Intellectuals

Perrine Simon-Nahum

The concept of intellectual as a category emerged in the late 19th century and bloomed with the political phenomena of the 20th century. Before that, as in the work of the medieval historian Jacques Le Goff, for example, the term referred to clerics. Intellectuals appeared in France during the Dreyfus Affair of 1894, in which Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a French artillery officer of Jewish descent, was tried and falsely convicted of treason; he was later exonerated and, in 1906, received a full pardon. The term Dreyfus Affair was coined by the writer Maurice Barrès in 1898 to designate the writers, scholars, and publicists who were convinced of Dreyfus's innocence. It is thus at the intersection of science and public debate that the intellectual stands. Throughout the 20th century, intellectuals emerged as major players in politics and public affairs. If one speaks in the plural, intellectuals designate a group of The ...

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