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Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain is a 2006 book written by Stefan Collini and published by Oxford University Press.
Collini's focus is upon the relative absence of the public intellectual from the long-term tradition of British culture (over the course of around 100 years), in contrast to another culture such as the French or 19th-century Russia (though as Collini himself notes, these comparisons are often highly questionable, with an outside perception of French intellectualism being countered by many French people looking at the situation from their own viewpoint).
At the beginning Collini asserts clearly that the concept of intellectualism is in itself enormously complex, and that any word such as that contains a multiplicity of meanings depending on what set of signifiers it is connected to. In this sense he explores the roots of the term itself, tracing them to their evolution into the English language from its origins in French in the nineteenth century and beyond. [1]
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the meanings with which the term is associated relates to the question of the value judgments applied as a corollary of them. The work explores the notion of the repudiation of the very concept of public intellectualism by certain key figures who might in fact be seen as exemplars of intellectualism such as T. S. Eliot, G. M. Trevelyan, Bertrand Russell, R. G. Collingwood, George Orwell, A. J. P. Taylor, and A. J. Ayer. Collini refers to this as a "paradox of denial" and analyses why such a situation should have arisen in the first place. In part, again, this has its roots in history: one aspect of the British antipathy to the overly abstract or theoretical is the patrimony of the French Revolution which was seen by many across the English Channel as being a phenomenon which was too abstract (driven by a discourse of the Rights of Man, for instance) in a way which led to a suspect gulf between rhetoric and reality. [2] Orwell in particular might be seen as the apogee of the curious mixture of intellectualism and anti-intellectualism that has been a hallmark of some of the greatest thinkers in British culture; people who are attracted to the realm of ideas and work well within it but at the same time are suspicious of abstract thinking that is not rooted in the empirical and the everyday.
The book ends on an arguably optimistic note, asserting that despite the prevalence of celebrity culture and certain forms of superficiality in public life and discourse, there remains an urgent need (and possible supply) of public intellectualism, noting that there is a role for "issues of common interest [that are] considered in ways that are... more reflective or more analytical, better informed or better expressed". [3]
Overall it is argued that intellectualism is likely to be an important force in public life in the 21st century, though in British and Anglophone culture it might not always be referred to with such an appellation.
The Age of Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that occurred in Europe in the 17th and the 18th centuries. The Enlightenment, which valued knowledge gained through rationalism and empiricism, was concerned with a range of social ideas and political ideals such as natural law, liberty, and progress, toleration and fraternity, constitutional government, and the formal separation of church and state.
Intellectual history is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual history is that ideas do not develop in isolation from the thinkers who conceptualize and apply those ideas; thus the intellectual historian studies ideas in two contexts: (i) as abstract propositions for critical application; and (ii) in concrete terms of culture, life, and history.
Matthew Arnold was an English poet and cultural critic. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator. He has been characterised as a sage writer, a type of writer who chastises and instructs the reader on contemporary social issues. He was also an inspector of schools for thirty-five years, and supported the concept of state-regulated secondary education.
Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte was a French philosopher, mathematician and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term. Comte's ideas were also fundamental to the development of sociology, with him inventing the very term and treating the discipline as the crowning achievement of the sciences.
An ideograph or virtue word is a word frequently used in political discourse that uses an abstract concept to develop support for political positions. Such words are usually terms that do not have a clear definition but are used to give the impression of a clear meaning. An ideograph in rhetoric often exists as a building block or simply one term or short phrase that summarizes the orientation or attitude of an ideology. Such examples notably include <liberty>, <freedom>, <democracy> and <rights>. Rhetorical critics use chevrons or angle brackets (<>) to mark off ideographs.
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or as a mediator, the intellectual participates in politics, either to defend a concrete proposition or to denounce an injustice, usually by either rejecting, producing or extending an ideology, and by defending a system of values.
"The Two Cultures" is the first part of an influential 1959 Rede Lecture by British scientist and novelist C. P. Snow, which was published in book form as The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution the same year. Its thesis was that science and the humanities, which represented "the intellectual life of the whole of western society", had become split into "two cultures" and that this division was a major handicap to both in solving the world's problems.
