic among the literati. The [[Hundred Flowers Campaign]] in China was largely based on the government's wish for a mobilization of intellectuals; with very sour consequences later.
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of the early Chinese sage Confucius. Confucius was the founder of the teachings of Confucianism. Confucianism is a complex system of moral, social, political, philosophical, and religious thought which has had tremendous influence on the culture and history of East Asia up to the 21st century. Some people in Europe have considered it to have been the "state religion" in East Asian countries because of governmental promotion of Confucianist values and needs.
Another avenue of intellectualism in Asia has been Buddhism. According to the [[Buddhist]] scriptures, in his lifetime, the Buddha had not answered several philosophical questions. On issues like whether the world is eternal or non-eternal, finite or infinite, unity or separation of the body and the [[Atman (Buddhism)|self]], complete inexistence of a person after nirvana and then death etc, the Buddha had remained silent. The scriptures explain that such questions distract from practical activity for realizing [[Enlightenment (concept)|enlightenment]].
In numerous Mahayana sutras and Tantras, the Buddha stresses that Dharma (Truth) and the Buddha himself in their ultimate modus cannot truly be understood with the ordinary rational mind or logic: both Buddha and Reality (ultimately One) transcend all worldly concepts. The "prajna-paramita" sutras have this as one of their major themes. What is urged is study, mental and moral self-cultivation, and veneration of the sutras, which are as fingers pointing to the moon of Truth, but then to let go of ratiocination and to experience direct entry into Liberation itself.
The Buddha in the self-styled "Uttara-Tantra", the [[Mahaparinirvana Sutra]], insists that, while pondering upon Dharma is vital, one must then relinquish fixation on words and letters, as these are utterly divorced from Liberation and the Buddha. The Tantra entitled the "All-Creating King" ([[Kunjed Gyalpo Tantra]]) also emphasises how Buddhic Truth lies beyond the range of thought and is ultimately mysterious. The Supreme Buddha, Samantabhadra, states there:
: "''The mind of perfect purity'' [i.e. the Awakened Mind of Buddha] ... ''is beyond thinking and inexplicable'' ... ''It dwells in the self-perfected bliss which is deedless and self-perfected'' ... ''I am the best path of liberation. It is a path, subtle and difficult to understand, which is non-speculative and beyond thinking'' ... ''It cannot be captured in words'' ... ''It is firm, difficult to comprehend, and totally inexplicable''." (''The Sovereign All-Creating Mind'' tr. by E.K. Neumaier-Dargyay, pp. 111–112).
Also later, the famous Indian Buddhist [[yogi]] and teacher [[mahasiddha]] [[Tilopa]] discouraged any intellectual activity in his [[Tilopa#6 words of advice|6 words of advice]]. Buddhist missionaries, however, often faced philosophical questions from other religions whose answers they themselves did not know. For those, who have attachment to [[intellectualism]], Buddhist scholars produced a prodigious quantity of intellectual theories, philosophies and worldview concepts. See e.g. [[Abhidharma]], [[Buddhist philosophy]] and [[Reality in Buddhism]].
==Africa and the Middle East ==
In the [[Near East]], [[Islam and modernity]] encompass the relation and compatibility between the phenomenon of modernity, its related concepts and ideas, and the religion of Islam. In order to understand the relation between Islam and modernity, one point should be made in the beginning. Both Islam and modernity are not simple and unified entities. They are abstract quantities which could not be reduced into simple categories. The history of Islam, like that of other religions, is a history of different interpretations and approaches to Islam. "There is no a-historical Islam that is outside the process of historical development." Similarly, modernity is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon rather than a unified and coherent phenomenon. It has historically had different schools of thoughts moving in many directions.
[[Ali al-Masudi]] is a well known Arab intellectual in history, known as the “Herodotus of the Arabs.” He often encourages his readers to consult other books he has written, expecting these to be accessible to his readership. They also note the stark contrast between contemporary European conditions confronting say the author of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and this highly literate Islamic world. He was the first Arab to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work, “The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems”, a world history. [[Ibn Khaldūn]] was a famous Arab Muslim historian, historiographer, demographer, economist, philosopher and sociologist born in present-day Tunisia. He is regarded as a forefather of demography, historiography, philosophy of history, and sociology, and is viewed as one of the forerunners of modern economics. He is best known for his Muqaddimah "Prolegomenon".
