Conceptual History and Historical Semantics

Interest in conceptual history and historical semantics remains strong. This compendium attempts a comprehensive reconstruction of the to date often isolated contributions and debates in philosophy, historiography, social science, the history of science, and the field of cultural studies. Offering a wealth of theoretical and historical information it develops new interdisciplinary dimensions and questions within research practice.

Conceptual history and historical semantics are by no means, as they may at first appear, neutral, purely technical methods. Throughout the course of their history they have been subjected to the most varied and, in part, contradictory uses. Among the most surprising findings is that, though many of their concepts have furthered historical thinking, they have frequently shied away from the consequences of their own methods. Up until today the paradigm of conceptual history has only rarely been taken into account.