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1 - Introduction

from Part I - Computational Methodologies for the History of Ideas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2023

Peter de Bolla
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

This book explores the ways in which computational techniques for text mining can contribute to the history of ideas. Traditional approaches to intellectual history are based on the careful, close scrutiny of texts and contexts, reading at a human scale in order to construct lines of transmission and genealogies of ideas. These approaches have served us well: the history of political thought, for example, has established deeply researched canons of texts and writers that are widely accepted as being in dialogue with each other. Over the last twenty years, however, the migration of analogue archives to digital corpora has opened up the possibility of reading at scale, creating the conditions for inspecting the transmission of ideas across hundreds of thousands of texts. Most of these texts have been deemed too obscure or insignificant for sustained close attention, and they remain at the outer margins of our standard histories of ideas.

Type
Chapter
Information
Explorations in the Digital History of Ideas
New Methods and Computational Approaches
, pp. 3 - 11
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Introduction
  • Edited by Peter de Bolla, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Explorations in the Digital History of Ideas
  • Online publication: 09 November 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009263610.001
Available formats
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  • Introduction
  • Edited by Peter de Bolla, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Explorations in the Digital History of Ideas
  • Online publication: 09 November 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009263610.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by Peter de Bolla, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Explorations in the Digital History of Ideas
  • Online publication: 09 November 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009263610.001
Available formats
×