Role of Intellectuals

Intellectuals – what should they do?

      Imagine a man who has his car broken. What should he do then? One may say that he should change all devastated pieces into the new ones. But many others may do not agree with it – they may postulate to buy a new car. So what is the best way to solve this problem? Let this example be a background for further considerations. That man’s dilemma may be appropriate to the topic which will emerge in this essay. But let me start from the beginning.
      The first part of this paper, we define the term “intellectual”. Who is it? How can we describe such a person? What features are characteristic for an intellectual? What scratch should man come up to be recognized as an intellectual? Then we must think about the consequences of being an intellectual. Does he have a special role to play in the society? If yes – how does this role look like and why is it special one? What should an intellectual do exactly?
      When all these answers will be known, the main problem of this essay will emerge. We will meet that man with broken car again. He will be very useful for explaining and developing the thesis of this paper. We are going to argue, that intellectuals should not get to the society or social system as a whole, but rather to ordinary people, to the individuals who live in this society.

      Who is an intellectual? It will not be exaggeration if we say that there is as many definitions as many intellectuals exist. Each of them has his own conception. Cultural approach tells us, that these are the people, who behave in some specific way. This behaviour includes for example reading books, writing essays, etc. According to Marxists, intellectuals are those, who produce cultural, non – material goods. Communists’ definition of intellectuals concerns people with high education, people with diplomas (this social strata is often called intelligentsia, especially in post – communist countries). Another interesting conception is...