The intellectual as a sociological category: a contribution to the reflection on a new theoretical approach

Abstract

The social sciences do not agree regarding the definition of the expression ?intellectual?. Proceeding from Bourdieu?s understanding of the idea of the intellectual as a free-floating, individual, emancipated from class and other social determinisms as an illusion that is accepted in some specialist circles as a professional definition of the intellectual, and from the fact that it is generally wrong to explore the social world according to esencialist categories and concepts, this article aims to demonstrate that it is necessary to conceptualize the notion of the intellectual in a spatial and relational way. Additionally, by relying on the historical, French use of the term intellectual at the time of the Dreyfus Affair, and recognizing Gramsci?s conception that an intellectual is not a member of an independent social group and is not distinguished from other citizens by the character of his or hers intellectual work and values, as well as Bauman?s position that (self) definitions cannot be neutral or socially indifferent, we argue in our article for an ?empirical approach?. Such an approach leads us to reject the thesis of the need to ?pre-define? the intellectual through his or hers substantive characteristics - which mainly results in the imposition of social, professional and value elements of an essentially prescriptive definition, which arbitrarily limits the choice of who is / is not a (true) intellectual. This is why we emphasize a reflection whose object would be to determine the boundaries of the intellectual field and a sociological reconstruction of the structuring of this field in which ideas are created and reproduced, but also contested and denied within it. Such a framework opens the space for the ?depersonalization?, i.e. the ?sociologization? of the intellectual, thus shifting the main focus from specific agents and their individual characteristics to the analysis of: 1. the intellectual field in which ideas are produced and agents take positions in relation to socially important political issues; 2. the waging of operational capitals that agents possess in the ?war of position? (Gramsci) for ?symbolic domination?.