[[Persian philosophy]] can be traced back as far as to Old Iranian philosophical traditions and thoughts which originated in ancient [[Indo-Iranian]] roots and were considerably influenced by [[Zarathustra]]'s teachings. Throughout Iranian history and due to remarkable political and social changes such as the [[Alexander the Great|Macedonian]], [[Islamic conquest of Persia|Arab]] and [[Mongol invasion of Central Asia|Mongol]] invasions of Persia a wide spectrum of schools of thoughts showed a variety of views on philosophical questions extending from Old Iranian and mainly [[Zoroastrianism]]-related traditions to schools appearing in the late pre-Islamic era such as [[Manicheism]] and [[Mazdakism]] as well as various post-Islamic schools. Iranian philosophy after Arab invasion of [[Persia]], is characterized by different interactions with the [[Ancient philosophy|Old Iranian philosophy]], the [[Greek philosophy]] and with the development of [[Islamic philosophy]]. The [[Illumination School]] and the [[Transcendent Philosophy]] are regarded as two of the main philosophical traditions of that era in Persia.
[[Intellectual movements in Iran|Intellectual movements in Iran]] involve the Iranian experience of [[modernism]], through which Iranian modernity and its associated art, science, literature, poetry, and political structures have been evolving since the 19th century. [[Religious intellectualism in Iran]] develops gradually and subtly. It reached its apogee during the Persian Constitutional Revolution (1906-11). The process involved numerous philosophers, sociologists, political scientists and cultural theorists. However the associated art, cinema and poetry remained to be developed.
The [[African Renaissance]] is a concept popularized by [[President of South Africa|South African President]] [[Thabo Mbeki]] in which the African people and nations are called upon to solve the many problems troubling the [[Africa]]n continent. It reached its height in the late [[1990s]] but continues to be a key part of the post-[[apartheid]] intellectual agenda. The elements of this would eventually be seen to comprise the African Renaissance, social cohesion, [[democracy]], economic rebuilding and growth and the establishing of Africa as a significant player in geo-political affairs.
In [[Medieval Muslim Algeria]], spanning from the 600s to the 1600s, North Africa benefited economically and culturally during the Almoravid period, which lasted until 1147. [[Al-Andalus]] was a great source of artistic and intellectual inspiration for the African continent. The most famous writers of Andalus worked in the Almoravid court, and the builders of the [[Grand Mosque of Tilimsan]], completed in [[1136]], used as a model the [[Grand Mosque of Córdoba]].
Today, [[Taban Lo Liyong]] is one of Africa's well-known poets and writers of fiction and literary criticism. His eccentric ideologies, as well as his on-going denigration of the post-colonial system of education in East Africa, have inspired criticism and controversy since the late 1960's.
With the rise of [[Afrocentrism]], a recently developed [[academic]], [[philosophy|philosophical]], and [[history|historical]] approach to the study of world history, the push away from [[Eurocentrism]] has led to the focus on the contributions of [[African people]] and their model of world civilization and [[history]]. Afrocentrism aims to shift the focus from a perceived European-centered history to an [[African]]-centered history. More broadly, Afrocentrism is concerned with distinguishing the influence of [[European]] and [[Oriental]] peoples from African achievements.
==Prominent Individuals==
<div style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;">
*[[Perry Anderson]]
*[[R.G Collingwood]]
*[[Robert Darnton]]
*[[Hamid Dabashi]]
*[[Jacques Barzun]]
*[[David Bates]]
*[[Isaiah Berlin]]
*[[Mark Bevir]]
*[[Marc Bloch]]
*[[Fernand Braudel]]
*[[Ernst Cassirer]]
*[[Roger Chartier]]
*[[Merle Curti]]
*[[Norbert Elias]]
*[[Lucien Febvre]]
*[[Michel Foucault]]
*[[Peter Gay]]
*[[Carlo Ginzburg]]
*[[Anthony Grafton]]
*[[H. Stuart Hughes]]
*[[Russell Jacoby]]
*[[Martin Jay]]
*[[Tony Judt]]
*[[Alan Charles Kors]]
*[[Dominick LaCapra]]
*[[Arthur Lovejoy]]
*[[Allan Megill]]
*[[Louis Menand]]
*[[Perry Miller]]
*[[J. G. A. Pocock]]
*[[Carl Schorske]]
*[[Quentin Skinner]]
*[[Fritz Stern]]
*[[Hayden White]]
*[[Peter Watson (intellectual historian)|Peter Watson]]
*[[Cornel West]]
*[[Richard Wolin]]
</div>
==See also==
*[[Access to Knowledge movement]]
==References==
;General information
<div style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;">
*[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/DicHist/dict.html ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas''] edited by Philip P. Wiener, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973-74. online
*Noam Chomsky et al., ''The Cold War and the University: Toward an Intellectual History of the Postwar Years'', New Press 1997
*[[Laura Fermi]]. ''Illustrious Immigrants: The Intellectual Migration from Europe, 1930/41'', Chicago: U of Chicago, 1971. Europe's loss, America's gain. Included are many scientists who were instrumental to the nuclear bomb project.
