Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • SHILS, Edward - Intellectuals Tradition The Traditions of Intellectuals

    Uploaded by

    Simone Fontes
    4 views7 pages
    SHILS,Edward.intellectuals Tradition the Traditions of Intellectuals

    Original Title

    SHILS,Edward.intellectuals Tradition the Traditions of Intellectuals

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    SHILS,Edward.intellectuals Tradition the Traditions of Intellectuals

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    4 views7 pages

    SHILS, Edward - Intellectuals Tradition The Traditions of Intellectuals

    Uploaded by

    Simone Fontes
    SHILS,Edward.intellectuals Tradition the Traditions of Intellectuals

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 7
    EDWARD SHILS Intellectuals, Tradition, and the Traditions of Tntellectwals: Some Picliminary Considerations directed simultaneously toward theie objects ‘ind toward intcliectial works, ‘The objects are as diverse ag the universe arid all its contents, Ostensibly, intellect works are about objects, in liek, they are about abjects perceived within frames set by works. In their relations to works, fatellectital activities may be: classified into productive, repre veeptive activities. The normally anticipated outcome of an inyellectual’s productive activity. is the publication of a coherent. con: ventionally self-contained intellectual work, printed or in manuscript, By self-definition, the process of intellectual procluction is incomplete without its culmination in an endl proclict which is a work. ‘The work itself becomes a work when it is presented ina conventionally complete form, when it takes a physical form capable of entering into the “possession” of others tint is, capable of being received, assessed, and acknowledged. ‘A work is an objectively existing pattern of symbnls of remote reference which record the “state of mind” of the producer, the “state of mind” might be cognitive, normative, analytical descriptive, or expressive—formative, and tary, of visual, [Lis not ordinaily, in itself, a link in a chain of empirical, ex eaitive action; in any case, when it, itis not that feature which constitutes ‘tas an intellectnal work. The remoteness of reference of the syinbals cass be remoteness through aetual-or impticd abstraction, or by distance in time or space. The veferents of the symbols may be the physical universe, unseen peivers, the earth, its contents and inhabitants, or socicty and particular men any level of abstraction and at any point in time, They might not have fav experiential referent. A work which consists of pattems of symbol. usually. has @ physical form or precipitate—manuseript or book or journal auticle oF painting or musical score or sculpture. Certain warks requiee enactment after reaching intellectual and then physieal form, for example rmsical and dramatic works. x A principle formulated and written down by « legal philosopher might be incorporated into the decision of a judge in a particular case; « general proposition regarding a property of a certain class of substance might be 21 Inmruuectuan activities ARD sittts Beusparated avin teehtiological action in the production of w pitieular pec of nachinery. Analyticaly the principle and the proposition ate distinct from, fhe judicial decision and the maker of machinery. ‘The former are intel Jectual works or parts of intellectual works; the lat oF ports of them i sequence of actions with practical inteations to maintain of modify. The dividing line between practical actions and iutellectual works Is hi. The constitution of the intellectual work is imdependent ofits inten Hon: a work intended to be “used oF “applied” is a work nonethcless, it ie not a pretical tion, Works fall into a variety of genres: in liteeature—novels, lyric poems ple poems, ballads, short stories, essays, and so omy ib sclence--treatises Teports on particular investigations (monographs and papers), reviews of eruture, ane so on, There are marginal forms of work which do not quite conespond with this definition. For exunplo, oral ainvtatives, “preprints,” wwarks cirelatel in mimeographed form, posthumous works, and suppressed warks which do not reach the stage: of printed presentation. ‘These are, however only variants around the norm of work completed and published hy. the author regardless of whether it i explicitly attached to his name. The taiaus divisions among works are defined very roughly by dlfferences in forms, techniques, and subject matters. Genres are defined by cornmon Forms And techniques: elds, disciplines, subficlls, and. specializations. distin Ruished from each other by their subject matter aid pracedutes. (The dvi. sions of genes and the divisions of elds are not coordinate.) Often, but ‘otalvays—aud inereasingly in modern times—the flelds ancl disciplines are associated with corresponding. institutional divisions and the specialization ‘af the persons who prnduee works in particular genres or elds use intellectual works I {ase who produce intcleetnal works are itelleetuals. Those who