Idea
Definition
Idea is a term used both popularly and in philosophical terminology with the general sense of “mental picture” or "understanding". Today many people believe that ideas are a new sort of intellectual property like copyright or patent, though some believe there is a realm where ideas exist and that we only “discover” ideas much like we discover the Wikiwiki world.To “have no idea how a thing happened”, is to be without a mental picture of an occurrence. In this general sense, it is synonymous with concept in popular usage. But idea may contain broader meaning. Say “a chair” can be an idea -- but surely not a concept. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idea
History of ideas
The history of ideas is a field of research in history and in related fields dealing with the expression, preservation, and change of human ideas over time. Scholars often consider the history of ideas a sister discipline to, or a particular approach within, intellectual history. Work in the history of ideas usually involves close research in the history of philosophy and the history of literature.
The historian Arthur O. Lovejoy first used the phrase history of ideas and initiated its systematic study in the early decades of the twentieth century. For decades Lovejoy presided over the regular meetings of the History of Ideas Club at Johns Hopkins University, where he worked as a professor of history from 1910 to 1939. Aside from his students and colleagues engaged in related projects (such as Rene Wellek and Leo Spitzer, with whom Lovejoy engaged in extended debates), scholars such as Isaiah Berlin, Michel Foucault, and others have continued to work in a spirit close to that with which Lovejoy pursued the history of ideas. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ideas [Oct 2005]
Idea art
Conceptual art, sometimes called idea art, is art in which the ideas of the artist are more important than the means used to express them. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_art [Aug 2004]
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