The history of ideas is the long story of Mans' attempts to explain the world in which he finds himself, and therefore, before beginning the task of asking the fundamental questions, has to decide not only which questions to ask, but but which qustions are legitimate to ask, what can be answered in fact. And then in his infinite wisdom, man puts himself in the centre of all, and proceeds from that starting point.
But nothing beats engineers for ideas. And they're more interesting than philosophers, or accountants!