*George B. de Huszar, ed. ''The Intellectuals: A Controversial Portrait''. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1960. anthology by many contributors.
*[[Jacques Le Goff]], ''Intellectuals in the Middle Ages'', translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993)
* Herbert Mitgang. ''Dangerous Dossiers: Exposing the Secret War Against America's Greatest Authors'', New York: David I. Fine, Inc, 1988. describes a strain of anti-intellectualism in the American culture, in this case within the [[FBI]] of [[J. Edgar Hoover]]. Describes files kept on several dozen writers and thinkers.
*[[Bertrand Russell]]. ''A History of Western Philosophy: And Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'', New York: Simon and Schuster, 1945.
*John E. Toews, "Intellectual History after the Linguistic Turn. The Autonomy of Meaning and the Irreducibility of Experience", in: The ''American Historical Review'', 92/4 (1987), 879-907.
</div>
==External links==
===Resources===
*[http://etext.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv3-67 Dictionary of the History of Ideas] (Courtesy of the [[University of Virginia]])
*[http://www.idih.org/wiki/IDIH:The_project The International Dictionary of Intellectual Historians] (New Project launched by the [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_the_history_of_ideas/ <i>Journal of the History of Ideas</i>])
*[http://people.virginia.edu/~adm9e/grad/grad.htm Thinking about Grad School for Intellectual History?- Read this first]
===Websites===
*[http://www.idih.org/ International Dictionary of Intellectual Historians]
[[Category: General Reference]]
[[Category: Intellectual History]]
''Intellectual history'' is closely related to the [[history of philosophy]] and the [[history of ideas]]. Its central perspective suggests that ideas do not change in isolation from the people who create and use them and that one must study the [[culture]], lives and environments of people to understand their notions and ideas. This is also frought with the sentiment of hostility towards, or mistrust of, intellectuals and intellectual pursuits known as [[anti-intellectualism]]. This may be expressed in various ways, such as attacks on the merits of science, education, or literature.
==Europe and the West==
An [[intellectual]] is one who tries to use his or her intellect to work, study, reflect, speculate on, or ask and answer questions with regard to a variety of different ideas. There are, broadly, three modern definitions at work in discussions about intellectuals. First, 'intellectuals' as those deeply involved in ideas, books, the life of the mind. Second, 'intellectuals' as a recognizable occupational class consisting of lecturers, professors, lawyers, doctors, scientist, etcetera. Third, cultural "intellectuals" are those of notable expertise in culture and the arts, expertise which allows them some cultural authority, and who then use that authority to speak in public on other matters.
The social/intellectual context in the writings of western [[European history]] includes:
{{Col-begin}}
{{Col-1-of-2}}
;*[[The Enlightenment]]: [[Human rights]], new science, [[democracy]] (scholarly sources; [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]], [[Wilhelm Dilthey]]).
;*[[The Royal Society]]: A secular creation of an intellectual world led by figures such as [[Isaac Newton]], [[Robert Hooke]], [[Christopher Wren]], [[Joseph Addison]], [[Bishop Sprat]].
;*[[The Encyclopaedists]]: The creation of central repositories of knowledge available to all outside of academies, including mass market encyclopaedias and dictionaries: [[Denis Diderot|Diderot]], [[Samuel Johnson]], [[Voltaire]].
;*[[Romanticism]] : Individual, subjective, imaginative, personal, visionary (scholarly sources [[Thomas Carlyle|Carlyle]], [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau]], [[Sidney Hook|Hook]], [[Johann Gottfried Herder|Herder]]).
;*[[Post-romanticism]]: Reaction to [[naturalism (philosophy)|naturalism]], opposes external-only observations by adding internal observations (scholarly sources [[August Comte|Comte]], [[Leopold von Ranke|von Ranke]]).
;*[[Modernism]] : Rejects Christian academic scholarly tradition (scholarly sources [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], [[Jacob Burckhardt]], [[Beard]], [[Ferdinand de Saussure]], [[Sigmund Freud]], [[Carl Jung]]).
{{Col-2-of-2}}
;*[[Existentialism]]: Pre- and post-WW2 rejection of Western norms and cultural values. [[Martin Heidegger]], [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], [[Simone de Beauvoir]], [[Albert Camus]], [[Hannah Arendt]], [[Hans Jonas]], [[Karl Löwith]], [[Herbert Marcuse]], [[Claude Levi-Strauss]], [[Martin Buber]], [[Edmund Husserl]]. Engaged with the intellectual prominence of fascism and socialism in Europe during in the 1930s and 1940s, which they saw needed both repudiation and study, as a way to re-establish the individual against the values of a hostile and destructive series of communities creating alienation, isolation, and individual meaninglessness.
;*[[Postmodernism]] : Rejects Modernism, [[meta-narrative]] - multiple perspective, role of individual (scholarly sources [[Jean-François Lyotard|Lyotard]], [[Michel Foucault|Foucault]], [[Roland Barthes|Barthes]]).
;*[[Structuralism]] : Many phenomena do not occur in isolation but in relation to each other (scholarly sources [[Clifford Geertz|Geertz]], [[Claude Lévi-Strauss|Levi-Strauss]]).
;*[[Poststructuralism]] :[[Deconstruction]], destablizes the relationship between language and objects the language refers to (scholarly sources [[Jean-François Lyotard|Lyotard]], [[Jacques Derrida|Derrida]], [[Michel Foucault|Foucault]]).
{{Col-end}}
==Asia and the Far East==
Central to development of intellectual history has been the birth of scholarship in ancient China, the creation of [[Confucianism]] with its extensive exegesis of the texts of Confucius, and the active part of scholars in governments. In Korea, the [[yangban]] scholar movement drove the development of [[Traditional Korean thought|Korean intellectual history]] from the late [[Goryeo]] to the golden age of intellectual achievement in the [[Joseon]] dynasty.
In ancient [[China]] ''literati'' referred to the government officials who formed the ruling class in China for over two thousand years. These ''[[scholar-bureaucrats]]'' were a [[status group]] of educated [[laymen]], not ordained [[priest]]s. They were not a [[hereditary]] group as their position depended on their knowledge of writing and literature. After 200 B.C. the system of selection of candidates was influenced by [[Confucianism]] and established its ethic among the literati. The [[Hundred Flowers Campaign]] in China was largely based on the government's wish for a mobilization of intellectuals; with very sour consequences later.
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of the early Chinese sage Confucius. Confucius was the founder of the teachings of Confucianism. Confucianism is a complex system of moral, social, political, philosophical, and religious thought which has had tremendous influence on the culture and history of East Asia up to the 21st century. Some people in Europe have considered it to have been the "state religion" in East Asian countries because of governmental promotion of Confucianist values and needs.
Another avenue of intellectualism in Asia has been Buddhism. According to the [[Buddhist]] scriptures, in his lifetime, the Buddha had not answered several philosophical questions. On issues like whether the world is eternal or non-eternal, finite or infinite, unity or separation of the body and the [[Atman (Buddhism)|self]], complete inexistence of a person after nirvana and then death etc, the Buddha had remained silent. The scriptures explain that such questions distract from practical activity for realizing [[Enlightenment (concept)|enlightenment]].
In numerous Mahayana sutras and Tantras, the Buddha stresses that Dharma (Truth) and the Buddha himself in their ultimate modus cannot truly be understood with the ordinary rational mind or logic: both Buddha and Reality (ultimately One) transcend all worldly concepts. The "prajna-paramita" sutras have this as one of their major themes. What is urged is study, mental and moral self-cultivation, and veneration of the sutras, which are as fingers pointing to the moon of Truth, but then to let go of ratiocination and to experience direct entry into Liberation itself.
The Buddha in the self-styled "Uttara-Tantra", the [[Mahaparinirvana Sutra]], insists that, while pondering upon Dharma is vital, one must then relinquish fixation on words and letters, as these are utterly divorced from Liberation and the Buddha. The Tantra entitled the "All-Creating King" ([[Kunjed Gyalpo Tantra]]) also emphasises how Buddhic Truth lies beyond the range of thought and is ultimately mysterious. The Supreme Buddha, Samantabhadra, states there:
: "''The mind of perfect purity'' [i.e. the Awakened Mind of Buddha] ... ''is beyond thinking and inexplicable'' ... ''It dwells in the self-perfected bliss which is deedless and self-perfected'' ... ''I am the best path of liberation. It is a path, subtle and difficult to understand, which is non-speculative and beyond thinking'' ... ''It cannot be captured in words'' ... ''It is firm, difficult to comprehend, and totally inexplicable''." (''The Sovereign All-Creating Mind'' tr. by E.K. Neumaier-Dargyay, pp. 111–112).
