Charles Mandel: Britain's Prospect Magazine Names Top Intellectuals
A newly published list of the Top 100 public intellectuals and an associated online contest is prompting curiosity and consternation among Canadian thinkers and scholars.
Some scorn the egghead "beauty contest," while others dismiss what they view as an American Idol-style competition for the worldwide brains trust.
The only Canadians on the list are Michael Ignatieff, the human rights theorist whose name has been bandied about as a possible future prime minister, and anti-globalization activist Naomi Klein.
Mr. Ignatieff and Ms. Klein join such deep thinkers and luminaries as Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond, Australian feminist Germaine Greer, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, and American biologist E.O. Wilson.
The British publication Prospect Magazine and the prestigious journal Foreign Policy assembled the poll. The magazines define public intellectuals as individuals who have shown distinction in their fields while influencing ideas in the greater world. They limited nominations to living candidates.
"The notion of some sort of pop contest is ridiculous," scoffed Douglas Owram, a historian at the University of Alberta and past president of the Canadian Federation of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
The magazines are asking readers to vote online for their Top 5 public intellectuals until Oct. 10. As well, readers may nominate one other individual they believe may have been overlooked.
"Let's make intellectual a meaningful word," Mr. Owram says. "Klein has done some interesting work, as has Ignatieff, but if you compare them to the great intellectual contributors of the past, it's a completely different thing.
"Why don't we just make Truman Capote or Paris Hilton" part of the list? "How do you separate notoriety from contribution?"
Some scorn the egghead "beauty contest," while others dismiss what they view as an American Idol-style competition for the worldwide brains trust.
The only Canadians on the list are Michael Ignatieff, the human rights theorist whose name has been bandied about as a possible future prime minister, and anti-globalization activist Naomi Klein.
Mr. Ignatieff and Ms. Klein join such deep thinkers and luminaries as Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond, Australian feminist Germaine Greer, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, and American biologist E.O. Wilson.
The British publication Prospect Magazine and the prestigious journal Foreign Policy assembled the poll. The magazines define public intellectuals as individuals who have shown distinction in their fields while influencing ideas in the greater world. They limited nominations to living candidates.
"The notion of some sort of pop contest is ridiculous," scoffed Douglas Owram, a historian at the University of Alberta and past president of the Canadian Federation of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
The magazines are asking readers to vote online for their Top 5 public intellectuals until Oct. 10. As well, readers may nominate one other individual they believe may have been overlooked.
"Let's make intellectual a meaningful word," Mr. Owram says. "Klein has done some interesting work, as has Ignatieff, but if you compare them to the great intellectual contributors of the past, it's a completely different thing.
"Why don't we just make Truman Capote or Paris Hilton" part of the list? "How do you separate notoriety from contribution?"