The Death And Life Of Western Public Intellectuals

After the Dreyfus Affair,the word “intellectual” has gradually gained a specific connotation of political significance in modern Western society.As a result,such a social community has generated a wide range of public debates ever since.Hence some western scholars coined the phrase “public intellectual” to distinguish those intellectuals from the traditional ones.But it should be noted that the word“intellectual” has had a totally different meaning before Fin-de-Siècle.This is what many Chinese students have overlooked in their past researches.In addition to that,when analyzing modern western intellectuals,Chinese scholars tend to see them as a monolithic block,therefore fail to recognize the fact that they,due to variant cultural backgrounds and different personal experiences,may differ in the definition and understanding of their own identity.And this thesis will try to make some efforts to overcome that theoretical deficiency.Briefly speaking,the word “intellectual” usually refers to those who have an academic interest or those who are mentally superior to average people(i.e.,a man of knowledge)in the context of Western culture before the 20 th century.But in modern France,following the examples set by le Philosophes(especially Voltaire)during the Enlightenment,intellectuals are usually involved in public affairs.They are,to be exact,what Russell Jacoby calls “public intellectuals”,a small branch of the larger intellectual community.They constantly voice for the disadvantaged and the underprivilieged,and are often accompanied by an antagonistic feeling towards the authorities.In this way,the stories of modern French intellectuals became “myths”and role models for the later generations,which to some extend altered the original meaning of the word.However,after some in-depth studies,many researchers find that these(public)intellectuals are not what they purport to be.The French intellecutals after the French Revolution were so committed to the “myths” created by their predecessors that sometimes they simply ignored facts contrary to their own beliefs;in the case of Dreyfus Affair,they caused fierce wars in the realm of public opinion.As to the New York Intellectuals,although they raised objections and criticisms about the capitalist society in America in their earlier days,most of them later became ideologues or warriors of the cultural cold war.They claimed to be fighting for freedom,justice,and truth,but in reality their hidden agendas were fame,money and self-satisfaction.All these were signs of “institutionalization”.For Cultural Studies emerged after the1960 s in the American universities,their progressive thinkings are now turning intomeaningless,ideological slogans,which are currently being exploited by neoliberal politicians.So what is really missing in contemporary intellectuals? The author of this thesis suggests that the key to truly save the reputation of intellectuals lies in dialectic.