Context as the Metaproblem of History of Philosophy and Intellectual History. An Attempt at Methodological Systematisation

• Applicant: Dr. Ieva Höhne
• Subject Area: History of Philosophy
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 528982566

How does one approach and apprehend the question of methodology in the inherently plural, multi-layered and even chaotic field of history of philosophy and intellectual history? How to align this range of present and potential alternatives so that it does justice both to the self-understanding and research practice of the interpreters themselves and of those looking at these interpretative explorations from outside and aiming at a precise and practicable comparison of those? The postdoc project, which I am now resubmitting after a revision – having taken up the suggestions of the review and the board’s report – aims at developing an alternative systematization proposal for methodology in history of philosophy and intellectual history – alternative to the previous ones whose shortcomings I address in my project description. The hypothesis that I am hereby putting to the test places the tension between text and context at the center of methodological systematization – I am probing my assertion that the question of a (concrete) understanding of the context is necessary and also sufficient for structuring the methodological diversity in the aforementioned research fields. I am going to test this by deriving, analyzing and systematizing explicit and implicit understandings of context and practices of contextualization that came into play in the various interpretations of Thomas Hobbes' political teachings – those interpretations which have acquired significance in Western Europe and its cultural sphere of influence over the course of the 20th century. As a result of this analysis, a heuristic systematisation proposal is to be formulated – in shape of a set of context-related questions, answering of which would enable a precise assessment of the epistemological and possibly ontological (or even also normative) premises on which one or the other inquiry in history of philosophy or intellectual history is based.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position