Love in Adversity: On the State and the Intellectuals, and the State of the Intellectuals

In: Thesis eleven: critical theory and historical sociology, Heft 31, S. 81-104

Abstract

The relationship between the development of the modern state & the emergence of the intellectual class in Western societies is examined to assess the extent to which the intellectual is a dying breed. It is noted that the collusion between the state & the intellectual class eventually yielded to two parallel trends: the gradual replacement of ideological mobilization by the panoptical system of rule & control, & the division of intellectual work into narrowly defined areas of specialty. These trends sparked a demand for self-assertion on the part of intellectuals that found expression on three fronts: the political, the professional, & in leadership positions. The unstable unification of intellectuals as defenders of freedom in the twentieth century is discussed, & the ambivalent relationship between the educated classes & political administrators examined. Michel Foucault's much-discussed "obituary" to the universal intellectual, in which he implores scholars to focus on local concerns rather than universal ones, is appraised, & the curious silence on the part of the intellectual class throughout much of the 1980s is investigated. W. Howard