The Theory and Concept of an Interdisciplinary Conceptual History

This project aimed at creating a dictionary of concepts that transgress the limits of single disciplines and discourses. The focus of our research was an interdisciplinary history of the concept of ‘theory.’ Our point of departure was the claim that the age of theory has come to an end and the related assumption that the concept of theory lost its meaning in the second half of the 20th century. These ideas stand in contrast to the concept’s long history as well as to an ongoing interest in theory. At the same time, the concept and practice of theory continue to be questionable and controversial. The project thus undertook an in-depth analysis of the semantics of ‘theory’ throughout history and its various transformations over time. We also examined the ways in which theory concepts interrelate with different disciplines and institutions, asking how they contribute to a historical understanding of the present and what new perspectives for theory might be found therein.

Situated within the research area History of Theory, the project stood at the crux of the ZfL’s work. It profited from input from the other individual projects that reflect upon the meaning and status of theory within their specific frameworks, while at the same time providing productive stimuli for those projects through expert knowledge on the historical connotations and multilayered problems associated with theory concepts. We were especially interested in the concept of theory around 1800 and how it figures into the differentiation of the scientific disciplines at that time. By extension, the project looked closely at the historical turning points and transformations of theory which is part of the groundwork for a comprehensive dictionary of interdisciplinary concepts.

The project was based on years of research at the ZfL in the field of conceptual history. It also built extensively on the results collected in Begriffsgeschichte und historische Semantik. Ein kritisches Kompendium (Conceptual history and historical semantics. A critical compendium, 1027 pp., published by Suhrkamp Verlag, 2016), which offers a methodological and theoretical analysis of prominent conceptual histories (philosophy, history, etc.) as well as an analysis of the national and international debates at the intersection of conceptual history, the history of metaphors, and discourse analysis with special attention to the fields of philosophy, history, the social sciences, linguistics, the history of science, and cultural studies.

The project employed a range of formats to present its results:

• a website platform for collaboration on the dictionary and the publication of materials on conceptual history  that uses Wiki software within a 'work in progress' setting
• the e-journal Interdisciplinary Conceptual History Forum (Forum Interdisziplinäre Begriffsgeschichte, FIB) that supplements the work on the interdisciplinary dictionary and its individual entries. It appears twice a year and includes in-depth articles, miscellany, and debates in English and German.
• an event series that shares its name with the e-journal Interdisciplinary Conceptual History Forum (FIB) and serves as a forum for discussions on current research on the history of concepts (2008–2013).

Since 2012 the project has been part of the University of Valencia’s research group Historia Conceptual y Modernidad, which focuses on issues surrounding the history and internationalization of conceptual history. The research group was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Science until 2021 (grant number FFI2017-82195-P).

Since September 2019, the project has been a collaboration partner of the Mirror and Light project by the Department of German Language and Literature at the University of Geneva.

Fig. above from: 1899–1999. 100 Jahre RWE-DEA. Hamburg 1999, pp. 38/39