Intellectual Power in Europe

Abstract

In this chapter, the author argues that the increasing complexity of European societies accentuates the need for a discourse that unites specialists—mathematicians, engineers, humanists—and the public. European societies are constantly haunted by the fragmentation of knowledge relating to political and social life. This can be seen in the decline in political participation as well as the discontent with globalization and resistance to social reforms. These phenomena are related to the status of intellectuals as producers of public discourse. The author concentrates on two socio-cultural aspects that influence the transformation of the role of intellectuals, a substantial aspect, the question of intellectual culture, and a formal one, that of the public sphere as the space in which actual political debates take place.