Studying ideas: A conversation from the South about the life of ideas and the reconfiguration of a disciplinary space

Abstract

The conversations that make up this book deal with the history, the realities and the perspectives of the wide spectrum of approaches that are dedicated to the study of thought and ideas. The notion of Eidetic Studies is presented, somehow containing a proposal for the reconfiguration of the disciplinary space. In fact, these conversations mostly revolve around specifying what this proposal consists of or could be, how it would relate to other pre-existing approaches, how its links with other disciplines could be thought. Key issues are the emphasis placed on conceiving these studies beyond the strictly historiographic level (without, of course, excluding it), and the invitation to promote and densify exchanges with other disciplines (the closest and most common ones and also others, apparently distant, such as biology, cognitive sciences, engineering). Throughout the conversations, definitions, conceptual distinctions and classification criteria are offered. They can be useful to study the life of ideas, realities as fascinating as complex.