• Corpus ID: 59290397

Intellectual Activity in a Political Context

@inproceedings{Brunner2003IntellectualAI,
  title={Intellectual Activity in a Political Context},
  author={Karl M. Brunner},
  year={2003}
}

• K. Brunner
• Published 2003
• Sociology

Herman Hesse’s last book, The Glass Bead Game, explores an old dream. Intellectuals pursue their activities in some indefinite future protected and separated from the “world” engrossed with its narrow interests. Resources are somehow supplied to the vast establishments constituting the intellectual order. This social allocation occurs (miraculously) without exposure to the game of power and wealth associated with such decisions in the political process. Alas, this is not our world, and men will never experience it. The purity ofour intellectual efforts is forever endangered. They proceed in the context of social institutions interacting with an encompassing political process. Our intellectual life is forever exposed to the incentives characterizing the public arena. “Truth” may be the guiding principle of intellectual endeavors and cognitive truth the ultimate criterion directing scientific understanding. But cognitive pursuits and intellectual discussions never evolve in a social vacuum. They proceed in a context exposed to the appeals of power and wealth. The contamination probably rises with the proximity to the power game constituting the political process. Words and sentences are not necessarily used to inform, nor are they advanced to be assessed against critical observation. Power, wealth, and ideological commitments shape the use of language and the supply of words in the public arena.