Also later, the famous Indian Buddhist [[yogi]] and teacher [[mahasiddha]] [[Tilopa]] discouraged any intellectual activity in his [[Tilopa#6 words of advice|6 words of advice]]. Buddhist missionaries, however, often faced philosophical questions from other religions whose answers they themselves did not know. For those, who have attachment to [[intellectualism]], Buddhist scholars produced a prodigious quantity of intellectual theories, philosophies and worldview concepts. See e.g. [[Abhidharma]], [[Buddhist philosophy]] and [[Reality in Buddhism]].
==Africa and the Middle East ==
In the [[Near East]], [[Islam and modernity]] encompass the relation and compatibility between the phenomenon of modernity, its related concepts and ideas, and the religion of Islam. In order to understand the relation between Islam and modernity, one point should be made in the beginning. Both Islam and modernity are not simple and unified entities. They are abstract quantities which could not be reduced into simple categories. The history of Islam, like that of other religions, is a history of different interpretations and approaches to Islam. "There is no a-historical Islam that is outside the process of historical development." Similarly, modernity is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon rather than a unified and coherent phenomenon. It has historically had different schools of thoughts moving in many directions.
[[Ali al-Masudi]] is a well known Arab intellectual in history, known as the “Herodotus of the Arabs.” He often encourages his readers to consult other books he has written, expecting these to be accessible to his readership. They also note the stark contrast between contemporary European conditions confronting say the author of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and this highly literate Islamic world. He was the first Arab to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work, “The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems”, a world history. [[Ibn Khaldūn]] was a famous Arab Muslim historian, historiographer, demographer, economist, philosopher and sociologist born in present-day Tunisia. He is regarded as a forefather of demography, historiography, philosophy of history, and sociology, and is viewed as one of the forerunners of modern economics. He is best known for his Muqaddimah "Prolegomenon".
[[Persian philosophy]] can be traced back as far as to Old Iranian philosophical traditions and thoughts which originated in ancient [[Indo-Iranian]] roots and were considerably influenced by [[Zarathustra]]'s teachings. Throughout Iranian history and due to remarkable political and social changes such as the [[Alexander the Great|Macedonian]], [[Islamic conquest of Persia|Arab]] and [[Mongol invasion of Central Asia|Mongol]] invasions of Persia a wide spectrum of schools of thoughts showed a variety of views on philosophical questions extending from Old Iranian and mainly [[Zoroastrianism]]-related traditions to schools appearing in the late pre-Islamic era such as [[Manicheism]] and [[Mazdakism]] as well as various post-Islamic schools. Iranian philosophy after Arab invasion of [[Persia]], is characterized by different interactions with the [[Ancient philosophy|Old Iranian philosophy]], the [[Greek philosophy]] and with the development of [[Islamic philosophy]]. The [[Illumination School]] and the [[Transcendent Philosophy]] are regarded as two of the main philosophical traditions of that era in Persia.
[[Intellectual movements in Iran|Intellectual movements in Iran]] involve the Iranian experience of [[modernism]], through which Iranian modernity and its associated art, science, literature, poetry, and political structures have been evolving since the 19th century. [[Religious intellectualism in Iran]] develops gradually and subtly. It reached its apogee during the Persian Constitutional Revolution (1906-11). The process involved numerous philosophers, sociologists, political scientists and cultural theorists. However the associated art, cinema and poetry remained to be developed.
The [[African Renaissance]] is a concept popularized by [[President of South Africa|South African President]] [[Thabo Mbeki]] in which the African people and nations are called upon to solve the many problems troubling the [[Africa]]n continent. It reached its height in the late [[1990s]] but continues to be a key part of the post-[[apartheid]] intellectual agenda. The elements of this would eventually be seen to comprise the African Renaissance, social cohesion, [[democracy]], economic rebuilding and growth and the establishing of Africa as a significant player in geo-political affairs.