In rhetoric, a glittering generality or glowing generality is an emotionally appealing phrase so closely associated with highly-valued concepts and beliefs that it carries conviction without supporting information or reason. Such highly valued concepts attract general approval and acclaim. Their appeal is to emotions such as love of country and home, and desire for peace, freedom, glory, and honor. They ask for approval without examination of the reason. They are typically used in propaganda posters/advertisements and used by propagandists and politicians. Often they are catchphrases or slogans.
Ethos is a Greek word meaning 'character' that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology; and the balance between caution and passion. The Greeks also used this word to refer to the power of music to influence emotions, behaviors, and even morals. Early Greek stories of Orpheus exhibit this idea in a compelling way. The word's use in rhetoric is closely based on the Greek terminology used by Aristotle in his concept of the three artistic proofs or modes of persuasion alongside pathos and logos. It gives credit to the speaker, or the speaker is taking credit.
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985) is a book by educator Neil Postman. It has been translated into eight languages and sold some 200,000 copies worldwide. In 2005, Postman's son Andrew reissued the book in a 20th anniversary edition.
Memoria was the term for aspects involving memory in Western classical rhetoric. The word is Latin, and can be translated as "memory".
John Carey is a British literary critic, and post-retirement (2002) emeritus Merton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford. He is known for his anti-elitist views on high culture, as expounded in several books. He has twice chaired the Booker Prize committee, in 1982 and 2003, and chaired the judging panel for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005.
Polemic was a British "Magazine of Philosophy, Psychology, and Aesthetics" published between 1945 and 1947, which aimed to be a general or non-specialist intellectual periodical.
Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. The field started to emerge in the 1960s, as scholars from previously colonized countries began publishing on the lingering effects of colonialism, developing a critical theory analysis of the history, culture, literature, and discourse of imperial power.
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds the exclusive rights, anyone can legally use or reference those works without permission.
Michael Patrick Lynch is Provost Professor of the Humanities and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut. From 2014-2023 he was also the director of the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. As director of the Humanities Institute, he headed a Templeton-funded project on humility and conviction in public life.
'Notes on Nationalism' is an essay completed in May 1945 by George Orwell and published in the first issue of the British magazine Polemic in October 1945. Political theorist Gregory Claeys has described it as a key source for understanding Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Criticism of postmodernism is intellectually diverse, reflecting various critical attitudes toward postmodernity, postmodern philosophy, postmodern art, and postmodern architecture. Postmodernism is generally defined by an attitude of skepticism, irony, or rejection towards what it describes as the grand narratives and ideologies associated with modernism, especially those associated with Enlightenment rationality. Thus, while common targets of postmodern criticism include universalist ideas of objective reality, morality, truth, human nature, reason, science, language, and social progress, critics of postmodernism often defend such concepts.
Stefan Collini is an English literary critic and academic who is Emeritus Professor of English Literature and Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge and an Emeritus Fellow of Clare Hall. He has contributed essays to such publications as The Times Literary Supplement, The Nation and the London Review of Books. He attended St Joseph's College in Beulah Hill, south London, and received his undergraduate BA degree and PhD at Jesus College, Cambridge, as well as completing a master's degree at Yale University.
The Orwell Foundation is a charity registered in England and Wales, the aim of which is "to perpetuate the achievements of the British writer George Orwell (1903–1950)". The Foundation runs the Orwell Prize, the UK's most prestigious prize for political writing. In addition to the Prizes, the Orwell Foundation also runs free public events, debates and lectures and provides free online resources by and about Orwell. Since 2014, they have also run "Unreported Britain". The Orwell Youth Prize, a separate charity, work with young people aged 12–18 around the UK. The Orwell Youth Prize organises writing workshops for young people and runs a writing prize, culminating in an annual Celebration Day. The foundation is based at University College London, and is a registered charity no. 1161563.