The Critique of Intellectuals in a Time of Pragmatist Captivity  

Oleh:

Fuller, Steve

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: History of the Human Sciences vol. 16 no. 4 (Nov. 2003), page 19–38.
Topik: criticism; Geertz; genetic fallacy; Heidegger; intellectual history; intellectuals; Kuhn; negative responsibility; positivism; pragmatism; Rorty; Sartre
Fulltext: 19.pdf (148.54KB)

Isi artikel

The ‘critique of intellectuals’ refers to a genre of normative discourse that holds intellectuals accountable for the consequences of their ideas. A curious feature of the contemporary, especially American, variant of this genre is its focus on intellectuals who were aligned with such world-historic losers as Hitler and Stalin. Why are Cold War US intellectuals not held to a similar standard of scrutiny, even though they turn out to have been aligned with the world-historic winners? In addressing this general question, some self-serving tendencies of intellectual history are observed, in particular the asymmetry between the ease with which intellectuals are credited with the good consequences of their ideas and the difficulty with which they are blamed for the bad consequences. This asymmetry is particularly noted in Richard Rorty, whose pragmatism treats past ideas as a legacy intended for the (American) reader’s benefit. As a corrective, I advocate, in Paul Ricoeur’s terms, a ‘hermeneutic of suspicion’ that treats intellectual life as fraught with danger, as our adoption of ideas always amounts to passing judgement over those who have borne them in the past.

Opini Anda

Klik untuk menuliskan opini Anda tentang koleksi ini!

Kembali