The ethics of the intellectual: Rereading Edward Said

Abstract

This article is a close reading of Edward Said’s image of the intellectual and offers a critique and restatement of that image. Said characterizes the intellectual in contrast to two other images: the political ideologue and the professional expert. The latter seeks knowledge and sees things as they are but does not see context. The former overlooks particulars, subsuming these within an ultimate context. Said attempts to situate the intellectual in the middle ground between the two. This article suggests that the intellectual so understood could be vulnerable to the same critiques Said applies to the expert and the ideologue.