Intellectuals’ self-image as autonomous shapes ideology and politics.

Evidence

Simmel’s extraordinary originality may well be connected with his position as a relatively isolated thinker. He was, indeed, a “stranger” in the academy. The stylistic manifestations of a marginal position are striking in his written work. Neither in Simmel’s text nor in annotations does one find acknowledgment of scholarly predecessors or contemporaries. He speaks for himself, along with the immortal dead. What is more, Simmel deliberately shied away from recruiting disciples to carry on his kinds of inquiry. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 10 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Humanists’ ideology stays incidental while social scientists’ is woven into their material; Intellectuals must speak complex truth to power rather than simplify it — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 1208; Politics has relatively autonomous forms requiring study in their own right — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 139 (+8 more)

Related

• Intellectual originality can be a product of marginal social position (similarity 0.85)
• Ideological positions reproduce social positions in transfigured form. (similarity 0.83)
• Creating new intellectual strata from unprepared groups faces unprecedented difficulty (similarity 0.82)
• Intellectuals’ self-image as autonomous stems from their historical esprit de corps (similarity 0.81)
• Intellectuals’ self-perception as paternalistic versus organic determines whether masses enter the state (similarity 0.80)
• Intellectuals are defined by social relations, not intrinsic activity. (similarity 0.79)
• A constructed ideal intellectual combines Third World origin with metropolitan location (similarity 0.79)
• Intellectuals must admit ideology rather than claim value-free science (similarity 0.78)
• Social movements generate theory rather than merely applying it (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Intellectuals’ self-perception as paternalistic versus organic determines whether masses enter the state #expands (0.82)
• Intellectual originality can be a product of marginal social position #complicates (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 10