The Sociology of Intellectual Life: The Career of the Mind in and Around Academy (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society)

193 Pages·2009·1.54 MB·English

by  Steve Fuller

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The Sociology of Intellectual Life
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‘Steve Fuller is an academic and a public intellectual. In this powerful h F
and polemical book he addresses the contemporary problem that confronts
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so rare a beast: the absence of a public … Academics, he argues, must take
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up the role of “educated thinking in public” if they are to inform social S l
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action. What he means is that they have to act to create a new public.
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The cost of inaction will not only be the death of the university but of
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intellectual life. This responsibility should weigh like a nightmare on the o
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, dull brains of academics in the 21st century.’ l
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With characteristic subtlety and verve, Steve Fuller deals directly t
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with a world in which it is no longer taken for granted that
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universities and academics are the best places and people to l
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embody the life of the mind. While Fuller defends academic
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privilege, he takes very seriously the historic divergences between
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• an account of the problematic relationship between i
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postmodernism and the university as an institution e
• the problems facing an academic who wishes also to function
as an intellectual
• a critical survey of the emerging fields of social epistemology
and the sociology of philosophy
• a discussion of the ethics and politics of public intellectual life,
especially given its largely improvisational character. The Sociology of
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Steve Fuller is Professor of Sociology at Warwick University.
ISBN: 978-1-4129-2839-7
9 781412 928397
Cover image © Yadid Levy | Alamy | Cover design by Wendy Scott
fuller_sociology_aw.indd 1 14/7/09 15:29:35
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The Sociology of Intellectual Life
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Theory, Culture & Society
Theory, Culture & Society caters for the resurgence of interest in culture
within contemporary social science and the humanities. Building on the
heritage of classical social theory,the book series examines ways in which
thistraditionhasbeenreshapedbyanewgenerationoftheorists.Italsopub-
lishestheoretically informed analyses of everyday life,popular culture,and
new intellectual movements.
EDITOR:Mike Featherstone,NottinghamTrent University
SERIESEDITORIALBOARD
Roy Boyne,University of Durham
Nicholas Gane,University ofYork
Scott Lash,Goldsmiths College,University of London
Roland Robertson,University ofAberdeen
CouzeVenn, NottinghamTrent University
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Recent volumes include:
Informalization:Manners and Emotions Since 1890
CasWouters
The Culture of Speed:The Coming of Immediacy
JomTomlinson
TheDressedSociety:Clothing,theBodyandSomeMeaningsoftheWorld
Peter Corrigan
Advertising in Modern and PostmodernTimes
Pamela Odih
The Saturated Society:Regulating Lifestyles in Consumer Capitalism
Pekka Sulkunen
Globalization and Football:A Critical Sociology
Richard Giulianotti & Roland Roberton
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The Sociology of Intellectual Life
The Career of the Mind in and
around the Academy
Steve Fuller
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©SteveFuller2009
Firstpublished2009
PublishedinassociationwithTheory,Culture&Society,
NottinghamTrentUniversity
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Contents
Introduction 1
1 The Place of Intellectual Life:The University 3
The University as an Institutional Solution to the Problem
of Knowledge 3
TheAlienability of Knowledge in Our So-called
Knowledge Society 5
The Knowledge Society as Capitalism of theThird Order 12
Will the University Survive the Era of Knowledge Management? 15
Postmodernism as anAnti-university Movement 19
Regaining the University’s Critical Edge by Historicizing the
Curriculum 27
AffirmativeAction as a Strategy for Redressing the Balance
Between Research andTeaching 31
Academics RediscoverTheir Soul:The Rebirth of
‘Academic Freedom’ 36
2 The Stuff of Intellectual Life:Philosophy 43
Epistemology as‘AlwaysAlready’ Social Epistemology 43
From Social Epistemology to the Sociology of Philosophy:
The Codification of Professional Prejudices? 51
Interlude:Seeds of anAlternative Sociology of Philosophy 59
Prolegomena to a Critical Sociology ofTwentieth-century
Anglophone Philosophy 62
Analytic Philosophy’sAmbivalenceToward the
Empirical Sciences 68
Professionalism as DifferentiatingAmerican and
British Philosophy 73
Conclusion:Anglophone Philosophy as aVictim of Its
Own Success 78
3 The People of Intellectual Life:Intellectuals 83
Can Intellectuals Survive if theAcademy Is a
No-fool Zone? 83
How Intellectuals Became an Endangered Species in
OurTimes:TheTrail of Psychologism 91
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TheSociologyofIntellectualLife
AGenealogyofAnti-intellectualism:FromInvisibleHandto
SocialContagion 99
Re-defining the Intellectual as anAgent of Distributive Justice 106
The Critique of Intellectuals in aTime of Pragmatist
Captivity 113
PierreBourdieu:TheAcademicSociologistasPublic Intellectual 135