engage in their interpretation and transmission are intellectitals, These who teach annotate, or expound the contents of works are inteltéctuals, Those who only “eonstume,” for example, road intelloctual works in large quantities, and who concer themselves receptively with works are also intellectuals, Each of Bese fsa dilfercat intellectual activity and they coexist in the same persors Leuving combinations. Productive intellectuals are almost invaciahly recep. tive and reproductive intellectuals as well. Prictically all intellectiial works reprodce to soine extent other works—this is one of the eonslitutive ele, iments of any intellectual traditon,JObviously tere could not be reprod ton without reception. Receptive tntellectuals—the audicnce—netally produce the contents of works but they do not produce works: if they di they could become productive intellectuals, ‘The three intellectual firnetons eetexpond roughly (0 the threefold division of types of intellectuals: pron sluctive intellectuals, reprodtictive intellectuals, and consumer intellecteal, TRADITIONS OF SNTELLECEOALS 2 of bom are concerned wit intellectual works: For the anost part, in one ieedies of intellectials, we are concerned with productive und reprodivtiy Intellectuals it Aniy intellectual work is produced in the setting of an intellectuat teadh tion or teacltions, for example, a setting of families of previously prochied werks which serve as models or points of departure. Ab intellectual tealitign 55 a set or patter of beliefs, conceptions of form, sets of vesbal {aiid other Symbolic) usages, rules of procedure. recurrently: and wailateraliy eked Mik sack other through time. The linkage is an édenitly between two or ‘mete temporally sequential works, An intellectual tradition exists in a stock Gf warks ‘hich those who. partieipate inv the tradition “poses” that ‘somilate into their awn intellectual cultare/and to which they also velvoz Intellectual traditions are not necessarily continuous in. times Fietiods of recession in which a tradition is dormant ot latent. This state of [ieriey—nat extinction is made possible on the existence of dillerentinted ets of stocks’ of works which are handed dawn or made available to the Praductive, reproductive, and receptive intellectual through teachers, hie. foriaas, rites, and editors, aud through printed books, journals, and tama Seripts made available through Ubraries, bookshops, aud other distributive institutions {ntelleetual traditions are differentiated into the traditions of pasticular ences, felds, and disciplines. Each of these divisions of works hasa variety of traditions of its own, containing and referring to its proceduivs and ite Subjeet matters; each has its ows: monwinental works which embady some of he qualities the works andthe adherents of the traditions prize most highly: Gack hits its own monumental fguies, Theee are manifold relationships tn: cheding identities among these traditions, Trnditions becom differentiated intemally and often split up into separate and dlistiitive traditions; traditions dreviously separate and distinct sometimes are fused. ‘The traditions which neighbor on cach other sometimes fuse with cach other, at least the pasts ‘which are adjacent do so. Sometimes traditions which are semote fn ex Staniee and space from each other come together—at least wnilateralfy, N terms separate and distinct traditions very often share certain elements ith each other, These shated elements may be substantive or procedural elements, or they may be clements of the cthos of ifellectual setivity in Seneral or of a major fetd oF section of intellectual activity, ot ofa body of val culture, clitlons refer to and are eftcetive through individual works and a vague overtone or disposition which sas through amany works and. poseeses. a force ofits own,* Every taditint is characterired hy common patterns to be fourid im the works which constitite it and represent it ta its adherents, The here ext be 4 EDWARD SUULLS pattems of beliefs, foes, usages, and procedutes which refer to the sb: cls tha ace taken into ar dealt with in works we will call primary oy Substantive traditions ¥very work which appears inevitably has its point of departore iv an “existing wadition. Every. productive intellectual prodaces his work under he buduence of betiets, forms, usages, and the ethos of procedure and produc lion whieh he has received and avhich he in part reproduces. These form the brimary tadition to which he is attached or by which he is dominated Wholly: reproductive intellectuals and productive intellectuals with fecble imaginative and ratiocinative powers are dominated by their traditions and eave them tmvdfected. Many poor intellectuals by their feehle use of their traditions and exercising feeble mental powers eould, without concert but by the effect of massive numbers, bring abot a decay of their traditions Infellectaals with yreater imaginative, ratiocinative, observational, and ver bly and visually formative: powers—that is, intellectuals with “creative povvers” oF “genius” or “origiuality’—create works which extend