· 2020· Book chapter
Selections from the prison notebooks
- 9,794citations
- 2020year
Short summary
This abstract argues that the common distinction between 'intellectuals' and 'non-intellectuals' is based on the immediate social function and weighting of professional activity, not a strict dichotomy.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- The 'intellectual' vs. 'non-intellectual' distinction is based on professional function, not inherent quality.
- Varying degrees of intellectual activity exist even within professions claiming to be intellectual.
- Intellectuals serve as 'deputies' for dominant groups, executing functions of social hegemony and governance.
- The organization of social hegemony involves a division of labor and hierarchy of qualifications.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
When one distinguishes between intellectuals and non intellectuals, one is referring in reality only to the immediate social function of the professional category of the intellectuals, that is, one has in mind the direction in which their specific professional activity is weighted, whether towards intellectual elaboration or towards muscular-nervous effort. But even the relationship between efforts of intellectual-cerebral elaboration and muscular-nervous effort is not always the same, so there are varying degrees of specific intellectual activity. Therefore journalists, who claim to be men of letters, philosophers, artists, also regard themselves as 'true' intellectuals. The intellectuals are the dominant group's 'deputies' exercising the subaltern functions of social hegemony and political government. The function of organizing social hegemony and state domination certainly gives rise to a particular division of labour and therefore to a whole hierarchy of qualifications in some of which there is not apparent attribution of directive or organisational functions.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source., 2020 · DOI ↗
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Field: Sociology and Political Science
Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences