Intellectuals and Social Transformation

Author: Tao Dongfeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: What is a intellectual? What is the social role and cultural function of intellectuals? How should intellectuals handle the relationship between academic research and political involvement, independence and public concern, specialization and publicity? These questions have become a prominent and highly debated topic in Western and Chinese academia at the turn of the century. In the West, on the one hand, some argue that in the current "knowledge economy society" (information society, high-tech society, etc.), intellectuals are emerging as an increasingly powerful social force, to the extent that they have become a new "class" (Goodnight). At the same time, many Western postmodernists assert that "intellectuals have died," replaced by various experts and technocrats. In China, there are also two opinions: some believe that in the era of social transformation and value anomie, intellectuals should play a more important role in social critique and moral consciousness than before; while others argue that in the postmodern context, intellectuals have lost and can no longer continue to fulfill the traditional role of enlightenment mentors, and the era of "post-intellectuals" has arrived. I believe that the reason for the surge in discussions about "intellectuals" is that the social, cultural, and intellectual spheres of the world today (whether in China or the West) have encountered severe modernity issues. Whether in the West or in China, the issue of the social role and function of intellectuals has always been closely linked to modernity issues. It can be said that the issue of intellectuals is a very typical modernity issue. Only in the context of modernity and postmodernity does the issue of intellectuals become a problem and attract strong attention. Thus, it is not surprising that nearly all scholars who focus on the issue of intellectuals are also studying modernity. This book includes articles such as: How do intellectuals imagine their identity—reflections on several definitions of the social role of intellectuals, post-totalitarianism and the political role of Eastern European intellectuals, and the populist politics and postmodern cynicism of Chinese intellectuals in the 1990s, etc.