Lewis S. Feuer: The Scholar as Intellectual

• Published in: Society (New Brunswick) Vol. 50; no. 4; pp. 339 - 344
• Main Author: Whitfield, Stephen J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer-Verlag 01.08.2013; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Academic Disciplines; Alienation; Anti Intellectualism; Anti-imperialism; Careers; Congressional committees; Feuer, Lewis S; Feuer, Louis; History of ideas; History of Sociology; Hostility; Ideologies; Ideology; Intellectual History; Intellectuals; Knowledge; Novels; Philosophy; Political Science; Politics; Positivism; Power; Psychological Needs; Science; Social Problems; Social Sciences; Social theory; Sociology; Symposium: The Legacy of Lewis S. Feuer; Teaching; U.S.A; United States of America; Utopianism; Arthur O. Lovejoy; Positivism; Utopianism; Ideology; Intellectuals; Karl Marx; Anti-intellectualism
• DOI: 10.1007/s12115-013-9667-8
• ISSN: 0147-2011

The career of Lewis S. Feuer spanned several disciplines—Philosophy, Sociology, Politics, and History (especially the History of Ideas); his books and articles covered several centuries, and were devoted primarily to exposing the emotional undercurrents that animated the thought of intellectuals. Feuer tended to be highly suspicious of intellectuals, because they were susceptible to the allure of ideologies, which masked a dangerous will to power. His greatest achievement was to connect the contours of political and social thought to the drives of persons and to the context of institutions; his greatest limitation was to miss, at least in the United States, the deeper problem of popular hostility to science and to knowledge itself.