Genesis and Validity: The Theory and Practice of Intellectual History.

The relationship between an idea's genesis and its claim to validity beyond its context is a contentious issue in modern Western thought. This collection of essays explores this issue through engagement with leading intellectual historians and other giants of modern thought, touching on topics such as heroism, photographs, philosophy, theory, history, and free speech.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 280 pages
Publication date: 11 November 2021
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

The relationship between the genesis of an idea and its claim to validity beyond its temporal origins is a contentious and perennial issue in modern Western thought. This relationship is explored in the essays in this collection, which engage with leading intellectual historians and other giants of modern thought. The essays touch on a wide variety of related topics, including the heroism of modern life, the ability of photographs to lie, the fraught connections between philosophy and theory, the truth of history and the truthfulness of historians, and the weaponization of free speech for other purposes.

The collection explores the question of whether ideas or values can transcend their temporal origins and overcome the sin of their original context, earning abiding respect for their intrinsic merit. It also examines whether discrete contexts are so incommensurable and unique that the smooth passage of ideas from one to the other is impossible, or whether we can escape the limits of our own cultural standpoints and partial perspectives and enter into a fruitful dialogue with others.

The essays in the collection address these questions through engagement with leading intellectual historians, such as Hans Blumenberg, Quentin Skinner, Hayden White, Isaiah Berlin, Frank Ankersmit, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, and Georg Lukács. They explore a wide range of related topics, including the heroism of modern life, the ability of photographs to lie, the fraught connections between philosophy and theory, the truth of history and the truthfulness of historians, and the weaponization of free speech for other purposes.

The collection offers a valuable insight into the complex and multifaceted relationship between the genesis of an idea and its claim to validity beyond its temporal origins. It provides a rich and thought-provoking exploration of these important questions, which are at the heart of the discipline known as intellectual history.

Weight: 480g
Dimension: 151 x 228 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780812224962