and change their traditions. ‘The strength of « tradition—the extent to which its carriers are formed by i and thus give it persistenco—is partly a fionction of the institutional procedures and structures by which iti ineulcated and sustained and partly function of the paticen of the tradition itself—particulatly of the ethos which it contains. It is also partly & function of the tasks accepted by pro ductive intcllectvals, itself something which is deBned by: tradition. The intellectual tasks which intellectuals undertake in the production of a work arc often “given” by traditions but not by any means exchisively so.t ‘The attachment of an intellectual to-a tradition ean be a fnction of his “training” and patticipation in an institution which is the eustodian of one or “ niimber of primary intellectual traditions And of the activity of the auxiliary intellcctual institutional system, which iicludes publishing. patronage, eriti- ‘ism, distribution, and s0 forth, Suk intellectual institutions operate through aining/through the provision of a sustaining environment of other persons ‘sho embody andl exercise standards of performance /and thranigh the allo- ceation of faclities and rewards for intellectial exertion anid accomplishment Not all intellectuals, however, acquire theie acquaintance or maintain the coinietions with their primary intellectual (racition through instititions to the same extent. There is . nevertheless, a minimal institutional seeing, Tk might be on aan acquaintance with an. individual wha embodies and exemplifies some clements of an intellectual tradition or recommends pattienlar works, oF it might be membership in @ family whieh has mastered a partienlarintellec- toal activity and ansmits and cultivates skill and forms and arouses moti yation in one oF more oF its offspring for the irther performance of such intellectual activity, ‘The relationship of an apprentice to a master is a more organized, even if structurally elementary, institutional form of the transmis- WRADYTIONS OF INTELLECTUALS sion of tradition. There have boon productive intelectvale, partseularly in thy production of certain genres, such as novels and porns, wha have Ted practically no institntionalized training, Where, asin the ‘Uvetion, there is resistunce to institutionalization, we may speak of “units tutionatized” intellectuals. But oven these uninstitutinnalized intellectuals ave'had « mniaal contact with certain clements of the intellectual tr tions through some institutions of elementary schooling, dat 1s, by leaning how to read and wr works, for example, certain epic poems, novels, ane so om, The formation which the potential intellectual receives ia. school i not trasning tor the production of works; iti rather some krov tion of some of the sensibilities which enable bim to make contact on his ar ‘with intellectual teadilions. that is, constellations of intellectual warks, and which enable his propensities to he aroused. Before this fist contact and Liehind these constellations ties an enchiinenent of intellectual institutions which bave made their coalescence passilie. ‘The tradition in question could not have heen formed without an institutional stracture to form and transmit it: Thus the tininslitutionalized intellectual is the beneficiary of 0 considerable amonnt of anterior institutionalization. Furthermore, the upinstitutionalized intellectunis are, at least in modem limes, sucronded hy a complex of auxiliary intellectual institations. They come into contact with them dough the distibutive institutions and the institutions of assessment. (I refer here to publishing, bookshops, libraries, jovrnals, oak reviews, honorific andl sponsoring academies, and so forth. ‘The wlatively uninstilutionalized intellectuals sometiones mingle eonvivialiy with institutionalized intellectuals, for example, in elabs and. salons swhere literary and scientific intelicetuals eect exch other;Aliey also encounter the ‘works and ethos of the instittionalized sector of the productive intellectual stertuin in a variety of settings. Increasingly they have to cope with the sinx- acy or distributive intellectual institations © traditions of these aursliary or clistributive intellectual institutions are sometimes but by no means always identical with major elements of ease of literary pre © and having their attention focused on certain major igo of a fewe works and cultiva heethos ot substance of the primary intellectual traditions of the productive intellectuals, An editor or director of a. publishing house oF of a literary review might be very congenial and indeed helpful in guid inva fruitful direction. In contiast with this, certain editors, ctitics, and pub- lishers might be antagonistic to a cevtain trend of literary production, Ceusor- gis the most dramatic instanee of the antagonism of any ausiliney insti tion to an intellectual tadition. All these institutions exercise a “cliective” influence of their own through selective policies of financial support, selec= fie ace publication, selective reproduction, and disetiminative

    You might also like