Abstract:

As an interdisciplinary academic study, the history of ideas can explore many aspects of the development of social ideas by taking “ethos” as an approach. “Ethos” in a broad sense is not only reflected in social customs, but also related to academic activities. As the main part of the life world, “customs” are not only the origin of many ideas, but also the intermediary of ideas, institutions, and social psychology. Since modern times, academic forms closely related to “ethos” are often influenced by frequently changing intellectual trends, which is an important representation of conceptual metabolism. In addition, far-reaching intellectual trends usually have their core ideas. To study the history of ideas through intellectual trends, it is necessary to examine the connection and differences between ideas themselves and theories systematized by various “isms”, because the “isms” of thoughts and various “disputes among isms” not only enlarge the power of ideas, but also may cause knowledge deformation of ideas. It is inevitable to pay attention to specific “figures” in the study of intellectual trends, since they have branded the trends with their own philosophical theories or unique styles. The figures appearing one after another in history may not constitute a linear history of ideas. The goal of comprehensive research on the figures involved in the debate is to depict the genealogy of the history of ideas.

Key words: history of ideas, ideas, ethos, customs, intellectual trend, figure