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Jump to navigationJump to searchNew page: 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 siste...
The '''history of ideas''' is a field of [[research]] in [[history]] that deals with the expression, preservation, and change of human [[idea]]s 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 has been a distinct university subject since the 1930s, when [[Johan Nordström]], a scholar of literature, was appointed professor of the new discipline at [[Uppsala University]]. Today, several universities across the world provide courses in this field, usually as part of a graduate program.
==The Lovejoy approach==
The historian [[Arthur O. Lovejoy]] (1873–1962) coined the phrase ''history of ideas'' and initiated its systematic study, in the early decades of the [[twentieth century]]. For decades Lovejoy presided over the regular meetings of the ''History of Ideas Club'' at [[Johns Hopkins University]], where he worked as a professor of history from 1910 to 1939.
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]], [[Michel Foucault]], [[John Edward Christopher Hill|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/lecture of Lovejoy's book ''[[The Great Chain of Being]]'' lays out a general overview of what is intended (or at least what he intended) to be the program and scope of the study of the history of ideas.
==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 emergence and recession in new forms and combinations.
==References==
*[[Arthur Lovejoy]]: ''The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea,'' (ISBN 0-674-36153-9)
*Arthur Lovejoy: ''Essays in the History of Ideas,'' (ISBN 0-313-20504-3)
*[[Isaiah Berlin]]: ''Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas,'' (ISBN 0-691-09026-2)
*[[Mark Bevir]]: ''The Logic of the History of Ideas'' (ISBN 0-521-64034-2)
==See also==
*[[Anthropology]]
*[[Great Chain of Being]]
*[[Herbert Spencer]]
*[[Historiography]], other approaches to [[history]].
*[[Idea]], and compare [[sociology of knowledge]], the [[History of Consciousness]], [[conceptual history]] and [[intellectual history]].
*[[Isaiah Berlin]]
*[[James Burke (science historian)|James Burke]] and ''[[The Day the Universe Changed]]''
*[[Marjorie Hope Nicolson]], A. O. Lovejoy student and colleague (1894-1979)
*[[Meme]]
*[[Robert Boyle]]
*[[Peter Watson (intellectual historian)|Peter Watson]], author of ''Ideas: A history of thought and invention, from fire to Freud'' (2005)
==External links==
* [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/DicHist/dict.html ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas'']. Ed. Philip P. Wiener. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973-74. (Online edition from the [[University of Virginia]] library's Electronic Text Center.) Studies of selected pivotal ideas. This book also appeared in Chinese- and Japanese-language editions.
[[Category: General Reference]]
[[Category: History of Ideas]]
==The Lovejoy approach==
The historian [[Arthur O. Lovejoy]] (1873–1962) coined the phrase ''history of ideas'' and initiated its systematic study, in the early decades of the [[twentieth century]]. For decades Lovejoy presided over the regular meetings of the ''History of Ideas Club'' at [[Johns Hopkins University]], where he worked as a professor of history from 1910 to 1939.
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]], [[Michel Foucault]], [[John Edward Christopher Hill|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/lecture of Lovejoy's book ''[[The Great Chain of Being]]'' lays out a general overview of what is intended (or at least what he intended) to be the program and scope of the study of the history of ideas.
==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 emergence and recession in new forms and combinations.
==References==
*[[Arthur Lovejoy]]: ''The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea,'' (ISBN 0-674-36153-9)
*Arthur Lovejoy: ''Essays in the History of Ideas,'' (ISBN 0-313-20504-3)
*[[Isaiah Berlin]]: ''Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas,'' (ISBN 0-691-09026-2)
*[[Mark Bevir]]: ''The Logic of the History of Ideas'' (ISBN 0-521-64034-2)
==See also==
*[[Anthropology]]
*[[Great Chain of Being]]
*[[Herbert Spencer]]
*[[Historiography]], other approaches to [[history]].
*[[Idea]], and compare [[sociology of knowledge]], the [[History of Consciousness]], [[conceptual history]] and [[intellectual history]].
*[[Isaiah Berlin]]
*[[James Burke (science historian)|James Burke]] and ''[[The Day the Universe Changed]]''
*[[Marjorie Hope Nicolson]], A. O. Lovejoy student and colleague (1894-1979)
*[[Meme]]
*[[Robert Boyle]]
*[[Peter Watson (intellectual historian)|Peter Watson]], author of ''Ideas: A history of thought and invention, from fire to Freud'' (2005)
==External links==
* [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/DicHist/dict.html ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas'']. Ed. Philip P. Wiener. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973-74. (Online edition from the [[University of Virginia]] library's Electronic Text Center.) Studies of selected pivotal ideas. This book also appeared in Chinese- and Japanese-language editions.
[[Category: General Reference]]
[[Category: History of Ideas]]
