The history of scholarship has undergone a complete renewal in recent years, and is now a major branch of research with vast territories to explore; a substantial introduction to "History of Scholarship" surveys the past vicissitudes of the history of scholarship and its current expansion. The authors, all specialists of international standing, come from a variety of backgrounds: classical studies, history of religions, philosophy, early modern intellectual and religious history. Their papers illustrate a variety of themes and approaches, including Renaissance antiquarianism and philology; the rise of the notion of criticism; Biblical and patristic scholarship, and its implications for both confessional orthodoxy and eighteenth-century free thought; the history of philosophy; and German historiographical thought in both the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. This challenging volume constitutes a collection of remarkable quality, helping to establish the history of scholarship as a more broadly acknowledged, worthwhile field of study in its own right.

历史是什么？历史是一种科学吗？历史学家是否应该致力于建立一种理论体系？在回答上述问题的过程中，本书对历史的本质与目的、历史学与社会学的关系、福柯所引起的历史学革命等问题进行了深入地分析与探讨，对我们建立一种超越文本与材料的新型历史观颇具启发意义。

《历史意识的维度》汇集了雷蒙•阿隆在20世纪五六十年代所写的论文，从不同的角度阐明了两种历史：一种是我们生活于其中的历史，另一种则是我们思索的历史。作者旨在清楚地说明有关历史知识的诸多问题，与有关历史中存在的那些问题之间有何联系，试图通过参照当下时代的主要特征，来理解我们的历史意识。如果将《历史意识的维度》当作雷蒙•阿隆1938年博士论文《历史哲学导论》的延续的话，我们可以说，它实现了相对于这篇论文的转向。而阿隆对于历史学家的讨论也许构成了《历史意识的维度》一书最有吸引力的方面，并在诸多方面预告了之后将要出版的《回忆录》。