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Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone?: Confronting 21st Century Philistinism Hardcover – 15 Sept. 2004

by Frank Furedi (Author)

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The Intellectual is an endangered species. In place of such figures as Bertrand Russell, Raymond Williams or Hannah Arendt - people with genuine learning, breadth of vision and a concern for public issues - we now have only facile pundits, think-tank apologists, and spin doctors. In the age of the knowledge economy, we have somehow managed to combine the widest ever participation in higher education with the most dumbed-down of cultures. In this urgent and passionate book, Frank Furedi explains the essential contribution of intellectuals both to culture and to democracy - and why we need to recreate a public sphere in which intellectuals and the general public can talk to each other again.

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ISBN-10

0826467695
ISBN-13

978-0826467690
Edition

First Hardback Edition
Publisher

Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
Publication date

15 Sept. 2004
Language

English
Dimensions

13.34 x 1.27 x 20.32 cm
Print length

176 pages
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Product description

About the Author

Frank Furedi is reader in Sociology at the University of Kent. His previous books include Culture of Fear (Continuum), Paranoid Parenting (Penguin) and Therapy Culture (Routledge).

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.; First Hardback Edition (15 Sept. 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0826467695
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0826467690
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.34 x 1.27 x 20.32 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 133,922 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 136 in Academic Philosophy
- 6,280 in Education Studies

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Peter Kellow

Scope Of Book Much Wider Than The Title Suggests

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 November 2007

Great book. Just one point. The title is wrong for the book is much much wider that a discussion of the demise of intellectuals.

It is about also the whole matter of dumbing down the culture. If it only discussed the subject of the title this would be a good and refreshing read. The bigger scope makes it even more interesting.

It is a feelgood read in the way you can sit there quitely nodding and getting quietly steamed up as again and again Frank Furedi nails what is wrong with the way our culture is going.

5 people found this helpful

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Paul Bowes

Intelligent discussion of the diminished role of intellectuals in contemporary society

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 August 2012

This is an intelligent discussion of the problem of the vanishing intellectual. Furedi examines the nature and role of the intellectual and asks why intellectuals do not currently enjoy their historic status and influence.

Rather than lay the blame on a single factor, he explores the political, social and educational ecology that permitted the intellectual to flourish, and finds evidence to suggest that the diminished status of the intellectual is a symptom of wider problems - the instrumentalising of learning, the pathologising of difficulty and the valuing of 'inclusion' over educational achievement - that amount to an officially-endorsed culture of philistinism. Academics, politicians of right and left, educators, the business community and a section of the contemporary intellectual elite itself all come in for criticism.

Furedi's approach is balanced and his argument is persuasive. In spite of the book's brevity (150 pages of text) there is some repetition; and by the end some readers may feel that the ostensible focus on the intellectual has become rather blurred as Furedi pursues bigger game. But in the nearly ten years since the book appeared, at least some of what Furedi had to say here has become far less contentious than it was on first appearance.

This is the first edition of the book. A second edition added a chapter in which Furedi responded to some of his critics; but this is inessential. There is a useful bibliography for anybody interested in recent (to 2003) writing on the subject of the intellectual in society.

5 people found this helpful

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M. T. Chelmowski

Somewhat haphazard, well researched but...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 September 2006

Nearly everybody realizes that there's something wrong with today's education, culture and intellectual discourse. We all feel it, some of us can pinpoint a few areas where the problems are particularly visible and others are able to point out the reasons and origins of this decline. Frank Furedi attempts to describe the major themes of progressing philistinism and give answers as to the reasons. The specific themes discussed are; declining political engagement, devaluation of authority through an unbridled inflation of so-called 'prior learning', relativisation of culture, the decline of education levels at universities and other learning institutions and an ever more fading distinction between learning and studying. The scope is wide but Furedi manages to describe all of this concisely and clearly. Some of the discussions seem a bit haphazard. He doesn't conclude all of the relevant issues within one of the discussed themes before diving into another theme only to come back to his original theme a few pages later. This is a result of his wish to tie all of the discussed themes together but it doesn't make for the neatest of reads. The book is, however, extremely well researched and backed with a good amount of relevant background bibliography.

