Intellectuele autonomie

Samenvatting

Intellectual Autonomy. It is argued that, although intellectuals no longer enjoy special status, they still manifest a special quality not seen in postmodernism or constructivist secularism. Proceeding from Pierre Bourdieu's field theory of science and notion of the "invisible hand" role of intellectuals presented in "The Peculiar History of Scientific Reasons", attention is focused on his seemingly disenchanted view of intellectual autonomy critically reinterpreted in a minimally normative and thus performative direction. His "real politics" of reason should be replaced by an ethical politics of knowledge, sewing the good and bad sides of intellectual professionalism more closely together than traditional ethics of knowledge would find comfortable. 48 References.