This new book brings together three works that Finook had previously published in independent works between 1997 and 2017, before recovering them within an integrated vision that paints a broad historical painting that monitors the presence of writers and thinkers in public life, revealing the role of literature and philosophy in shaping intellectual, political and social debates over two centuries, posing the following question: What can a writer do in society, and what happens to his ideas when they enter the political arena?
The author interceptsHe traced the location of writers and thinkers in public life from the French Revolution until May 1968, highlighting their regularity in the crises of their times, and their role in crystallizing intellectual, political and social debates and influencing their paths. If the character of the "intellectual" was clearly crystallized with Émile Zola in the context of the Dreyfus case, when the Jewish officer was unjustly convicted of high treason in light of the rise of anti-Semitism in France, the roots of this character date back to the early 19th century, so that its transformations continue and its roles expand throughout the20th century. Since Chateaubriand, Madame du Style and Benjamin Constant, writing has been associated with the question of freedom and with confronting authoritarianism. These intellectuals as ideal models, he shows their contradictions and intellectual and political transformations, and the tension between the principles they defended and their personal interests and ambitions, as Constantin at different stages of his life took the positions of royalism, republicanism and Bonapartism, but he remained "despite the weaknesses in his character, sticking relentlessly to his liberal ideas," while Chateaubriand was constantly moving "on the two fronts of defenseof the principle of liberty, and at the same time fulfillment of the order of the Old Testament. "
In the end, then, the issue lies in the "disappearance of a certain model of intellectual," in exchange for the emergence of new forms of "public thinkers" distributed to universities, magazines, books, digital platforms and research institutions. Therefore, Finooke proceeded from the images of determining the place that the writer and thinker should occupy in the public sphere, and in how he should intervene in public issues while preserving his intellectual independence, away from dependence on ideology or dependencePerhaps it is the return to the independence of government, intellectual freedom, moral honesty, the ability to review the situation, and the willingness to confront reality even when it contradicts preconceptions that preserves the position of the intellectual who derives his value not from being infallible, but from his ability to admit the possibility of error and to resist the temptation that turns the idea into a closed doctrine.Thus, Finooke's book reveals that the "disappearance of the intellectual" reflects the decline of a historical model of attendance more than it means the disappearance of thought. Tools have changed, voices have multiplied, and knowledge has been distributed, while there remains a need for those who interpret events, contextualize them, and practice criticism and review. What is important is that the talk about the “death of the intellectual” does not turn into the death of the question, because societies remain in need of voices that give crises their concepts, and allow a deeper understanding of their contradictions.
