The Responsibility Of Intellectuals

Author : Noam Chomsky
Publisher : The New Press
Page : 112 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2017-11-07
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781620973646

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The Responsibility of Intellectuals by Noam Chomsky Pdf

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.

Author : Nicholas Allott,Chris Knight,Neilson Voyne Smith
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2019
Category : Intellectuals
ISBN : 1787355527

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The Responsibility of Intellectuals by Nicholas Allott,Chris Knight,Neilson Voyne Smith Pdf

With the publication of "The Responsibility of Intellectuals," Noam Chomsky burst onto the US political scene as a leading critic of the war in Vietnam. Privilege, he argues, brings with it the responsibility to tell the truth and expose lies, but our intellectual culture only pays lip service to this ideal. The essay has been described as the "single most influential piece of anti-war literature" of the Vietnam war period. Since then, Chomsky has continued to equip a growing international audience with the facts and arguments needed to understand--and change--our world. According to the New York Times, Chomsky "may be the most widely read American voice on foreign policy on the planet today." This book revisits "The Responsibility of Intellectuals" half a century later. It includes six new essays written to celebrate Chomsky's famous intervention and explore its relevance in today's world. Nicholas Allott, Chris Knight, Milan Rai, and Neil Smith have studied and written about Chomsky's thought for many years, while Craig Murray and Jackie Walker describe the personal price they have paid for speaking out. The book concludes with Chomsky's recollections of the background to the original publication of his essay, followed by extensive commentary from him on its fiftieth anniversary.

Author : P. Wilkin
Publisher : Springer
Page : 203 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 1997-04-30
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780230375048

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Noam Chomsky: On Power, Knowledge and Human Nature by P. Wilkin Pdf

Noam Chomsky is among the most influential contemporary thinkers. Peter Wilkin looks in particular at the philosophical basis of his social and political thought, especially his ideal about power, knowledge and human nature. He shows how Chomsky's ideas can help to defend naturalism as in social and political thought. Chomsky's critical writings of social inquiry and his normative ideas on libertarian socialism and human emancipation are interpreted as synthesising a number of important ideas and approaches at a time when these ideas have fallen out of favour.

Author : Edward W. Said
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 145 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2012-10-24
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 9780307829627

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Representations of the Intellectual by Edward W. Said Pdf

In these six essays--delivered on the BBC as the prestigious Reith Lectures--Edward Said addresses the ways in which the intellectual can best serve society in the light of a heavily compromised media and of special interest groups who are protected at the cost of larger community concerns. Said suggests a recasting of the intellectual's vision to resist the lures of power, money, and specialization. In these pieces, Said eloquently illustrates his arguments by drawing on such writers as Antonio Gramsci, Jean-Paul Sartre, Regis Debray, Julien Benda, and Theodore Adorno, and by discussing current events and celebrated figures in the world of science and politics: Robert Oppenheimer, Henry Kissinger, Dan Quayle, Vietnam and the Gulf War. Said sees the modern intellectual as an editor, journalist, academic, or political adviser--in other words, a highly specialized professional--who has moved from a position of independence to an alliance with powerful corporate, institutional, or governmental organizations. He concludes that it is the exile-immigrant, the expatriate, and the amateur who must uphold the traditional role of the intellectual as the voice of integrity and courage, able to speak out against those in power.

Author : Thomas Sowell
Publisher : Basic Books
Page : 600 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2012-03-06
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780465031108

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Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell Pdf

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.

Author : Alan M. Wald
Publisher : Humanity Books
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 1995-11
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1573924334

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The Responsibility of Intellectuals by Alan M. Wald Pdf

This collection brings together many of Alan M. Wald's most influential and original essays. They provide a richly provocative inquiry into the antinomies of cultural radicalism and are characterized by Wald's blend of meticulous research and lucid, incisive theory.

Author : Julien Benda,Roger Kimball
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 130 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2017-09-08
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781351298582

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The Treason of the Intellectuals by Julien Benda,Roger Kimball Pdf

Julien Benda's classic study of 1920s Europe resonates today. The "treason of the intellectuals" is a phrase that evokes much but is inherently ambiguous. The book bearing this title is well known but little understood. This edition is introduced by Roger Kimball. From the time of the pre-Socratics, intellectuals were a breed apart. They were non-materialistic knowledge-seekers who believed in a universal humanism and represented a cornerstone of civilized society. According to Benda, this all began to change in the early twentieth century. In Europe in the 1920s, intellectuals began abandoning their attachment to traditional philosophical and scholarly ideals, and instead glorified particularisms and moral relativism. The "treason" of which Benda writes is the betrayal by the intellectuals of their unique vocation. He criticizes European intellectuals for allowing political commitment to insinuate itself into their understanding of the intellectual vocation, ushering the world into "the age of the intellectual organization of political hatreds." From the savage flowering of ethnic and religious hatreds in the Middle East and throughout Europe today to the mendacious demand for political correctness and multiculturalism on college campuses everywhere in the West, the treason of the intellectuals continues to play out its unedifying drama.

