This book addresses the ways in which the figure of the intellectuals and their relationship to the public has been theorized through the conceptualizations of bureaucracy, democracy, and communism as universal processes from the 19th century to the present. Starting with Hegel and Marx, the author looks at the rise of the figure of the universal intellectual in various forms, before turning to what is presented as a transformation of the figure of the intellectual into ‘the public intellectual’ advanced by the New Philosophies and the critical response offered by Edward Said. The study presents two comparative case studies: the Iranian Revolution and the public intellectuals in Europe, specifically in Norway, before concluding with a focus on the decay of the figure of the intellectuals and highlighting Ranciere’s critique of the intellectual/masses distinction.
Author(s): Yadullah Shahibzadeh
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 300
City: Cham
Preface
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Formation of the Intellectual
The Intellectual as Bureaucrat
The Intellectual as Democrat and Communist
The Limits of Democracy
Nationalism and the Intellectual
The Dreyfusian Revolution
Socialism and the Intellectuals
The Right to Be Lazy
Incorporation of Human and Social Sciences into the Modern State
3 True and False Universality
Intellectuals as Watchdogs
Sartre and the Universal Intellectuals
The Opium of the Intellectuals
Intellectuals and the Wretched of the Earth
Rationalizing Racism
4 From the Universal to the Specific Intellectual
Totalitarianism
Anti-semitism and the Jewish Elite
The Specific Intellectual
5 Renovations of the Intellectual
Farewell to the Working Class
Orientalism and Cultural Left
New Racism
The Intellectual’s Multicultural Society
The Intellectual and Cultural Imperialism
6 Toward the American New Century
The Responsibility of Intellectuals
Last Intellectuals
7 The Intellectuals and the Last Revolution
Nationalist and Socialist Conception of the Intellectual
Westoxication as the Third Force
The Islamist Turn
Shariati’s Islamist Ideology
Post-Islamism
8 A Perfect Democracy and Its Intellectuals
Construing Muslim as the Enemy
The Imprudent Racist
The Making of the Consensual Society
Norway a Humanitarian Superpower
9 The Decay of the Intellectual
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Divide and Rule
A Short History of the Integration of the Intellectuals into the State
The Limits of Democracy
10 Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