In [[Medieval Muslim Algeria]], spanning from the 600s to the 1600s, North Africa benefited economically and culturally during the Almoravid period, which lasted until 1147. [[Al-Andalus]] was a great source of artistic and intellectual inspiration for the African continent. The most famous writers of Andalus worked in the Almoravid court, and the builders of the [[Grand Mosque of Tilimsan]], completed in [[1136]], used as a model the [[Grand Mosque of Córdoba]].
Today, [[Taban Lo Liyong]] is one of Africa's well-known poets and writers of fiction and literary criticism. His eccentric ideologies, as well as his on-going denigration of the post-colonial system of education in East Africa, have inspired criticism and controversy since the late 1960's.
With the rise of [[Afrocentrism]], a recently developed [[academic]], [[philosophy|philosophical]], and [[history|historical]] approach to the study of world history, the push away from [[Eurocentrism]] has led to the focus on the contributions of [[African people]] and their model of world civilization and [[history]]. Afrocentrism aims to shift the focus from a perceived European-centered history to an [[African]]-centered history. More broadly, Afrocentrism is concerned with distinguishing the influence of [[European]] and [[Oriental]] peoples from African achievements.
==Prominent Individuals==
<div style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;">
*[[Perry Anderson]]
*[[R.G Collingwood]]
*[[Robert Darnton]]
*[[Hamid Dabashi]]
*[[Jacques Barzun]]
*[[David Bates]]
*[[Isaiah Berlin]]
*[[Mark Bevir]]
*[[Marc Bloch]]
*[[Fernand Braudel]]
*[[Ernst Cassirer]]
*[[Roger Chartier]]
*[[Merle Curti]]
*[[Norbert Elias]]
*[[Lucien Febvre]]
*[[Michel Foucault]]
*[[Peter Gay]]
*[[Carlo Ginzburg]]
*[[Anthony Grafton]]
*[[H. Stuart Hughes]]
*[[Russell Jacoby]]
*[[Martin Jay]]
*[[Tony Judt]]
*[[Alan Charles Kors]]
*[[Dominick LaCapra]]
*[[Arthur Lovejoy]]
*[[Allan Megill]]
*[[Louis Menand]]
*[[Perry Miller]]
*[[J. G. A. Pocock]]
*[[Carl Schorske]]
*[[Quentin Skinner]]
*[[Fritz Stern]]
*[[Hayden White]]
*[[Peter Watson (intellectual historian)|Peter Watson]]
*[[Cornel West]]
*[[Richard Wolin]]
</div>
==See also==
*[[Access to Knowledge movement]]
==References==
;General information
<div style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;">
*[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/DicHist/dict.html ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas''] edited by Philip P. Wiener, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973-74. online
*Noam Chomsky et al., ''The Cold War and the University: Toward an Intellectual History of the Postwar Years'', New Press 1997
*[[Laura Fermi]]. ''Illustrious Immigrants: The Intellectual Migration from Europe, 1930/41'', Chicago: U of Chicago, 1971. Europe's loss, America's gain. Included are many scientists who were instrumental to the nuclear bomb project.
*George B. de Huszar, ed. ''The Intellectuals: A Controversial Portrait''. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1960. anthology by many contributors.
*[[Jacques Le Goff]], ''Intellectuals in the Middle Ages'', translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993)
* Herbert Mitgang. ''Dangerous Dossiers: Exposing the Secret War Against America's Greatest Authors'', New York: David I. Fine, Inc, 1988. describes a strain of anti-intellectualism in the American culture, in this case within the [[FBI]] of [[J. Edgar Hoover]]. Describes files kept on several dozen writers and thinkers.
*[[Bertrand Russell]]. ''A History of Western Philosophy: And Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'', New York: Simon and Schuster, 1945.
*John E. Toews, "Intellectual History after the Linguistic Turn. The Autonomy of Meaning and the Irreducibility of Experience", in: The ''American Historical Review'', 92/4 (1987), 879-907.
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==External links==
===Resources===
*[http://etext.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv3-67 Dictionary of the History of Ideas] (Courtesy of the [[University of Virginia]])
*[http://www.idih.org/wiki/IDIH:The_project The International Dictionary of Intellectual Historians] (New Project launched by the [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_the_history_of_ideas/ <i>Journal of the History of Ideas</i>])
*[http://people.virginia.edu/~adm9e/grad/grad.htm Thinking about Grad School for Intellectual History?- Read this first]
===Websites===
*[http://www.idih.org/ International Dictionary of Intellectual Historians]
[[Category: General Reference]]
[[Category: Intellectual History]]