Kspitz’s Weblog

January 15, 2008

What is a “public intellectual”?

                There is certainly no shortage of information on public intellectuals. One of the first sites to catch my eye was the PIPRA site. This stands for Public Intellectual Property Resources for Agriculture. Given my passion for gardening and all issues related to food sustainability, I thought, hmmmm, what is this?  A listing of farmland for sale?  A guide to the latest agricultural research? Well, sort of.

                After a bit of reading I surmised that PIPRA is an organization that helps connect public institutions like universities with private companies that own the patent rights to certain types of plant and/or animal genes. When a research team at a university (or even a private laboratory) wants to develop a better strain of corn or rice or perhaps even a healthier pig, the research is often halted due to the fact that the particular gene needed to continue is owned by company X and thus, you must get their permission (in other words pay a fee) before using the gene.

                        Well, this is not exactly the kind of public intellectual we are interested in for this class, so I will leave it at that. Besides, this website brings up the whole debate of whether or not life should even be patentable, which I strongly oppose, so we’ll move on. If you’re interested, here’s the link:

                www.pipra.org

                I also came across the blog of M. Frederick Voorhees, a guy who writes about education, patriotism, equality, politics, etc, etc.  Maybe I shouldn’t admit this, but I quickly lost interest in his site. He probably has some really interesting things to say, perhaps I just wasn’t in the mood. Here’s the link in case you are:

           http://publicintellectual.wordpress.com/

                I also came across the Australian Public Intellectual Network.   They seem to be a very busy group: The API Network was established in 1997 and for eight years to the end of 2004 was a scholarly imprint through the University of Queensland Press. Between 2001 and 2004 the operations were progressively transferred to Perth where the API Network through its imprint Network Books was established as a not-for-profit publisher of scholarly titles on Australia.            

http://www.api-network.com/main/index.php 

I then took the encyclopedia approach and simply used Wikipedia.  And, actually, it provided a very several different ways to interpret the term.  It also gave some history of how the term has come about. While Cynthia Ozick had referenced the older term of “thinker” to describe a public intellectual, Wikipedia uses “man of letters”. I personally kind of like the idea of becoming a “woman of letters” – simultaneously knowing my letters and how to use them to effectively communicate with others. I especially appreciated this description of a public intellectual from the Wikipedia entry: Public intellectuals are primarily concerned with ideas and knowledge. Their social role means that they must be responsive and reactive to societal issues and problems, providing a voice for others who may not have the skills, time or opportunity to do so. They should be prepared to listen to a multitude of differing opinions and beliefs, and to construct their own conclusions taking these into account. Intellectuals also involve themselves with issues not specifically related to their area of expertise. Thus, Bauman (1987: 2) states that intellectuals ‘rise above the partial preoccupation of one’s own profession [...] and engage with the global issues of truth, judgment and taste of the time’ (Furedi, 2004: 32). The ability to work within many different forms of media such as an Internet blog, a lecture or forum, radio, printed media i.e. newspapers and journals also widens their mass appeal and coverage so that they appeal to the most people possible.                                                       For me, this description fills the bill rather nicely, especially the part about providing a voice for others who may not have the skills or opportunity; engagement with global issues; and working within many different forms of media. For me this paints the picture of someone who is more than just smart. She/he   strives to be fair and non-judgmental while also showing concern for the larger community.    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual