My favorite source for sorting out what meaning we are attempting to  
understand as intellectual historians is 
 
Skinner, Quentin. 1969.  "Meaning and Understanding in the History of  
Ideas."  I forget the original journal, but the article was recently reprinted  
in *Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and his Critics,* edited by  
James Tully (Princeton Univ. Press). 
 
The issues Michael Gibbons talks about are handled very well there. 
 
Ross 
 
Ross B. Emmett, Augustana University College, Camrose, Alberta 
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