Page "Intellectual history" Paragraph 2

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.