Knowledge of a period’s cosmological beliefs or moral ideas forms part of…

Concept

Literal comprehension identifies the category explicitly linked to an idea in the source, without replacing it with a nearby but narrower field.

Intellectual history studies ideas, beliefs, and patterns of thought in their historical context; histories of science, philosophy, and literature are narrower neighbouring areas.

Application: Cosmological beliefs and moral ideas are patterns of thought associated with a historical period. They therefore belong to the wider study of ideas in context.

• Literary criticism primarily interprets and evaluates literary works.

• History of science traces scientific knowledge, practices, and institutions.

• History of philosophy traces philosophical doctrines, arguments, and schools.

• Intellectual history brings a period’s ideas and beliefs together within their historical setting.

Cross-check: The category that can include the histories of science and philosophy while also covering broader cosmological and moral beliefs is intellectual history.

Result: The field is intellectual history.