Dilemma of the Intellectual

During the eighteenth century there appeared in the culture of the West a new type which today is publicly acknowledged as “the intellectual.” Most likely he arose in response to another new phenomenon, to which we now refer as public opinion. His characteristic function is intellectual brokerage, and therefore some would distinguish him from the original thinker, the scholar, and the expert. It is his part to stand midway between these and the general public which is destined to receive their ideas in some form. His identifying Îift is a superior articulateness, and e operates chiefly as a higher-grade publicist, who makes it his job to present in the right light the findings of more creative or profounder minds.

I regret that I cannot give even a sampling of the many fine apercus to be found in the sixty-eight different portraits. Space permits only the broaching of two or three questions that insistently appear in many of them.

RW

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Richard M. Weaver

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During the eighteenth century there appeared in the culture of the West a new type which today is publicly acknowledged as “the intellectual.” Most likely he arose in response to another new phenomenon, to which we now refer as public opinion. His characteristic function is intellectual brokerage, and therefore some would distinguish him from the original thinker, the scholar, and the expert. It is his part to stand midway between these and the general public which is destined to receive their ideas in some form. His identifying Îift is a superior articulateness, and e operates chiefly as a higher-grade publicist, who makes it his job to present in the right light the findings of more creative or profounder minds.

I regret that I cannot give even a sampling of the many fine apercus to be found in the sixty-eight different portraits. Space permits only the broaching of two or three questions that insistently appear in many of them.