Was ist Wissensgeschichte?

Abstract

The following paper discusses ›history of knowledge‹ as a new approach in the field of historical research, and especially cultural history. First of all, employing Foucault's notion of ›les saviors‹, the paper shows that the concept of ›knowledge‹ enables us to conceive knowledge as always circulating back and forth, without hierarchies, between different societal spheres and institutions, through media, between scientists and the so called public. Secondly, the paper proposes to use ›knowledge‹ as a vantage point for the historical gaze into the field of modern history. It therefore asks the question whether it is sound to promote ›knowledge‹ to a rank comparable in importance to the concept ›society‹ for social history, or ›nation‹ for political history. Since the very idea of ›the‹ society has lost a lot of its influence in the last two decades, my paper investigates the possibility that the new ›history of knowledge‹ can become an heir to the already rather ›old school‹ social history approach.