For a Multiple Decentering of the History of Knowledge

Abstract

In this overview, I argue that the history of knowledge needs a decentering, not only with regard to geography and to the disciplines under scrutiny, but also with regard to the relations between knowledge ‘proper’ (i.e., discursive and secular knowledge) and religious or mystical forms of knowledge. Given the importance that religious practices and institutions have historically had for the development of different forms of knowledge, the changing religious articulation of the very notion of knowledge deserves more systematic attention. I will also argue that categories like ‘knowledge’ and ‘truth,’ and norms of correctness, display a more radical historical contingency and variability than is allowed for in many exercises in the history of knowledge.