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Books

Where Have All The Intellectuals Gone? by Frank Furedi

Neil Richardson laments a surplus of generalities.

Professor Furedi’s pocket-sized book broadcasts his concern that a commitment to truth and excellence in thought – the role of the intellectual – is no longer considered important. Today the demands placed on the general public, tutors, and students, are restrained: we are not expected to provoke serious conversation, or read controversial texts. Society has been intellectually detuned by new conservative elites, with knowledge turned into a commodity more dependent on technique than on the application of the intellect. Intellectuals happily engaged as employees experience, “an instrumentalist approach to life” (p.42), whereby they have become simply a means to the increase of profits.

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