Categories. Some thoughts in the practice of classification

Abstract

From its inception the history of categories (or the history of concepts), as an area of historiography, developed as a reaction to the history of social practices, in so far as the latter very often left out the ways in which a person 's understanding of the world, and different interests and strategies, could constitute variables which were independent of human action. On the other hand it also distanced itself from the tradition of the «history of ideas» in that it highlighted the almost objective nature of intellectual constructions as systems for sharing worldviews with others. This article discusses some methodological problems in connection with this topic.