[00:05.80]2006

[00:08.42]Is it true that the American intellectual is rejected

[00:11.64]and considered of no account in his society?

[00:15.26]I am going to suggest that it is not true.

[00:18.61]Father Bruckberger told part of the story when he observed

[00:22.44]that it is the intellectuals who have rejected America.

[00:26.37]But they have done more than that.

[00:28.49]They have grown dissatisfied with the role of the intellectual.

[00:32.22]It is they, not America,

[00:34.25]who have become anti-intellectual.

[00:36.76]First, the object of our study pleads for definition.

[00:40.59]What is an intellectual?

[00:42.81](1)

[00:45.02]who has elected as his primary duty

[00:47.24]and pleasure in life the activity of thinking

[00:50.00]in a Socratic (苏格拉底的) way about moral problems.>

[00:53.53]He explores such problems consciously, articulately,

[00:56.76]and frankly, first by asking factual questions,

[01:00.38]then by asking moral questions,

[01:03.01]finally by suggesting action

[01:05.23]which seems appropriate in the light of the factual

[01:08.35]and moral information which he has obtained.

[01:11.61](2)

[01:14.74]who must accept the obligation of revealing

[01:17.39]in as obvious a manner as possible

[01:19.99]the course of reasoning which led him to his decision.>

[01:23.62]This definition excludes many individuals

[01:26.46]usually referred to as intellectuals

[01:28.97]--the average scientist, for one.

[01:31.29](3)

[01:33.40]while his accomplishments may contribute

[01:35.53]to the solution of moral problems,

[01:37.64]he has not been charged with the task

[01:40.17]of approaching any but the factual aspects

[01:42.98]of those problems.>

[01:44.81]Like other human beings,

[01:46.43]he encounters moral issues even

[01:48.45]in the every-day performance of his routine duties

[01:51.67]--he is not supposed to cook his experiments,

[01:54.19]manufacture evidence, or doctor his reports.

[01:57.42](4)

[02:00.07]about the moral code which governs his activity,

[02:03.29]any more than a businessman

[02:04.91]is expected to dedicate his energies

[02:07.23]to an exploration of rules of conduct in business.>

[02:11.06]During most of his waking life

[02:12.68]he will take his code for granted,

[02:15.01]as the businessman takes his ethics.

[02:17.72]The definition also excludes the majority of teachers,

[02:21.65]despite the fact that teaching

[02:23.26]has traditionally been the method

[02:24.98]whereby many intellectuals earn their living.

[02:27.80](5)

[02:29.41]and more than earn their salaries,

[02:31.43]but most of them make little

[02:32.94]or no independent reflections on human problems

[02:35.97]which involve moral judgment.>

[02:38.18]This description even fits the majority

[02:40.26]of eminent scholars.

[02:42.07]Being learned in some branch

[02:43.69]of human knowledge is one thing;

[02:45.49]living in "public and illustrious thoughts,"

[02:47.82]as Emerson would say, is something else.