Lovejoy’s readings of Bruno: Or how nineteenth-century history of philosophy was “transformed” into the history of ideas

TY - JOUR

T1 - Lovejoy’s readings of Bruno

T2 - Or how nineteenth-century history of philosophy was “transformed” into the history of ideas

AU - Catana, Leo

PY - 2010/1

Y1 - 2010/1

N2 - Lovejoy made rather grand methodological statements about the nature of history of ideas in his Great chain of being (1936). These statemens were, it is argued, rhetorical declarations, intended to produce the conviction in the minds of his readers that history of ideas was distinct from history of philosophy and thus deserved institutional independence; they were not adequate descriptions of the method actually practiced. Instead, Lovejoy’s historiographical practice can be contextualized within nineteenth-century general histories of philosophy. His studies on Giordano Bruno, dating from 1904 and 1936 respectively, illustrate this historiographical continuity.

AB - Lovejoy made rather grand methodological statements about the nature of history of ideas in his Great chain of being (1936). These statemens were, it is argued, rhetorical declarations, intended to produce the conviction in the minds of his readers that history of ideas was distinct from history of philosophy and thus deserved institutional independence; they were not adequate descriptions of the method actually practiced. Instead, Lovejoy’s historiographical practice can be contextualized within nineteenth-century general histories of philosophy. His studies on Giordano Bruno, dating from 1904 and 1936 respectively, illustrate this historiographical continuity.

U2 - 10.1353/jhi.0.0068

DO - 10.1353/jhi.0.0068

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0022-5037

VL - 71

SP - 91

EP - 112

JO - Journal of the History of Ideas

JF - Journal of the History of Ideas

IS - 1

ER -