Intellectual history
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 intellectual historian 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.
3 episodes
Episodes in this category also belong to the following categories:
Al-Kindi
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Al-Kindi, often described as the first philosopher in the Arabic tradition.
28 June 2012
Featuring: Hugh Kennedy, James Montgomery, Amira Bennison
PhilosophyMusic theorists of the medieval Islamic worldAlchemists of the medieval Islamic worldPhilosophers of religionPhilosophers of logicMetaphysics writersIslamic philosophersAstronomers of the medieval Islamic worldAristotelian philosophersEpistemologistsPhilosophers of educationPhilosophers of artIntellectual historyPhilosophers of psychologyMetaphysiciansPhilosophers of mathematics9th-century philosophersPhilosophers of scienceArabic-language commentators on AristotleOntologists9th centuryAstronomyIslamLanguageMathematicsMedicinePsychologyLévi-Strauss
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss.
23 May 2013
Featuring: Adam Kuper, Christina Howells, Vincent Debaene
CultureAcademic staff of the Collège de FranceFrench sociologistsLycée Condorcet alumniFrench philosophers of educationThe New School facultyJewish atheistsPhilosophers of mindWriters about globalizationWriters about religion and scienceFrench essayistsMetaphilosophersPhilosophers of religionLiteracy and society theoristsUniversity of Paris alumniCorresponding fellows of the British AcademyPhilosophers of languageFrench male non-fiction writersMetaphysics writersGrand Cross of the Legion of HonourPhilosophers of linguisticsFrench philosophers of scienceMembers of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and SciencesWriters about activism and social change20th-century atheists20th-century French philosophersIntellectual historyMembers of the Académie FrançaiseJewish historiansCritical theoristsMetaphysicians20th-century French male writersFrench philosophers of historyWriters about communismTheorists on Western civilizationJewish philosophersWriters from ParisFrench epistemologistsAtheist philosophersPhilosophers of social scienceForeign associates of the National Academy of Sciences20th-century French memoiristsMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyPhenomenologistsLinguists from France20th-century essayistsFrench atheistsOntologistsFrench philosophers of culture20th centuryFranceLanguageMedicineRhetoric
Melvyn Bragg discusses Rhetoric, the art of speaking which is an expression of inner virtue and also fundamental to ideas about democracy.
28 October 2004
Featuring: Angie Hobbs, Thomas Healy, Ceri Sullivan