Articles

Can Philosophy Still Produce Public Intellectuals?

John Lachs criticizes the philosopher’s lack of public initiative.

Plato accepted an invitation to serve as advisor to the ruler of Syracuse. John Stuart Mill ran for Parliament, and served a term. Bertrand Russell got involved in nearly every public policy debate of his time, championing trial marriage and coining the infamous phrase “rather Red than dead.” Why is it that today, when rational discourse is in terribly short supply, and ethics is known mainly for its absence, philosophers have disappeared as influential factors on the public scene?

To be sure, a few philosophers make halting efforts to become voices in the cultural conversation. Here in America, William Bennett took time out between bouts of excessive gambling to wage war on drug abuse and to edit a popular book on virtue.

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