Intellectual History and Its Origins: Current Aspects of Interpretation; [Интеллектуальная история и ее истоки: актуальные аспекты интерпретации]

Intellectual history is a field of scientific research developing intensively throughout the 20th century has constantly become the subject of heated debate at any stage of its evolution up to the present day. Scientists recognize the important interdisciplinary significance of the term itself, which expresses a general methodological tendency towards synthesis within social and humanitarian knowledge. At the same time, the very fact that the analysis of the content of this concept still raises questions and gives rise to doubts seems paradoxical. The issues surrounding the rapid spread of the idea that intellectual history, having barely managed to form as a scientific direction, found itself in a situation of methodological impasse, which is provoking a feeling of cognitive dissonance among its supporters everywhere, require an adequate understanding of the reasons for such a state of mind. A constant source of crisis phenomena is the inability of many adherents of intellectual history to recognize the complex and rather fragile structure of its analytical methods, which allow the study of diverse social phenomena from an interdisciplinary perspective. However, many theoretical disagreements, which at first glance seem difficult to overcome, are of a very relative nature if they are considered from the point of view of the world historical tradition of the evolution of various types of intellectual activity in various cultures — ancient and modern. It is in this context, in our opinion, that we should consider the international turn that has emerged in the last decade towards a “global intellectual history”, within the framework of which a creative synthesis of diverse national traditions is being carried out. © 2024 Ltd Integration: Education and Science. All rights reserved.