Foucault News

News and resources on French thinker Michel Foucault (1926-1984)

Palti Elias J. Intellectual History and the Problem of Conceptual Change. The Seeley Lectures. Cambridge University Press; 2024

How does long-term intellectual change occur? Can we develop a theoretical framework for understanding past systems of knowledge? In this ambitious study, Elías José Palti seeks to reassess the main concepts in the field of intellectual history. Evaluating modes of thought from the seventeenth century to the present, this book aims to prevent an anachronistic understanding of the texts of the past. Palti rejects the idea of conceptual change as a coherent process deriving from one single source. Instead, he offers a convincing explanation of converging developments emanating from three different sources: namely, the Cambridge school, the German school of conceptual history, or Begriffsgeschichte, and French politico-conceptual history. Intellectual History and the Problem of Conceptual Change also closely examines the temporality of concepts, questioning how and why political languages mutate.

One thought on “Palti, Elias J. Intellectual History and the Problem of Conceptual Change (2024)

  1. gmcghee1ee68186c0's avatar gmcghee1ee68186c0 says:

    Randall Collins, The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change (1998) is a monumental overview of all major and many minor intellectual lineages — with incredibly detailed graphic genealogies that supplement the text. It would seem Palti is not aware of this masterful text, or, if he is, what he can contribute additionally.
    https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674001879

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