From a recent review: "The very last section of the chapter, Kourany's final thoughts, is about public intellectuals and why philosophy of science has produced next to none. The obvious answer is that they have nothing much to say to the public about the things that the public is concerned about."
I am not so sure this is true. Excluding the members of the Vienna Circle, consider the following list (I spent two minutes on it--I hope others will add a few): Popper, Polanyi, Michael Ruse, Daniel Dennett, Steve Fuller, Arne Naess, Alva Noe, Feyerabend. (Badiou?) (What's the status of Nancy Cartwright and Ian Hacking?) I can easily imagine how Jesse Prinz, Joshua Knobe, Carl Craver, will develop into public intellectuals. (I hope somebody can suggest some women--Catarina!) Given that the role of "public intellectuals" is quite marginal in our contemporary media-culture, I am impressed by the very possibility of such list.
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