4 The Improvisational Nature of Intellectual Life 143
Academics Caught Between Plagiarism and Bullshit 143
Bullshit:A DiseaseWhose Cure IsAlwaysWorse 147
The Scientific Method as a Search for the (Piled) Higher
(and Deeper) Bullshit 155
Conclusion:How to Improvize on theWorld-historic Stage 158
Summary of theArgument 164
References 167
Index 175
vi
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Introduction
Thismaybethemost self-exemplifying ofmybooks todate:thestrandsof
thought and writing drawn together in these pages stem from my participa-
tion in the very roles,capacities and arenas that they examine.Their overall
effecthasledtometoconcludethatanedifyinglifemaybeledbybecoming
the sort of person one writes about with favour. It amounts to a kind of
methodactinginwhichtheauthorfunctionsasbothauthorandperformer
ofthescript.Thus,notonlydoIneedtothankprofessionalacademics–Stefan
Gattei, Ivor Goodson, Alan Haworth, Ian Jarvie, Ouyang Kang, Douglas
Kellner,GregorMcClennan,HugoMendes,TomOsborne,RaphaelSassower
and Nico Stehr – for prompting my thinking in many useful directions,but
also such decidedly extra-academic personalities and media represented by
JulianBaggini(ThePhilosopher’sMagazine),GeorgeReisch(OpenCourtPress’s
PopularCultureandPhilosophyseries),ProjectSyndicate(aworldwidepress
organizationassociatedwithGeorgeSoros’sOpenSocietyInstitute)andThe
TimesHigherEducation(London).
The Sociology of Intellectual Life is divided into four chapters guided by
my own version of social epistemology. ‘Social epistemology’ is an inter-
disciplinary field concerned with the empirical and normative bases for
producing and distributing knowledge.My own version has focused largely
on the organized forms of knowledge associated with academic disciplines.
Thesocialepistemologicalthesispursuedinthisbookcanbestatedinaway
thatmakessenseofthearrangementofthefourchapters.Historicallyspeaking,
a specific institution has best promoted a form of intellectual freedom that
has managed to serve as a vehicle for the progressive transformation of
society.Thatinstitutionistheuniversity,especiallyinitsnineteenth-century
reincarnationastheseatof‘academicfreedom’,astheorizedby‘philosophy’,
understoodasboththefoundationandtheultimateunifierofallspecialized
forms of knowledge. This idea was largely the invention of Wilhelm von
Humboldt, who saw himself as applying the lessons of Immanuel Kant’s
criticalphilosophy,whichformalizedmanyaspectsofthepreviouscentury’s
Enlightenmentmovement.Humboldtenvisagedthatasincreasingnumbers
ofpeoplereceivedauniversityeducation,theywouldbecomeintellectually
empowered, so as to take decisions of public import for themselves in
democraticforums.Thus,thisbookhasthreemainchapters,eachdevotedto
apartofHumboldt’soriginalvision:onetotheuniversity,onetophilosophy,
onetotheintellectual.
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TheSociologyofIntellectualLife
However, Humboldt’s vision did not go quite to plan in many respects.
Overthepast200yearsacademiclifehasbecomeavictimofitsownsuccess.
Ithastrainedpeoplesowellanditsresearchhasbecomesosociallyrelevant
that it has constantly had to resist economic and political curbs on its spirit
of free inquiry.This resistance has often assumed the sort of studied anti-
disciplinary stance that characterizes improvisational forms of expression –
that unholy alliance of plagiarism and bullshit by which clever academics
routinelyoverreachforthetruth.Hopefullyoncereadershaveconsideredthe
stormy‘career of the mind in and out of the academy’ in the main body of
thetext,Chapter4willprovidecomicrelief,ifnotanoutrightcatharsis.
2
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1
The Place of Intellectual Life
The University
TheUniversityasanInstitutionalSolutiontotheProblemofKnowledge
AtleastsinceDescartes,theproblemofknowledgehasbeenposedinside
out,thatisasaproblemforeachindividualtosolvebyapproximatingan
external standard to which the individual may or may not have con-
scious access. There is no sense that epistemic access may be a scarce
good,withoneindividual’saccesstoknowledgeperhapsimpeding,com-
peting with, or making demands on the epistemic access of some other
individual. Rather, knowledge is regarded as what welfare economists
call a public good, namely, one whose value does not diminish as access
increases (Samuelson 1969). In contrast, my own version of social epis-
temology poses the problem of knowledge outside in,that is,in terms of
theindividualhavingtochoosebetweentwoormorealternativecourses
ofaction,infullawarenessthatresourcesarelimitedandthatotherindi-
viduals will be simultaneously making similar decisions, the conse-
quences of which will realize certain possibilities at the expense of
others. I have called this the problem of epistemic justice (Fuller 2007a:
24–9).Itimpliesanimageoftheknowerasa‘boundedrationalist’engaged
in‘knowledge management’.This line of thought has run throughout my
work in social epistemology, even in my doctoral dissertation (Fuller
1985) and certainly from Fuller (1988) onward. It presupposes that
knowledge is a positional good (Hirsch 1977).This point has significant
implications both for the interpretation of the time-honoured equation
‘knowledge is power’ and the design of knowledge-bearing institutions,
especially universities.
Intheslogan‘knowledgeispower’(or‘savoirestpouvoir’or‘Wissensist
Kraft’),powerinvolvesboththeexpansionandcontractionofpossibilities
for action. Knowledge is supposed to expand the knower’s possibilities
foractionbycontractingthepossibleactionsofothers.These‘others’may
range from fellow knowers to non-knowing natural and artificial entities.
This broad understanding of the slogan encompasses the interests of all
who have embraced it, including Plato, Bacon, Comte and Foucault. But
differences arise over the normative spin given to the slogan: should the
stress be placed on the opening or the closing of possibilities for action? If
theformer,thentherangeofknowersislikelytoberestricted;ifthelatter,