The Definition, Methods and Other Related Issues of Intellectual History ——Also on the History of Martin Luther's Thoughts in China

Abstract

Intellectual history, tracing the history of human thought, is the understanding and presentation of various thoughts and concepts that have appeared in human history. The Chinese term 思想史 is translated from the English terms “intellectual history” and “history of ideas”, which were once used interchangeably, especially in the 20th century, since at least two reasons: the definition of “idea” and the history of the development of academic disciplines. The use of English terms in confusion is undoubtedly a reflection of the phenomenon of different opinions on the definition of the connotation of the intellectual history. By enumerating the explanations about the meaning of intellectual history of Collingwood, Lovejoy, Isaiah Berlin, Skinner and many other famous, not only to show the ambiguity of what is intellectual history, but also to seek uniformities among the different definitions. It is that intellectual history points to the spiritual creation and experience of human beings, and can guide people to discover and reach the most real place of history. Based on their respective understanding on intellectual history, historians use various research methods to pursue the thoughts and concepts in the course of human history from the perspectives of pure history, philosophical history, social history, etc., in order to find something valuable and meaningful. On the basis of sorting out and analyzing the basic problems of intellectual history, this paper further illustrates the connotation and methods of intellectual history by taking the study of the history of Martin Luther and his thoughts in China as an example.