I thought last week’s class discussion was quite thought provoking. We brought up many interesting questions surrounding how to define an intellectual and their position in society. A great deal of attention was given to “decontextualized ideas.” When I originally read this I kind of glossed over it. After our discussion I realized that it is an important role that intellectuals devote their livelihood to. The decontextualized ideas that intellectuals are primarily focused on are true regardless of context and the situation. In my political theory class we discussed the difference between “we hold these truths to be self-evident” vs “these truths are self-evident.” This got me thinking about the decontextualized ideas from our class. I was thinking that even though the ideas are true regardless of context, could truths differ between societies. Thomas Jefferson specifically used the word “we”, which makes me wonder if intellectuals from different cultures discover the same truths. Can people from different cultures agree upon the same ideas?
This leads me to our discussion on truth being a sacred object. I think that intellectuals of different cultures, but the same religion, would hold the sacred object to hold the same truth. These sacred objects are separate from and elevated the mundane. They are of singular importance and power. I thought that it was fascinating to think about truth in this way. Prior I thought that truth can be discovered and redefined. Although this is how intellectuals work, they give the truth more power than I have regarded the truth to have.
I am interested to see how the Truth can be connected to the institutions that intellectuals designed, which is part of the focus of this week’s readings. Looking forward to the class discussion this week, as I found it interesting that the two readings conflicted with how intellectuals should rule. In the Ersatz Religion reading it is believed that an intellectual would not make for a good ruler as when creating their idealistic society they suppress an essential element of reality to construct this image. However, in thesis 11, intellectuals should make for good rulers. This is because Gouldner believes that in the New World those who govern should be those who possess superior competence, wisdom and science. Those who have these three characteristics are intellectuals themselves, thus making the argument that they should be the rulers.