Download or read book Who is an Intellectual and what should the Role of Intellectuals be in Society written by Christiane Landsiedel and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2004-10-03 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject Sociology - Politics, Majorities, Minorities, grade: A, University of Dalarna (European Political Sociology), course: The Role of Intellectuals, language: English, abstract: Attempting to define who is an intellectual brings up the general impossibility to give a “correct” definition. As the formulation of a definition depends on the context, the thematic field, there is no universally valid definition, no objective “prototype” of an intellectual can be stated. Examining intellectuals in the context of totalitarian, post-totalitarian and democratic societies, I will analyse their outstanding role within these three regime types. Asking ‘what should the role of intellectuals be in society?’, this question enters the normative field. In the course of the programme we have come across several scientific approaches which define intellectuals differently, each based on a respective focus. According to the humanist point of view everyone is an intellectual – although he/she may not have the function of an intellectual. The intelligentia approach emphasizes the role of education whereas a Marxian definition focuses on the relation to the means of production: the intellec-tuals produce culture and therefore are opposed to the production of goods. In view of this variety my approach is based on Max Weber’s notion of the ideal type: functioning as a model, the definition comprises several realization forms; however, possible deviations from the ideal type do not result in the point that the ideal type is wrongly or in-adequately defined because the it does not lay claim to be an authentic picture of reality, rather it is an abstract model comprised of exaggerated features.

Download or read book The Role of Intellectuals in Contemporary Society written by Rajendra Pandey and published by Mittal Publications. This book was released on 1990 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Who is an intellectual What should the role of intellectuals be in society written by Stefan Lochner and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2011-10-21 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2004 in the subject Sociology - Politics, Majorities, Minorities, grade: G, Credits 6, University of Dalarna, language: English, abstract: It is very difficult to give a proper and precise definition of the social group or milieu of intellectuals because of its heterogenity and non-unity. Which should be the criteria and structure similarities that determine the definition? Is it possible to summarize all categories and types within a definition? Many perspectives exist concerning what an intellectual is and of course what his role or function in the society already is or should be, they all depend on different contexts or thematic fields and deviating focuses. Based on this variety I would define the explanandum according to the concept of the Weberian ideal type. In this case we should find universal categories which could stand for every object we can call “intellectual” in every time and every place, without moral, ethic or functional intentions. To my opinion intellectuals are a minority who have – due to their public/private education or natural talent – an above average expert knowledge or mind and consequently further reaching and profound realizations or specific ideas which are used to produce cultural goods in the broadest way of the word’s meaning. This includes for example scientists, authors, journalists, artists, composers, musicians, directors, priests and so on. So we have only three characteristic categories, by the may this makes them in comparison to other social groups – only in a quantitative point of view – a minority: An above average expert knowledge or mind, because of these realizations or ideas of a higher order which are finally transformed and materialized in speech, books, music, films, paintings or sculptures. Let us shortly closer light up these categories, for example in the social system of art, especially the modern art, as one subsystem of the cultural system. Some of the cultural products and with it the specific ideas, realizations and intentions have reached a point that they are for the average citizens, very difficult to understand or to interpret because of a lack of knowledge and mind in this special field. The cultural goods of the subsystem art as the so far final products of development and differentiation can therefore only in the first line really be understood by intellectuals with their special knowledge within this system that is separated from the outside.

Download or read book Intellectuals and Society written by Thomas Sowell and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2012-03-06 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The influence of intellectuals is not only greater than in previous eras but also takes a very different form from that envisioned by those like Machiavelli and others who have wanted to directly influence rulers. It has not been by shaping the opinions or directing the actions of the holders of power that modern intellectuals have most influenced the course of events, but by shaping public opinion in ways that affect the actions of power holders in democratic societies, whether or not those power holders accept the general vision or the particular policies favored by intellectuals. Even government leaders with disdain or contempt for intellectuals have had to bend to the climate of opinion shaped by those intellectuals. Intellectuals and Society not only examines the track record of intellectuals in the things they have advocated but also analyzes the incentives and constraints under which their views and visions have emerged. One of the most surprising aspects of this study is how often intellectuals have been proved not only wrong, but grossly and disastrously wrong in their prescriptions for the ills of society -- and how little their views have changed in response to empirical evidence of the disasters entailed by those views.

