Intellectual - Public Intellectual Life

Public Intellectual Life

"Public intellectual" is a common term for an intellectual engaged in public rather than (or as well as) academic or other professional discourse.

Regardless of the field of expertise, as a public intellectual, one is addressing and responding to the problems of his or her society and thus such an individual is expected to "rise above the partial preoccupation of one’s own profession... and engage with the global issues of truth, judgement, and taste of the time." According to Edward Saïd however,

... real or 'true' intellectual is, therefore, always an outsider, living in self-imposed exile, and on the margins of society.

An intellectual is often associated with a particular ideology or philosophy, e.g., the Third Way centrism of Anthony Giddens in the Labour Government of Tony Blair. Václav Havel said that politics and intellectuals can be linked, but that responsibility for their ideas, even when advocated by a politician, remains with the intellectual. He said, "Therefore, it's best to avoid utopian intellectuals offering ‘universal insights’ that might, and have, harmed society, preferring instead that those intellectuals who are mindful of the ties created with their insights, words, and ideas should be... listened to with the greatest attention, regardless of whether they work as independent critics, holding up a much-needed mirror to politics and power, or are directly involved in politics."