If intellectuals and ideas are to be taken seriously, this does not imply adherence to single lines of causality, or disregard of historical structures and institutions. A conceptual history (as promoted by Reinhart Koselleck) traces and reconstructs epistemological developments as social history, the result of larger historical developments, and arguably even more important, social struggles that require and give rise to new meanings. The study of intellectuals and ideas, and the study of the ways they are organized, are a necessary part of the wider study of social transformation; no more, no less.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 27