Download or read book The Responsibility of Intellectuals written by Noam Chomsky and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selected by Newsweek as one of “14 nonfiction books you’ll want to read this fall” Fifty years after it first appeared, one of Noam Chomsky’s greatest essays will be published for the first time as a timely stand-alone book, with a new preface by the author As a nineteen-year-old undergraduate in 1947, Noam Chomsky was deeply affected by articles about the responsibility of intellectuals written by Dwight Macdonald, an editor of Partisan Review and then of Politics. Twenty years later, as the Vietnam War was escalating, Chomsky turned to the question himself, noting that "intellectuals are in a position to expose the lies of governments" and to analyze their "often hidden intentions." Originally published in the New York Review of Books, Chomsky's essay eviscerated the "hypocritical moralism of the past" (such as when Woodrow Wilson set out to teach Latin Americans "the art of good government") and exposed the shameful policies in Vietnam and the role of intellectuals in justifying it. Also included in this volume is the brilliant "The Responsibility of Intellectuals Redux," written on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, which makes the case for using privilege to challenge the state. As relevant now as it was in 1967, The Responsibility of Intellectuals reminds us that "privilege yields opportunity and opportunity confers responsibilities." All of us have choices, even in desperate times.

Download or read book Reflections on Crisis written by Mary P. Corcoran and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pocket-sized book brings together academic essays originally delivered at a Royal Irish Academy symposium held in 2008. This was the year the global financial crisis hit. This book reflects a bewilderment at the heart of Irish society as the public looked to journalists and academics for explanations and solutions to what went wrong. Broken into five essays by economists, social scientists and historians, the short volume teases out questions such as: can we think our way out of a crisis? At a time of economic collapse, do intellectuals have something to offer? Are the views of economists, novelists, playwrights, sociologists, historians, political scientists and civil servants dismissed and ignored? Is Irish society anti-intellectual? The emergence of the figure of the public intellectual in American society is considered in some detail, as the book makes a case for shared critical thinking, imagination and ideas as a basis for recovery.

Download or read book Intellectuals and Race written by Thomas Sowell and published by Basic Books (AZ). This book was released on 2013-03-12 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intellectuals and Race is a radical book in the original sense of one that goes to the root of the problem. The role of intellectuals in racial strife is explored in an international context that puts the American experience in a wholly new light. The views of individual intellectuals have spanned the spectrum, but the views of intellectuals as a whole have tended to cluster. Indeed, these views have clustered at one end of the spectrum in the early twentieth century and then clustered at the opposite end of the spectrum in the late twentieth century. Moreover, these radically different views of race in these two eras were held by intellectuals whose views on other issues were very similar in both eras. Intellectuals and Race is not, however, a book about history, even though it has much historical evidence, as well as demographic, geographic, economic and statistical evidence-- all of it directed toward testing the underlying assumptions about race that have prevailed at times among intellectuals in general, and especially intellectuals at the highest levels. Nor is this simply a theoretical exercise. The impact of intellectuals' ideas and crusades on the larger society, both past and present, is the ultimate concern. These ideas and crusades have ranged widely from racial theories of intelligence to eugenics to "social justice" and multiculturalism. In addition to in-depth examinations of these and other issues, Intellectuals and Race explores the incentives, the visions and the rationales that drive intellectuals at the highest levels to conclusions that have often turned out to be counterproductive and even disastrous, not only for particular racial or ethnic groups, but for societies as a whole.

Download or read book The Intellectuals and Socialism written by Friedrich a Hayek and published by . This book was released on 2013-10 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a new release of the original 1949 edition.

Download or read book Minjian written by Sebastian Veg and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-23 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who are the new Chinese intellectuals? In the wake of the crackdown on the 1989 democracy movement and the rapid marketization of the 1990s, a novel type of grassroots intellectual emerged. Instead of harking back to the traditional role of the literati or pronouncing on democracy and modernity like 1980s public intellectuals, they derive legitimacy from their work with the vulnerable and the marginalized, often proclaiming their independence with a heavy dose of anti-elitist rhetoric. They are proudly minjian—unofficial, unaffiliated, and among the people. In this book, Sebastian Veg explores the rise of minjian intellectuals and how they have profoundly transformed China’s public culture. An intellectual history of contemporary China, Minjian documents how, amid deep structural shifts, grassroots thinker-activists began to work outside academia or policy institutions in an embryonic public sphere. Veg explores the work of amateur historians who question official accounts, independent documentarians who let ordinary people speak for themselves, and grassroots lawyers and NGO workers who spread practical knowledge. Their interventions are specific rather than universal, with a focus on concrete problems among disenfranchised populations such as victims of Maoism, migrant workers and others without residence permits, and petitioners. Drawing on careful analysis of public texts by grassroots intellectuals and the networks and publics among which they circulate, Minjian is a groundbreaking transdisciplinary exploration of crucial trends developing under the surface of contemporary Chinese society.

Download or read book Aesthetics Theory and Interpretation of the Literary Work written by Paolo Euron and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-08-12 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book introduces the reader to the literary work and to an understanding of its cultural background and its specific features, presenting basic topics and ideas in their historical context and development in Western culture.

Download or read book Between Culture and Politics written by Ron Eyerman and published by Polity. This book was released on 1994-06-14 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book Ron Eyerman examines the role of intellectuals in the new modern order, considering the impact of recent social changes on the nature of contemporary intellectual culture.

