The European Exception? The Public Intellectual in Britain

Thinking in Public - Panel Discussion

The idea that philosophy might have a special role in the public life of a culture, that it might even be tied or allied in its own discipline to the virtue of public space, to the res publica, to public-ness, typically goes without saying in continental Europe. The philosopher should always be more than a mere reader and spectator of human thinking and doing, and should contribute to its public formation: the philosopher should be engagé.

In Britain, by contrast, even if there is some appetite to be informed about philosophy, there are, it seems, few calls for our culture and our public space to be informed by it. Moreover, when philosophers do ‘take to the streets’ themselves they are often derided as mere ‘popularisers’ by their peers. In short, the ‘engagé’ philosopher in Britain is neither embraced by society nor applauded by the professional discipline.

In this special event we will reflect on this ‘European exception’, and ask whether society or the philosophical profession in Britain would, in our time, benefit from efforts to make a distinctively philosophical contribution to thinking in public.

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