Curious and Courageous: The Intellectual as an Activist

Edward Said provides compelling Representations of the Intellectual in his work of the same name. Within the text Said begins by presenting a goal, perhaps a criteria, for the intellectual: “The attempt to hold to a universal and single standard as a theme plays an important role in my account of the intellectual” (xiii). Said continues with his “characterizations of the intellectual” (xvi), providing a second criteria, “the intellectual tries to speak truth to power” (xvi). With this Said challenges the would-be intellectual with an underlying principle—universality—to ensure honesty and consistency in order to appeal to “as wide a public as possible” (xiii), and a simple, yet frightening, obligation—to confront authority—“to question patriotic nationalism, corporate thinking, and a sense of class, racial or gender privilege” (xiii). It is this duel responsibility, as both a thinker and as an activist, that defines the role of the intellectual, alone neither serves the individual or the community. Knowledge without action—to know but not act—and it’s opposite, action without knowledge—to act without understanding—not only hinders progress, but jeopardizes what has been achieved. The Intellectual must be both the curious investigator and the courageous instigator.

Subject for Essay: Exile or Truth?

I’ve been thinking a lot about my first writing assignment for Seminar, and was initially thinking about Edward Said’s role of the exile. I was wondering if the exile can still exist considering todays open communities. One of Said’s observations was that the exiled individual is removed from both the physical and metaphysical world. Most obvious is the physical exile, in that they can be physically removed, for example, from an organization and no longer able to attend functions, or from a country, unable to participate in government/society.

Experimentation vs. Observation

We are reviewing a variety of abstracts for my Models of Critical Inquiry course. The objective is to assess the abstracts and try to identify various research tools/methods that may have been used; assumptions the authors may have made; initial motivation for the research, case study, article; questions the authors may have asked; data collection and assessment techniques; and even other possible approaches.

The Intellectual as an Exile

I am very interested in Said’s ideas around the exile. Looking at the quote, provided, “Insiders promote special interests, but intellectuals should be the ones to question patriotic nationalism, corporate thinking, and a sense of class, racial or gender privilege,” I am drawn to the result of this questioning: exile. Both Said and Du Bois provide accounts of those who have questioned accepted practices, resulting in exile–often from not only the groups they would hae expected, but those with whom they may have felt a closer relationship to. I am think of Du Bois account of the John.

In my paper I would like to explore if, considering todays gloabal connectivity, one can actually be an exile. That is, can a group shut out those that desent? And, can those who desent actaully affect a group who shuns them?

Seminar: First Essay, “What is an Intellectual?”

Well we have our first assignment: an essay of 2000 words (approximately eight double-spaced pages; please keep your paper as close to 2000 words as possible) that engages issues from DuBois, Said, and possibly Pratt.

Discuss the following quotation from Said’s introduction:

One task of the intellectual is the effort to break down the stereotypes and reductive categories that are so limiting to human thought and communication… .Insiders promote special interests, but intellectuals should be the ones to question patriotic nationalism, corporate thinking, and a sense of class, racial or gender privilege. (xi-xiii)

Explore similarities and differences between the authors, and analyze each author in terms of his/her historical and cultural context.

Open Ideologies

In response to the first assignment in Seminars’ module 1, to discuss our readings, I was drawn to two of the instructors questions; “What ideologies lie behind the notion that an intellectual must be ‘set apart’ or separate from the public he/she serves?” and; “Is it possible to be a universal intellectual?” These two questions, particularly the ideas of “ideology” and “universality,” started me thinking about the fundamental attributes, traits, or standards, that might exist within not only an intellectual, but intellectualism.

In addition, my own personal interests were in play. I have been, within my professional role, asking my colleagues to take on greater responsibilities, not specifically in day to day operations or tasks, but intellectually. I have asked, “do we do the things we do because we know them to be the best way to achieve our goals, or do we do them because this is the way that we have always done them?” That is, how truthful are we?

With these in mind, a universal standard and truth, I wrote…

Seminar: Module 1

After the orientation, the semester started on September 1st. With the course now available I logged into the Learning Management System (LMS) to begin work. The course is divided up into “Modules,” each providing specific assignments, e.g. readings, discussions, papers, etc. all, I presume, relating to a specific learning objective.

Seminar in Liberal Studies

Before formally beginning the program, all of the students in our cohort met for an orientation. The meeting was a great opportunity to get to meet some of the other students as well as hear about their interests that led them to enroll in the program. As an ice breaker, our instructor assigned us a brief reading, Mary Louise Pratt’s essay, “Arts of the Contact Zone,” and asked us each to prepare about a page and a half of written response for discussion and sharing at orientation.