intellect; intellectuals; religion; social classes; spiritual life
摘要
This article discusses the emergence of the concept of public intellectual as of March 2005. The idea of a 'public intellectual' has attracted a great deal of attention. The term 'intellectual' first appeared during nineteenth-century Russia. On the surface, it does not seem to have any antecedent in the Hindu, Buddhist, Judaic, Greek, Christian, or Islamic traditions. The Hindu quest for union of the real self with the cosmic reality, the Buddhist salvation as delivery from world attachments, the Jewish covenant with God as the source of all values, the Greek search for truth through the contemplative life of the mind, the Christian faith in the Lord in Heaven, as well as the Muslim devotion to Allah all presuppose the existence of a spiritual sanctuary essentially different from, if not diametrically opposed to, the world here and now. Not surprisingly, the intellectual is not the functional equivalent of the guru, monk, rabbi, philosopher, priest, or mullah. The minimum requirement for an intellectual--politically concerned, socially engaged, and culturally sensitive--is fundamentally at odds with a person passionately devoted to the service of a higher reality beyond the mundane concerns of the secular world.
