The History of Ideas and the History of Science

The Department focuses on the European contribution to the development of intellectual and scientific thought from the 16th century onwards, looking at the way this was shaped by Europe’s contacts with the outside world, and the way European thought impacted on the societies with which it had contacts, as part of the colonial experience.

At the EUI the History of Ideas is interdisciplinary, comparative and European in its outlook. Whilst pursuing their own concern with genuinely historical reconstructions of the cultural and intellectual life of the past, intellectual historians are engaged in dialogue with the concerns of those working in fields such as Literature, Philosophy, Law, Politics and Religious Studies. A number of researchers situate their research projects explicitly at the crossroads of history and literature, focusing on figures such as the late Victorian moralist John Morley, the Austrian author Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and Giuseppe Mazzini in British exile.

Other research projects are at the vanguard of current approaches to the history of European political thought, studying  canonical thinkers such as the Neapolitan humanist, Giovanni Pontano, Sir Robert Filmer, Hugo Grotius, Matteo Doria, Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss, 'forgotten' figures such as the radical artisan Pieter Plockhoy and the eminent academic Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi. Other projects focus on the study of debates in intellectual traditions such as republicanism and natural law.

One features of many research projects in intellectual history at the EUI is the attempt to open up comparative perspectives, to study thinkers and traditions within a wider transnational, European and Atlanticist perspective. The development of sciences is analysed, as part of the intellectual and cultural history of Europe, and research and teaching focus on early modern and modern history of science, technology and medicine in relation to European history.

HEC deals with the major issues and historiographical debates in the field, paying special attention to national and epistemological traditions. The history of science is explored in relation to social, cultural and intellectual history.

We examine the European production of science and knowledge in a comparative perspective going beyond state or confessional boundaries, and with the circulation of its products (concepts, machines, books, instruments), and its actors (scientists, craftsmen, merchants, missionaries) within and beyond Europe (especially within the Empires and colonies). 

HEC professors with a research interest in this area are Antonella Romano  and Martin Van Gelderen . The Department also has a special interest in the History of Economic Thought (Giovanni Federico , Bartolome Yun-Casalilla ), Historiography (Anthony Molho ), and Historical Sociology (Diogo Ramada Curto ).