As to the actual content I have personally observed many of the processes that Furedi describes in his book over the last few years. I therefore found myself in agreement with most of his arguments. The book expressed a lot of the feelings that I wasn't up till now able to word. At the same time I felt a little bit uneasy about the reasons that moved Furedi to write the book. Reading it, it becomes obvious that he suffers from a serious left-leaning progressive bias. It is most clear in his dismissal of conservative intellectual discourse and his attempts to somehow define intellectual progress as an exclusive achievement of post-Enlightenment progressives. His bias is thankfully not to much of a niusance but it did lead me to think that the catalyst to wirte this book was not his genuine concern with the progress of philistinism but rather a concern that his ideological cronies might be somehow blamed for the sorry state of affairs and that the progressive-ideology may become tainted and discredited unless 'it' quickly does something to chage things.

All in all a good book that addresses genuine concerns. I did remove a star for the dubious ideological reasons that possibly led to its writing.

6 people found this helpful

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Mr. Christopher C. Arning

Good but why no Gramsci

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 November 2009

Interesting read but thought his account of why intellectuals matter could have been stronger with reference to Antonio Gramsci's notion of the 'organic' intellectual as a producer of culture versus the apparatchik or narrow technocrat bereft of critical opinions. I also think George Walden's New Elites written in 2001 was better on dumbing down and philistinism and the effects on UK population.

2 people found this helpful

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Peter Bolton

An important antidote to our time's intellectual malaise

Reviewed in the United States on 18 November 2019

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Ever been in a discussion with something who has said something like, "all opinions are equally valid"? As Frank Furedi explains in this engaging and accessible work, this kind of thinking has been engineered by trends taking place within the academe that devalues objective truth, places "inclusiveness" over rigor, and insists that pushpin is as good as poetry. These anti-intellectual contours seem to have spread so far and wide that it seems as if there can't possibly be an antidote. And indeed there isn't, though this book at least skilfully presents and analyzes the problem and proposes a few steps toward the beginning of some modest amelioration. Highly recommended.

One person found this helpful

Kindle Customer

The Necessary Theory for Explanation Already Exists

Reviewed in the United States on 26 June 2010

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A few authors have had an effect on the public mind that far outweighs their formal recognition. One of these is Karl Marx; another relevant here is Thorstein Veblen. Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class is an almost perfect explanation for the very valid observations that Furedi describes about the demise of intellectuality. Whether or not you approve of Veblen's conclusions, you can see his theory at work in Furedi's description of the condescension the privileged currently show for the "common people." While Furedi may be accurate in his characterization of the privileged as simply trying to maintain their status, Veblen shows that this is their only recourse. The privileged did not make this world, nor can the current holders of that status be held completely responsible for existing conditions. Veblen shows how it all came about, whether we like it or not. To a certain extent, Furedi's critics are correct in accusing him of wannabe elitism.

Both of these authors offer us an alternative: either we can keep it like it is, or we can change it. Unfortunately, changing it may be as long a project as that of getting us where we are.

8 people found this helpful

Jan Dockx

some content is worth the read

Reviewed in the United States on 9 May 2013

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There is a basis of something important here, surely in the content of the first half of the book.
Qua style, there is something left to be desired. The book is full of repetition, and arguments are incomplete and not completely sound. The focus is much more on conveying "the point" then on demonstrating it.

Sadly, there isn't any hint of a possible alternative in the book. After the observation that the current situation and evolution has issues, there is no formulation of what to do about it, nor even a picture of a better situation. Deconstruction fostered relativism and undermined modernism and positivism. In essence, rightly so. But now we have a giant overshoot, and eventually even rationalism suffered. Ok. Now how do we reinstate that in society, where there indeed are absolutes, and how do we cope where there are only relatives, without getting stuck in nihilism? How do we reinstate Knowledge, and reset its position relative (where earlier it was sometimes indeed wrongly absolute) to Opinion? This is not addressed in this book in any way.

One person found this helpful

Mellow60s

You may be surprised.

Reviewed in the United States on 18 January 2009

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For me, this was a challenging read. What most concerns the author is too easily dismissed or missed in our thinking about art, literature, discourse, politics and even technology. It was difficult for me to keep from agreeing with the points of view of those the author uses to illustrate his belief that the Philistines have taken over the work of the mind and its value for its own sake. You, too, may be surprised by the pathways you find yourself following as the author explores where the intellectuals have gone. I enjoyed it, and recommend it.

4 people found this helpful

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Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone?: Confronting 21st Century Philistinism Hardcover – 15 Sept. 2004

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