Public intellectuals : a study of decline / Richard A. Posner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Posner, Richard A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political planning--United States.

Political planning.

Specialists.

United States.

Intellectuals--United States.

Intellectuals.

Specialists--United States.

Physical Description:

vi, 408 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2001.

Summary:

This is the first systematic analysis of the contemporary American public intellectual. A public intellectual is an individual who writes or speaks on issues of political or ideological moment, employing ideas but addressing a general, educated public. Socrates was the first public intellectual in the modern sense. His successors include Voltaire, John Stuart Mill, John Dewey, and George Orwell. But according to Richard Posner, the venerable institution of the public intellectual is in decline.

In recent years, the rapid growth of the media has led to an increasing number of highly visible forums for discussion, while greater academic specialization has yielded a proliferation of narrowly trained scholars. The intersection of these two trends has resulted in modern academics' writing and commenting on topics outside their ken. Compared with the commentary of earlier public intellectuals, most of whom were not academics and whose crudition and breadth of knowledge were well-suited to public discourse, the quality of today's punditry is degraded by narrow vision and the often instant demand for media-savvy "expertise."

Leveling a balanced attack on liberal and conservative pundits alike, Posner describes the styles and genres, the constraints and incentives, of public-intellectual activity. He identifies a market for public intellectuals, which has a structure with coherent patterns and conventions -- yet part of that structure turns out to be an absence of quality controls that one finds in other markets. As the book shows in rich detail, the public-intellectual scene is increasingly one of off-the-cuff pronouncements, erroneous predictions, and ignorant policy proposals. The book concludes with modest proposals for improving the performance of the public-intellectual market by making academics more accountable for their forays into the public arena.

Contents:

Part 1 General Theoretical and Empirical Analysis

1 Setting the Stage 17

2 The Market for Public Intellectuals 41

3 Care and Insight 83

4 Prediction and Influence 128

5 More Public, Less Intellectual 167

Part 2 Genre Studies

6 The Literary Critic as Public Intellectual 223

7 Political Satire 247

8 The Jeremiah School 281

9 The Public Philosopher 320

10 The Public Intellectual and the Law 359

Conclusion: Improving the Market 387.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

067400633X

OCLC:

47099311