최근 국내학계에서 개념사 연구가 활발하게 진행되고 있다. 개념사는 개념과 역사적 실제 사이의 상호영향을 전제한 채 이 둘이 서로 어떻게 얽혀있는가를 탐구한다. 이 글은 개념과 역사적 실제의 얽힘을 풀기위한 개념사의 이론적 공리 여섯 개를 상론한다. 그 주요 내용은 다음과 같다.
1. 언어 없이 역사는 불가능하지만 역사는 결코 언어로 환원될 수 없다.
2. 개념은 관념(이념)이 아니라 언어적 구성물이다. 따라서 개념의 역사가 아니라, 개념 사용의 역사가 중요하다.
3. 개념과 역사적 실제의 관계는 불안정하다. 따라서 개념은 정의의 대상이 아니라 해석의 대상이다.
4. 개념은 실제의 지표이자 동시에 그 요소이다.
5. 개념을 통제하는 자가 현실을 지배한다.
6. 역사적 실제란 ‘과거의 현재’와 ‘현재화된 과거’ 사이의 긴장관계이다.
The conceptual history recently grows fashionable in the Korean academic world. Premising an interaction between the concept and the historical reality, this new discipline studies how these are intertwined. This paper discusses six theoretical axioms of conceptual history for analyzing such a complex relationship between them as follows：1. A history is not possible without language, but the former can’t be reduced as the latter. 2. A concept should not be regarded as an idea but a linguistic construction. Therefor, the research object of conceptual history is not a history of concept itself but of how the concept was used. 3. The relationship between the concept and the historical reality is unstable. Thus, a concept is not the object of definition but of interpretation. 4. The concept is not only an indicator, but also a factor of reality. 5. Those who control the concept rule the reality. 6. The historical reality means a tense relationship between the ‘past present’ and the ‘present past’.
The conceptual history recently grows fashionable in the Korean academic world. Premising an interaction between the concept and the historical reality, this new discipline studies how these are intertwined. This paper discusses six theoretical axioms of conceptual history for analyzing such a complex relationship between them as follows：1. A history is not possible without language, but the former can’t be reduced as the latter. 2. A concept should not be regarded as an idea but a linguistic construction. Therefor, the research object of conceptual history is not a history of concept itself but of how the concept was used. 3. The relationship between the concept and the historical reality is unstable. Thus, a concept is not the object of definition but of interpretation. 4. The concept is not only an indicator, but also a factor of reality. 5. Those who control the concept rule the reality. 6. The historical reality means a tense relationship between the ‘past present’ and the ‘present past’.