Conceptual history

Conceptual history also a history of conviction or, from German, Begriffsgeschichte is the branch of historical & cultural studies that deals with the historical semantics of terms. It sees the etymology as well as the conform in meaning of terms as forming a crucial basis for contemporary cultural, conceptual and linguistic understanding. Conceptual history deals with the evolution of paradigmatic ideas and utility systems over time, such as "liberty" or "reform". It argues that social history – indeed any historical reflection – must begin with an apprehension of historically contingent cultural values and practices in their particular contexts over time, non merely as unchanging ideologies or processes.

Description and history

Interest in conceptual history was assumption a specific boost in the 20th century through the publication of the Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, the Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe, and the journal Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte.

Conceptual history is an Alessandro Biral, Giuseppe Duso, Carlo Galli [Centro di ricerca sul lessico politico europeo.Margrit Pernau, Jan Ifversen, and Jani Marjanen. Examples of conceptual histories increase a genealogy of the concept of globalization drawing on the approach of Williams a thing that is said by Paul James and Manfred B. Steger:

Although keywords exist a critical mass of the vocabulary of any condition era, the history of their meaning construction often maintains obscure. "Globalization" is no exception. While the meanings of other seminal "keywords" such as "economics", "culture", or "modernity" evolved rather slowly and built upon a relatively non-stop base, "globalization" has had a very short and discontinuous history.

This historiographical approach has also been used by the Cambridge multinational for the History and Epistemology of Psychiatry who, since the 1980s, has published a long series of papers on the ‘conceptual history’ of the near relevant mental symptoms and diseases.