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The Growing Pains of Arab Intellectuals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Samir Khalaf
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Extract

As a social group intellectuals everywhere are almost always gripped by certain tensions and uncertainties. Some of these tensions are inherent in the universal role of intellectuals as creators and carriers of culture; others reflect the particular socio-economic and political milieu in which they live. Although, for instance, the American intellectual has been enjoying more power and status in society, he still must “avoid the twin temptations of total withdrawal and total integration.” As intellectuals are being increasingly absorbed and recognized by various parts of the American “establishment,” they seem haunted by the fear of selling out or losing part of their creative and critical role in society.

Conversely, total detachment or alienation may also be self-defeating. Likewise, some observers have found the English intellectual “gentlemanly, amateurish and unrigorous, too near the upper classes and to established power to exercise real independence of mind and creativity.” The French intellectual also appears to be plagued by the same paradox. “There is no country in the world where intellectuals have more influence, attract more attention, or enjoy more prestige than they do in France. But the relationship between French intellectuals and the society to which they belong is a paradoxical one.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 14 , Issue 54 , June 1966 , pp. 59 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © 1966 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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References

1 Both David Riesman and Seymour Lipset support the contention that intel lectuals in the U.S. have risen in power and status. See D. Riesman, " The Aca demic Career: Notes on Recruitment and Colleagueship," in Daedalus (Winter, 1959), pp. 152-57. S. Lipset, " American Intellectuals: Their Politics and Status, " in Daedalus (Summer, 1959), pp. 467-473.

2 Lewis Coser, "America's Intellectuals: The Twin Temptation," in New So ciety, January 14, 1965, No. 120, pp. 10-13.

3 Malcolm Bradbury, "Uncertainties of the British Intellectual," in New So ciety, December 24, 1964, No. 117, pp. 7-9.

4 Maurice Cranston, "Paradox of the French Intellectual," in New Society, January 7, 1965, No. 119, pp. 12-14.

5 Manfred Halpern, The Politics of Social Change in the Middle East and North Africa (Princeton, N. J., Princeton University Press, 1963), p. 52.

6 Raymond Aron, The Opium of the Intellectuals (N. Y., W. W. Norton & Co. Inc., 1957), p. 206.

7 Both R. Aron & J. Schumpeter justify such exclusion unless of course such practitioners talk or write about subjects outside of their professional competence which no doubt they do, especially lawyers. See, Aron, Ibid, p. 207; J. A. Schum peter, Capitalism, Socialism & Democracy (N. Y., Harper and Brothers, 1947), pp. 145-155.

8 Wilfred C. Smith, " The Intellectuals in the Modern Development of the Islamic World " in Social Forces in the Middle East, S. N. Fisher (Ed.) (N. Y., Cornell University Press, 1955), p. 196; see also, Halpern, op. cit., p. 19-22.

9 H. A. R. Gibb, Studies on the Civilization of Islam (Boston, Beacon Press, 1962), p. 216.

10 Wilfred C. Smith, op. cit., p. 201.

11 See Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1960), pp. 135-146.

12 Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays (London, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1951), p. 35.

13 Manfred Halpern, op. cit., p. 52.

14 W. Montgomery Watt, Islam and the Integration of Society (London, Rout ledge & Kegan Paul, 1961), p. 248.

15 H. Khatchadorian, "The Mask and the Face," in Middle East Forum, February 1961, p. 18.

16 Morroe Berger, Bureaucracy and Society in Modern Egypt (Princeton, N. J., Princeton University Press, 1957), p. 70.

17 As quoted by Colin Legum, "Africa's Intellectuals: The Thin Black Line," in New Society, December 31, 1964, No. 118, pp. 6-10.

18 Edward Shils, "Further Thoughts on Tradition and Modernity," in The Problems of Afro-Asian States, published by Encounter for the Congress for Cultural Freedom, 1961, p. 64.