Public Intellectuals

I'm actually having a hard time coming up with who I consider to be the leading public intellectuals living today. The readings just seem to be further confusing me on what exactly a public intellectual is. When I hear public intellectual, I think of people from the past rather than the present. Machiavelli, Marx, Locke, and all those other intellectuals we read so much about. To me, people like Stephen Colbert, Bill Nye, and Muhammad Yunus. These are individuals that definitely direct their work toward the general public. They are very accessible and work hard to keep their work understandable.

Comments

  1. Stefany SiglerApril 8, 2017 at 12:15 PM

    Jackie, I couldn't agree more about the reading failing to explain what a public intellectual truly is. Since, I believe, a public intellectual has the responsibility of putting complex concepts into terms that the public can understand, it seems pretty ironic how little light the reading shed on this concept.

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