ABSTRACT
What is an idea? In this chapter, I want to argue that, whatever an idea’s exact content might be, it is also important to be able to understand the way in which an idea is framed because that framing has consequences. Yet, it is remarkable how few papers on knowledge actually consider the mundane frameworks in which ideas come wrapped and from which they must spring. This chapter is a first attempt to suggest another way of looking at the world of ‘pre’-ideas, one that is meant to be both destabilizing and, at the same time, productive. It arises out of a theoretical shift that does now seem to be gathering momentum, one that allows new things to be seen and handled by concentrating on the utterly mundane frameworks that move ‘subjects’ and ‘objects’ about.