Author : Tony Judt
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2008-11-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780226414201

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The Burden of Responsibility by Tony Judt Pdf

Using the lives of the three outstanding French intellectuals of the twentieth century, renowned historian Tony Judt offers a unique look at how intellectuals can ignore political pressures and demonstrate a heroic commitment to personal integrity and moral responsibility unfettered by the difficult political exigencies of their time. Through the prism of the lives of Leon Blum, Albert Camus, and Raymond Aron, Judt examines pivotal issues in the history of contemporary French society—antisemitism and the dilemma of Jewish identity, political and moral idealism in public life, the Marxist moment in French thought, the traumas of decolonization, the disaffection of the intelligentsia, and the insidious quarrels rending Right and Left. Judt focuses particularly on Blum's leadership of the Popular Front and his stern defiance of the Vichy governments, on Camus's part in the Resistance and Algerian War, and on Aron's cultural commentary and opposition to the facile acceptance by many French intellectuals of communism's utopian promise. Severely maligned by powerful critics and rivals, each of these exemplary figures stood fast in their principles and eventually won some measure of personal and public redemption. Judt constructs a compelling portrait of modern French intellectual life and politics. He challenges the conventional account of the role of intellectuals precisely because they mattered in France, because they could shape public opinion and influence policy. In Blum, Camus, and Aron, Judt finds three very different men who did not simply play the role, but evinced a courage and a responsibility in public life that far outshone their contemporaries. "An eloquent and instructive study of intellectual courage in the face of what the author persuasively describes as intellectual irresponsibility."—Richard Bernstein, New York Times

Author : Sebastian Veg
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2019-04-23
Category : History
ISBN : 9780231549400

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Minjian by Sebastian Veg Pdf

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.

Author : Noam Chomsky
Publisher : New Press/ORIM
Page : 529 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2011-05-10
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781595585660

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The Essential Chomsky by Noam Chomsky Pdf

The seminal writings of America’s leading philosopher, linguist, and political thinker—“the foremost gadfly of our national conscience” (The New York Times). For the past fifty years Noam Chomsky’s writings on politics and language have established him as a preeminent public intellectual as well as one of the most original political and social critics of our time. Among the seminal figures in linguistic theory over the past century, Chomsky has also secured a place among the most influential dissident voice in the United States. Chomsky’s many bestselling works—including Manufacturing Consent, Hegemony or Survival, Understanding Power, and Failed States—have served as essential touchstones for activists, scholars, and concerned citizens on subjects ranging from the media and intellectual freedom to human rights and war crimes. In particular, Chomsky’s scathing critique of the US wars in Vietnam, Central America, and the Middle East have furnished a widely accepted intellectual premise for antiwar movements for nearly four decades. The Essential Chomsky assembles the core of his most important writings, including excerpts from his most influential texts over the past half century. Here is an unprecedented, comprehensive overview of the thought that animates “one of the West’s most influential intellectuals in the cause of peace” (The Independent). “Chomsky ranks with Marx, Shakespeare, and the Bible as one of the ten most quoted sources in the humanities—and is the only writer among them still alive.” —The Guardian “Noam Chomsky is one of the most significant challengers of unjust power and delusions; he goes against every assumption about American altruism and humanitarianism.” —Edward Said “A rebel without a pause.” —Bono

Author : Bruce Macfarlane
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 177 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2013-07-03
Category : Education
ISBN : 9781136729553

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Intellectual Leadership in Higher Education by Bruce Macfarlane Pdf

"There is growing research and literature about Intellectual Leadership and management in higher education. However, there has been little consideration of the formal and informal leadership role of full professors. This group of individuals are key to the leadership of universities and they represent a group of individuals at the apex of their discipline or profession with considerable expertise across many elements of academic practice including research, teaching and service activities incorporating leadership and management roles. In this context, the role of professors as 'intellectual leaders' is under-theorised and higher education institutions make insufficient use of professors as an internal resource. This book tackles the question of what intellectual leadership actually is and analyses other question marks associated with the role of senior academics Intellectual Leadership in Higher Education provides a theoretical exploration of the meaning of intellectual leadership with particular reference to university professors and other senior academics. It draws on new international research data involving several hundred university professors in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa and also provides a series of practical ideas and recommendations for defining the role of a university professor more clearly. This careful analysis of academic roles will prove invaluable for all those working in Higher Education"-- Provided by publisher.

Author : Zhidong Hao
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 523 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2012-02-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780791487570

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Intellectuals at a Crossroads by Zhidong Hao Pdf

A survey of contemporary Chinese intellectuals.

Author : Paolo Euron
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 251 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2019-08-12
Category : Education
ISBN : 9789004409231

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Aesthetics, Theory and Interpretation of the Literary Work by Paolo Euron Pdf

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.

Author : Noam Chomsky
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 1971
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:1331535913

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American Power and the New Mandarins by Noam Chomsky Pdf

Author : Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2019-06-07
Category : History
ISBN : 9780812224344

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Thinking in Public by Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft Pdf

Long before we began to speak of "public intellectuals," the ideas of "the public" and "the intellectual" raised consternation among many European philosophers and political theorists. Thinking in Public examines the ambivalence these linked ideas provoked in the generation of European Jewish thinkers born around 1900. By comparing the lives and works of Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Levinas, and Leo Strauss, who grew up in the wake of the Dreyfus Affair and studied with the philosopher—and sometime National Socialist—Martin Heidegger, Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft offers a strikingly new perspective on the relationship between philosophers and politics. Rather than celebrate or condemn the figure of the intellectual, Wurgaft argues that the stories we tell about intellectuals and their publics are useful barometers of our political hopes and fears. What ideas about philosophy itself, and about the public's capacity for reasoned discussion, are contained in these stories? And what work do we think philosophers and other thinkers can and should accomplish in the world beyond the classroom? The differences between Arendt, Levinas, and Strauss were great, but Wurgaft shows that all three came to believe that the question of the social role of the philosopher was the question of their century. The figure of the intellectual was not an ideal to be emulated but rather a provocation inviting these three thinkers to ask whether truth and politics could ever be harmonized, whether philosophy was a fundamentally worldly or unworldly practice.