The history of ideas is most prominently understood as a highly specialized group of methods for the study of abstract ideas, with both diachronic and synchronic aspects. While theorizing the field has focused on the methods of study, defining the object of study – ideas – has been neglected. But the development of the theories behind material culture studies poses a sharp challenge to these narrow approaches. It both challenges the integrity of the notion of abstract ideas and also offers possibilities for enlarging the scope of the ways in which we can study ideas historically. It is proposed here to regard ideas as mental relations deeply connected to human communication by both thinking and doing. This connection of ideational thought to human production and behavior is a deep foundation for the history of ideas as an interdisciplinary historiographic means of understanding moral life.

观念的历史被最突出地理解为研究抽象观念的高度专业化的方法组，既具有历时性又具有共时性。在理论化领域侧重于研究方法的同时，对研究对象（思想）的定义却被忽略了。但是，物质文化研究背后的理论发展对这些狭窄的方法提出了严峻的挑战。它既挑战了抽象思想概念的完整性，也为扩大我们历史研究思想的方式范围提供了可能性。在此建议将思想视为通过思考和行动与人类交流紧密联系的心理关系。