The Sociology of Intellectuals: After ’The Existentialist Moment’

204 Pages·2017·5.497 MB·English

by  Simon Susen, Patrick Baert

OF INTELLECTUALS
After
‘The Existentialist Moment’
Simon Susen and
Patrick Baert
The Sociology of Intellectuals
‘It takes about two full intellectual generations (that is, two-thirds of a century)
to establish who has an enduring reputation. Patrick Baert’s The Existentialist
Moment displays the insight that comes with sufficient distance from the factions
of the time and their immediate followers downstream. Jean-Paul Sartre can now
be seen as the “public intellectual” par excellence—a concept that did not exist
when Sartre broke out of a narrow Parisian circle into world-wide prominence at
the end of the Second World War. This high-level debate between Simon Susen
and Patrick Baert deepens the significance of social discontinuities in generating
public intellectuals and, in addition, casts in perspective the conditions fostering
the repudiation of public intellectuals today.’
—Randall Collins, Professor of Sociology Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, USA
‘Focused on the theoretical model deployed in Patrick Baert’s superb book on
Jean-Paul Sartre, this splendid little volume opens up crucial issues for the lively
and growing field of the sociology of intellectual production and reception.
Together with Baert’s very substantial work on intellectual life in the UK, Japan
and elsewhere, and Simon Susen’s masterly studies of Jürgen Habermas, Pierre
Bourdieu, Luc Boltanski and postmodernism, it constitutes a major contribution
to the field.’
—William Outhwaite, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Newcastle University, UK
Simon Susen · Patrick Baert
The Sociology of
Intellectuals
After ‘The Existentialist Moment’
Simon Susen Patrick Baert
Department of Sociology Department of Sociology
City, University of London University of Cambridge
London, UK Cambridge, UK
ISBN 978-3-319-61209-6 ISBN 978-3-319-61210-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-61210-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017947178
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C
ontents
Introduction: Key Issues in the Sociology of Intellectuals vii
Simon Susen and Patrick Baert
1 Reflections on Patrick Baert’s The Existentialist Moment:
The Rise of Sartre as a Public Intellectual 1
Simon Susen
2 The Existentialist Moment Defended:
A Reply to Simon Susen 123
Patrick Baert
Index of Names 147
Index of Subjects 155
v
I :
ntroduCtIon
K I
ey ssues
s I
In the oCIology of ntelleCtuals
Simon Susen and Patrick Baert
Abstract This chapter offers some preliminary reflections on Simon
Susen and Patrick Baert’s The Sociology of Intellectuals: After ‘The
Existentialist Moment’ (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). The
chapter emphasizes three principal objectives of this book: first, to
explore a new set of conceptual and methodological tools for the
sociology of intellectuals (theoretical level); second, to assess how the
phenomenon of the public intellectual has altered since the beginning
of the twentieth century (historical level); and, third, to examine the
extent to which intellectuals can play a constructive role in influencing
social and political developments in the modern era (normative level).
The chapter goes on to give a brief overview of both the structure and
the contents of the book. Finally, the chapter explains why, in light of
recent social and political transformations, the challenge of providing
a theoretical framework for the sociological study of intellectuals has
become particularly pressing.
Keywords Baert · Intellectuals · Public intellectuals · Sartre · Sociology of
intellectuals · Susen
This book seeks to provide a cutting-edge account of key issues in the
sociology of intellectuals. To this end, it centres on Patrick Baert’s
latest contribution to this field of inquiry: The Existentialist Moment:
vii
viii S. SUSEN AND P. BAERT
The Rise of Sartre as a Public Intellectual (Cambridge: Polity Press,
2015). As shall be illustrated in the following critical exchange between
two contemporary social theorists, The Existentialist Moment has broken
new ground and yielded hitherto barely explored avenues for the socio-
logical study of intellectuals.
Broadly speaking, this book has three principal objectives:
• at the theoretical level, to explore a new set of conceptual and meth-
odological tools for the sociology of intellectuals;
• at the historical level, to assess how the phenomenon of the public
intellectual has altered since the beginning of the twentieth century;
• at the normative level, to examine the extent to which intellectuals
can play a constructive role in influencing social and political devel-
opments in the modern era.
With the aim of shedding light on these three levels of investigation,
the book is divided into two chapters:
In Chap. 1, Simon Susen provides an in-depth review of The
Existentialist Moment, focusing on the theoretical dimensions underpin-
ning the analysis developed in this book. In the first part, Susen gives
a detailed, and largely sympathetic, overview of Baert’s approach, draw-
ing attention to its main conceptual and methodological contributions
to the sociological study of intellectuals. In the second part, Susen grap-
ples with the limitations and shortcomings of Baert’s approach, espe-
cially with respect to its plea for a paradigm shift from a ‘vocabulary of
intentions’ to a ‘vocabulary of effects’ in the sociology of intellectuals.
The chapter concludes with a brief reflection on the role that intellectuals
may play in shaping the development of society.
In Chap. 2, Baert offers a detailed reply to Susen’s review of The
Existentialist Moment. More specifically, Baert defends his proposal for a
positioning theory, arguing that it equips us with a powerful explanatory
framework for the sociological study of intellectuals. Even if the label ‘posi-
tioning theory’ may suggest otherwise, Baert’s version of this approach
constitutes a comprehensive research programme, rather than a merely theo-
retical endeavour. As such, it can be regarded as a way of conducting research
that pays close attention to the relationship between intellectual interventions
and the meanings that these interventions acquire within socio-political con-
texts. This type of inquiry, then, requires an in-depth understanding not only
of intellectuals but also of the broader milieu in which intellectuals operate.
