Intellectual Pursuits: Toward an Understanding of Culture

This book is a venture in constructive clarification of several basic topics in current humanities and social science discourses that are badly muddled. The heart of the clarification is contained in Barber’s definition of culture, derived from social system theory, that provides us with a better understanding of today’s debate on intellectuals and the pursuit of science. Barber examines the ways in which intellectual culture is defined, the construction of ideologies and ideologists, and the structure of cultural sub-systems (high-middle-low). The book deftly interweaves these concepts to illuminate the present and historical situations of conflict in the universities and elsewhere. He distinguishes between those who emphasize the cultural norm of knowledge for its own sake, and those whose norms are primarily ideological and reformist. Intellectual Pursuits: Toward an Understanding of Culture will challenge both students and scholars to consider their own intellectual positions from both within, and without, the academy, and sharpens our perspectives on the role of intellectuals in society.