The History of Ideas in the Context of the Educational Mission of Museums

Abstract

Nowadays, in conditions of information society numerous scientists pay attention to the regularities of formation and course of historical events resulting in considerable changes in the social, political and economical spheres all over the world. Obviously, the main impetus for this were certain ideas, lying in the basis of these changes. These ideas were appointed by various conditions. Each idea has its own history which allows to understand the reason for its rise, to clarify who was the author of the idea and what were its consequences in different contexts. The history of ideas – is a study about the historical process of creation, preservation and alteration on human ideas. It is related to the intellectual history, the history of philosophy, of science and the history of culture as a whole. For this reason it may be considered as their component or as an applied discipline which forms their part. The peculiarity of this case is that within the history of ideas it is possible to observe, investigate and to see the perspectives of the development of separate ideas which make combinations with each other and change their forms of expression, remaining relatively unchanged. Each idea is unique and presents the highest form of expression and of perception of objective reality. Thus the idea is inherent only to human brain. This characterizes people’s attitude to those who surround them and to their objective world. The source of the ideas is not to be found in the ideas themselves. It usually lies in the conditions of financial life of the society and in social entity. Ideas arise and change because of the development and modification of human’s social habits. All the ideas come out of experience, representing the reflection of reality, either credible or distorted 1 .