Mommy, what's an intellectual?

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>  >>> furuhashi.1 at osu.edu 07/09/01 04:14PM >>>
>>>"Suggests" is incorrect.  If one constructs a meaningful
>>>category of intellectuals, perforce there must as well be a
>>>non-empty category of non- or unintellectuals, who presumably
>>>do not do or cannot do the things intellectuals do.  But what
>>>do intellectuals do that other kinds of people don't do?
>>
>>Oh, puleeze. Intellectuals read, write, and interpret difficult
>>abstract concepts in disciplines requiring special training and long
>>study. Most people read, write, and interpret something or other,
>>but that no more makes them intellectuals than the fact that I
>>occassionally knowck together a few shelves makes me a carpenter.
>>The fact that my sister, a journeyman carpenter, reads a book or
>>writes an email now and then doesn't make her an intellectual; she
>>would bew as helpless placed in front of Rawls or Adorno as I would
>>be if you told me to hang a door. I am not saying that one is better
>>than other. Carpentry is also a discipline requiring study and
>>training, which I aint got. Btw, most professors and professionals
>>are not intellectuals, if that is supposed to mean persons of wide
>>culture. Most philosophy, law, and political science profs I know
>>(to take the disciplines I knnow best) are narrow technicians. --jks
>
>It boils down to questions concerning the division of labor.  I think
>the division of labor is here to stay even if we get around to
>establishing socialism, though that is a thought unacceptable to some
>LBO-talkers.
>
>((((((((
>
>CB: I agree a division of labor there must continue to be. But does 
>the division between predominantly mental and predominantly physical 
>labor , and its gradations have to be the divide ?

Even under capitalism it seems to me that differences in social power 
among the working class are not necessarily rooted in the divide 
between mental and physical.  Compare secretaries, journalists, etc. 
with plumbers, carpenters, & others in skilled trades that demand a 
lot of physical labor.

Yoshie