Download or read book Intellectuals in the Society of Spectacle written by Christopher Britt and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-05-24 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reveals the sense in which our postmodern societies are characterized by the obscene absence of the intellectual. The modern intellectual--who had once been associated with humanism and enlightenment—has in our day been replaced by media stars, talking heads, and technical experts. At issue is the ongoing crisis of democracy, under the aegis of the société du spectacle and its vast networks of politically-induced idiocy, industrially-produced biocide, and militarily-provoked genocide. Spectacle fills the resulting moral and intellectual vacuum with electronic technologies of control, punishment, and destruction. This postmodern tyranny reduces intelligence to mechanistic, positivist, and grammatological models of inquiry, while increasing the segmentation, fragmentation, and dissolution of human existence. The apotheosis of the spectacle explains the intellectual void that lies at the heart of our postmodern decadence; it also accounts for the need to recuperate the humanist values of enlightenment promoted by the modern intellectual tradition.

Download or read book Public Intellectuals written by Richard A. Posner and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this timely book, the first comprehensive study of the modern American public intellectual--that individual who speaks to the public on issues of political or ideological moment--Richard Posner charts the decline of a venerable institution that included worthies from Socrates to John Dewey. With the rapid growth of the media in recent years, highly visible forums for discussion have multiplied, while greater academic specialization has yielded a growing number of narrowly trained scholars. Posner tracks these two trends to their inevitable intersection: a proliferation of modern academics commenting on topics outside their ken. The resulting scene--one of off-the-cuff pronouncements, erroneous predictions, and ignorant policy proposals--compares poorly with the performance of earlier public intellectuals, largely nonacademics whose erudition and breadth of knowledge were well suited to public discourse. Leveling a balanced attack on liberal and conservative pundits alike, Posner describes the styles and genres, constraints and incentives, of the activity of public intellectuals. He identifies a market for this activity--one with recognizable patterns and conventions but an absence of quality controls. And he offers modest proposals for improving the performance of this market--and the quality of public discussion in America today. This paperback edition contains a new preface and and a new epilogue.

Download or read book The Thomas Sowell Reader written by Thomas Sowell and published by . This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These selections from the many writings of Sowell over a period of a half century cover social, economic, cultural, legal, educational, and political issues. The sources range from Dr. Sowell's letters, books, and newspaper columns, to articles in both scholarly journals and popular magazines.

Download or read book Intellectuals and their Publics written by Christian Fleck and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-23 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do intellectuals engage with and affect their publics? What is the role of the public intellectual in the new age of political uncertainties? What challenges face female intellectuals and those speaking from an ethnic, national or class position? This exciting collection responds to these questions by offering a broad-ranging account of the changing role of intellectuals in public life. The volume opens with provocative essays on the idea and role of the public intellectual from Alexander, Evans and Zulaika. Chapters from Rabinbach on intellectuals' responses to totalitarianism, Outhwaite on what it means to be a European intellectual, and Auer’s discussion of the dissident intellectual in the collapse of communism lead onto vigorous debate of earlier points discussed through specific intellectual case studies from Tocqueville to Hayek. Intellectuals and their Publics will attract a broad readership interested in the role of the intellectual, with particular appeal for sociologists, political theorists and historians of ideas.

Download or read book Anti Intellectualism in American Life written by Richard Hofstadter and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-01-04 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 1964 Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction Anti-Intellectualism in American Life is a book which throws light on many features of the American character. Its concern is not merely to portray the scorners of intellect in American life, but to say something about what the intellectual is, and can be, as a force in a democratic society. "As Mr. Hofstadter unfolds the fascinating story, it is no crude battle of eggheads and fatheads. It is a rich, complex, shifting picture of the life of the mind in a society dominated by the ideal of practical success." —Robert Peel in the Christian Science Monitor

Download or read book Civility and Subversion written by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-11-12 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 1998 book provides a sophisticated alternative to existing accounts of the role of the intellectual in modern democracy. Arguing that society suffers from a systemic deliberation deficit, Jeffrey Goldfarb explores the potential of the intellectual as democratic agent, at once civilizing political contestation and subverting complacent consensus. The sentimental Leftist view of the intellectual as guardian of democracy and the demonising Rightist view of the intellectual as obstructor of progress, are both shown to be flawed. Instead, intellectuals are portrayed as special kinds of 'strangers' who pay careful attention to their critical faculties, equipping them uniquely to address the most pressing issues of today. Professor Goldfarb deploys classical and contemporary social theory to analyse a diverse set of intellectuals in action, from Socrates in fifth-century Athens to Malcolm X and Toni Morrison in twentieth-century America, and, drawing on personal acquaintance, the political dissidents in Communist and post-Communist Central Europe.