Often times I feel a bit sad that we in the field of rhetoric and argumentation suffer from having a public intellectual who is from our field. I know it’s a bit selfish and somewhat narrow-minded to think this way – after all, every public intellectual is an intellectual engaged in the idea of public controversy or debate on some level – but it’s the attention to those subjects as such that I long for.

Well today I was relieved to learn I’m not alone. Here’s an article about anthropology’s struggle with the same thing.

Anthropology has been a field engaged in unraveling itself ever since the post-structuralist turn. This article made a lot of interesting claims that perhaps could bring attention back to that field.

Meanwhile I await the emergence of the rhetorician/argument theorist who will start our own public intellectual practice.