| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The present special issue aims to raise questions about intellectuals, those members of society who are typically expected to engage in fruitful questioning of social mores.
A key contribution of 18th-century Enlightenment thought to modern culture was the special status associated with a university degree. The mode of thinking which corresponds to this development is still prevalent today. A university alumna holding a degree in the humanities-and, historically beginning at a somewhat later date, also one holding a degree in the social sciences-automatically achieves the halo of a gatekeeper in our society. Yet at the same time, in our era, political violence also draws considerable support from influential intellectuals. Intellectuals in the last three centuries have in different ways expressed their support for political violence, even identifying with it ideologically and emotionally. Intellectuals have even provided the perpetrators of violence with a legitimacy of sorts at different junctures, while the perpetrators of violence themselves have in turn cited humanistic values to advance their perverted worldviews and to obtain a grounding for them.
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