Habermas' "Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere" effect-
uates a variety of changes in the traditional schemes of viewing the social
body and the corresponding conceptions of intellectuals that follow. At
the broadest level, Habermas challenges the Hegelian dialectical division
of social space into civil society versus the external state. For Hegel,
the individual, the familiy, social associations of civil society, etc. all
originate in the Idea of the State and culminate in a form of government
by Reason. Literally everything, for Hegel, ends-up being a particularized
manifestation of the Idea of the State itself.
By arguing that the historical changes having already occured in
Western societies (media developments, the science of public opinion engi-
neering, government integration into the media a represented opinions,
etc.) have altered any easy division of state versus society, Habermas
confronts thinking on the role of itellectuals with a new problematization.
Hegel's dichotomization of the social body allowed him to easily push "the
Intellectual" into being the universal/univocal articulator of the Reason
that informs the structures underpinning society; likewise, this tradi-
tional divide guarantees the place of "the Intellectual" as conceived of by
Gramsci, El Kenz, Said (in some instances), and others. If the state it-
self is only one particular power center amongst many throughout society
(media powers, the opinion designers, advertising); if it's now difficult
to distinguish "real" public opinion from pre-fabricated opinion- then who
is it that "the Intellectual" is or represents?
* I am being kicked out of this Burdine lab by aother class using the com-
puters. I'll get another erminal elsewhere and continue this paper.
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