Article,
Toward a Theory of Intellectual Change: The Social Causes of Philosophies
Science, Technology & Human Values, 14 (2): 107-140 (1989)
DOI: 10.1177/016224398901400201
Abstract
Based on historical comparisons among master-pupil chains and other aspects of
social networks among philosophers, some prmciples are suggested regarding
long-term intellectual change. The higher the eminence ofphilosophers, the more
tightly they are connected to mtergenerational chains of other eminent philosophers, and to horizontal circles of the intellectual community. Intellectual
creativity proceeds through the contemporaneous development of rival positions,
dividing up the available attention space in the intellectual community. Strong
thought-communities, those that have strong external (religious or political)
support for their institutional base, subdivide to maximize internal distinctiveness;
weakly supported thought-communities disappear or amalgamate by syncretism.
External conditions thus affect the content of ideas indirectly by affecting the space
available in the mternal field of the intellectual community. The content of
philosophies, the degree of abstraction and self-conscious reflection upon intellectual operations, depends on how many generations intellectual networks
maintain continuity under conditions of creative rivalry. New positions are
produced by competitive appropriation of prior ideas and by negation of
preexisting positions along the lines of greatest organizational rivalry.
