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This book addresses the ways in which the figure of the intellectuals and their relationship to the public has been theorized through the conceptualizations of bureaucracy, democracy, and communism as universal processes from the 19th century to the present. Starting with Hegel and Marx, the author looks at the rise of the figure of the universal intellectual in various forms, before turning to what is presented as a transformation of the figure of the intellectual into 'the public intellectual' advanced by the New Philosophies and the critical response offered by Edward Said. The study presents two comparative case studies: the Iranian Revolution and the public intellectuals in Europe, specifically in Norway, before concluding with a focus on the decay of the figure of the intellectuals and highlighting Ranciere's critique of the intellectual/masses distinction.
List of contents
Chapter One: Introduction.- Chapter Two: Formation of the intellectual.- Chapter Three: True and False Universality.- Chapter Four: The Universal and the Specific Intellectual.- Chapter Five: Renovations of the Intellectual.- Chapter Six: Toward the New American Century.- Chapter Seven: The Intellectuals and the Last Revolution.- Chapter Eight: A Perfect Democracy and Its Intellectuals.- Chapter Nine: The Decay of the Intellectual.- Chapter Ten: Conclusion.
About the author
Yadullah Shahibzadeh is author of
The Iranian Political Language: From the late Nineteenth Century to the Present (2015) and
Islamism and Post-Islamism in Iran: An Intellectual History (2016). Previously, he taught at the University of Oslo, Norway.