INTRODUCTION: KEY ISSUES IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF INTELLECTUALS ix
The challenge of providing a theoretical framework for the sociologi-
cal study of intellectuals has become particularly pressing in light of con-
temporary social developments, two of which are crucial:
1. There are signs of an increasing polarization between ‘intellectu-
als’ and ‘non-intellectuals’. Here, ‘intellectuals’ are conceived of
as persons who, on a day-to-day basis, engage in different forms
of critical thinking, reflection, and analysis—and who do so in a
sustained, systematic, and habitualized fashion. Of course, the
category ‘intellectual’ is far from uncontroversial. It is commonly
assumed, however, that it includes academics and experts (nota-
bly, those working in the humanities and social sciences) as well
as writers, journalists, columnists, critics, and literati. Recent vot-
ing patterns and reactions to voting results in Europe and North
America (epitomized in two major political events, namely the
2016 UK referendum on EU membership and the 2016 US presi-
dential election) indicate the presence of a widening gulf—not
only between those who have benefited from higher education and
those who have not, but also between those who possess high-level
forms of epistemic expertise and those who do not. Differential
voting patterns seem to reveal a growing gap in aspirations, opin-
ions, and values, which are embedded in profound social divisions.
Among large parts of the population in ‘Western’ societies, there
has been mounting dissatisfaction with, and suspicion towards,
experts in general and expert-based knowledge claims in particular.
In the current socio-political climate, these are often discredited
as ‘partisan’, ‘biased’, ‘ideologically motivated’, and/or ‘discon-
nected from reality’.
2. Taking into account the polarization process between those who
operate in the intellectual realm and those who do not, the book
stresses the significance of a further trend: the new communica-
tion technologies available in the ‘digital age’ have made it possible
for many individuals to intervene in intellectual debates without
having to go through, let alone to rely upon, traditional gatekeep-
ers. This phenomenon—which manifests itself in numerous ways,
from self-publishing to blogging—has substantially eroded the
boundaries between ‘intellectual’ and ‘non-intellectual’ spheres.
At first glance, it appears that this trend—owing to its democratic,
x S. SUSEN AND P. BAERT
or at least democratizing, potential—contradicts the previous
point concerning the intensifying polarization between ‘intellectu-
als’ and ‘non-intellectuals’. As posited in this book, however, the
two aforementioned developments, while they are tension-laden,
are intimately interconnected: the new media generate discursive
echo chambers in which likeminded people reinforce, rather than
undermine, each other’s views. These echo chambers, together
with the widespread animosity and distrust towards experts, have
contributed to the rapid diffusion of dubious—or, in many cases,
blatantly false—assertions, which are now commonly captured
under the heading ‘post-truth’ and expressed in the provocative
contention that, in the early twenty-first century, we have entered
a ‘post-truth era’.
In addition to developing a sociological theory for studying i ntellectuals,
Baert’s The Existentialist Moment explores ‘the Sartre p henomenon’—that is,
the sudden rise to prominence of Jean-Paul Sartre, arguably the twentieth-
century public intellectual par excellence. Sartre emerged as a public intellec-
tual in the mid-1940s. The set of social, cultural, and political constellations
in which Sartre rose to fame might appear alien to the current situation, as
depicted above. It is possible, however, to identify several noteworthy simi-
larities between these two historical settings.
At the end of the Second World War, there was a similar gulf
between ‘intellectuals’ and ‘non-intellectuals’: the differences in edu-
cational opportunities and resources were considerable. Comparable
to the current context, with this juxtaposition came opposing aspira-
tions, opinions, and values. It was only in the course of the 1950s and
1960s that the French higher education sector expanded and became
socially more inclusive (although, to be clear, it continued to be based
on powerful exclusionary mechanisms, reflecting the stratified con-
stitution of the society in which it was embedded). Moreover, in the
mid-1940s, the French intellectual establishment had lost its position
of incontestable symbolic authority, and new writers managed to gain
power vis-à-vis their publishers. (Both phenomena are explained in The
Existentialist Moment.) In sum, Sartre’s rise took place during a period
that was marked by a high degree of discontinuity and rapid social
transformation.
INTRODUCTION: KEY ISSUES IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF INTELLECTUALS xi
The following critical exchange between Baert and Susen focuses on
the development of positioning theory in relation to the sociological
study of intellectuals. The starting point of this conversation (and, for
that matter, of The Existentialist Moment) is the assumption that large
parts of the already existing literature on intellectuals suffer from an
under-theorization syndrome—that is, from the failure to contribute to a
sociological understanding of intellectuals that is not only methodologi-
cally rigorous and empirically substantiated, but also conceptually sophis-
ticated. Indeed, as elucidated in subsequent chapters as well as in Baert’s
book on Sartre, some intellectual historians and intellectual biographers
are openly hostile to the idea of employing theoretical frameworks for
the study of intellectuals, let alone for the explanation of their status and
role in society. Baert and Susen share the conviction that, in the area of
investigation concerned with intellectuals, this relative lack of engage-
ment with theoretical analysis needs to be rectified. More specifically,
both of them believe (albeit, admittedly, with varying degrees of enthusi-
asm) that positioning theory may offer a way forward on this front. If, as
maintained by Baert and Susen, both the status and the role of intellec-
tuals have changed considerably in recent decades, it is the task of critical
sociologists to provide explanatory frameworks capable of accounting for
the chief causes underlying this shift. This book is an attempt to take on
this challenging task.