Intellectual Pursuits Toward an Understanding

This book is a venture in constructive clarification of several basic topics in current humanities and social science discourses that are badly muddled. The heart of the clarification is contained in Barber's definition of culture, derived from social system theory, that provides us with a better understanding of today's debate on intellectuals and the pursuit of science. Barber examines the ways in which intellectual culture is defined, the construction of ideologies and ideologists, and the structure of cultural sub-systems.

Bernard Barber is professor emeritus of sociology at Columbia University

Acknowledgments

x

(1)

Introduction

xi

1 What Is an Intellectual? A Brief Look at the Confusion

1

(22)

The Social Sciences and the Clarification of Terms

2

(2)

Some Limited Definitions and Defective Examples

4

(3)

An Avowed Intellectual on Intellectuals

7

(1)

On Black Intellectuals

8

(4)

Tony Fudt on French Intellectuals

12

(4)

Representations of the Intellectual

16

(7)

2 Culture and Intellectual Pursuits

23

(22)

Confusion about Culture in Sociology and the Humanities: The Case of "Cultural Studies"

24

(2)

The Concept of Culture in Social System Theory

26

(1)

"Action" as the Basic Stuff of Social Systems

26

(2)

Social Structure, Culture, and Personality in Social System Theory

28

(2)

The Functional Components of Social System Theory

30

(2)

Some Functional Components of Culture

32

(2)

Some Cultural Components Specified

34

(9)

Science

34

(2)

Social Science

36

(2)

Scholarship

38

(1)

Values

39

(1)

Ideology

40

(1)

Philosophy

41

(1)

Religion

42

(1)

Conclusion

43

(2)

3 Intellectuals as Ideologists

45

(32)

Ideology Defined as a Sociological Concept

45

(3)

The Emergence of Occupational Specialists in Ideology

48

(1)

How We Identify Ideologies

48

(3)

Ideology and the Rest of Culture

51

(1)

Ideological Change

52

(1)

No End to Ideology

53

(1)

Some Empirical Illustrations of the Activities of Ideologists and the Functions of Ideologies

54

(23)

A Biography of an Intellectual as Ideologist

54

(3)

An Example of an Ideology for a Whole Society: Newt Gingrich's To Renew America

57

(6)

Environmentalism: An Expanding Ideology

63

(4)

The Development of the Market Ideology

67

(5)

Making Everyday Ideologies

72

(5)

4 The Structure of Culture: The "High" and "Low" Problem and Intellectual Pursuits

77

(32)

The Structure of Culture

78

(1)

The Hierarchical Structure of Culture: The "High" and "Low" Problem

79

(4)

The Distribution of High and Low Culture and Some of Its Consequences

83

(2)

How "High" and "Low" Get Defined

85

(1)

The Functions and Limits of Peer Review

86

(1)

Peer Review and Expertise in the Courts

87

(3)

Alternatives to Peer Review: Power, Income, Class, Ideology

90

(1)

The Patron Problem

91

(1)

The Role of New Technology and Knowledge

91

(1)

From Low to High: The Case of Photography

92

(1)

From Low to High: The Case of Fazz

93

(6)

Struggling to Rise: The Case of Crafts

99

(2)

Is "Primitive" Art High or Low?

101

(2)

High-Middle-Low Communication and the Processes of Democracy

103

(1)

Does "Class" Determine High and Low Status?

104

(2)

Can We Trust the Cultural Experts? The Problem of Relativism

106

(1)

A Range, Not a Polarity: The Importance of Middle-Level Culture

107

(2)

5 Cultural Tension and Conflict in the Academy: Scholars and Scientists Versus Ideologists and Reformers

109

(30)

The Situation of the Modern University

110

(2)

Two Faces of the University

112

(1)

Science and Objective Scholarship in the Modern University

113

(2)

The Values and Ideologies of the Modern University

115

(3)

Rationality

116

(2)

Universalism/Equality

118

(1)

Some Examples of Cultural Conflict in the University and Elsewhere in Modern Society

118

(21)

The Two Cultures Redux

119

(3)

The Evolution of the Two Cultures Conflict: Gross and Levitt's Plaint and Complaint

122

(2)

Edinburgh Sociology of Science

124

(3)

Postmodernism in American Humanities and Social Science Departments

127

(2)

Feminism and Science

129

(1)

Beyond Gross and Levitt: The Sokal "Hoax"

130

(4)

Cultural Conflict Within a Discipline: The Case of Sociology

134

(5)

6 The Conceptual Clarifications Made in This Book and Why They Are Important

139

(4)

Index

143

(14)

About the Author

157

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Intellectual Pursuits Toward an Understanding of Culture

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

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