/429/ Reading Club: Treason of the Intellectuals (sample)

On Julien Benda's famous 1927 work.

[Patreon Exclusive]

We continue on the theme of 'Intellectuals and the Public' by discussing the often cited by little read The Treason of the Clerks. We ask:

• If Benda was responding to the intellectuals' role in the Dreyfus Affair and WWI, was he already a man out of his time?

• What are intellectuals' proper role in society? Can they be abstract universalist moralists?

• Benda laments the end of humanism – can we endorse this lament, even if things are too far gone now?

• Is Benda a centrist dad, urging us all not to get too passionate or engaged?

• How do Benda’s ideas related to Gramsci’s notion of the traditional versus the organic intellectual?

• If Benda was critical of the 'realism' of his day – as opposed to the detached ethics of pre-20th century intellectuals – how might we use Benda to critique the cynicism of today?

Readings:

• Treason of the Intellectuals, Mark Lilla, Tablet (from preface to new edition)

• The Treason of the Intellectuals, Niall Ferguson, The Free Press

• Julien Benda’s political Europe and the treason of intellectuals, Davide Caddedu

• Edward Said on imperialist hypocrisy on Kosova: The treason of the intellectuals, Green Left