Abstract

Taking his start from Richter's paper, the author discusses the positions in contemporary conceptual history, whose paradigm is the "Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe", to which he opposes the typical themes of Skinner's history of political discourse. The Author critically examines Koselleck's theory of the "Sattelzeit" and the relation between the methodology of the "Begriffsgeschichte" and the notion of a "Sattelzeit". Pocock concludes that the different ways of thought proposed by the conceptual history on one side and by the history of political discourse on the other may be compared but not assimilated.