All of us live in a society, and are members of a nationality with its own language, tradition,…

All of us live in a society, and are members of a nationality with its own language, tradition, historical situation. To what extent are intellectuals servants of these actualities, to what extent enemies ? The same is true of intellectuals’ relationship with institutions (academy, church, professional guild) and with worldly powers, which in our times have co-opted the intelligentsia to an extraordinary degree. Thus in my view the principal intellectual duty is the search for relative independence from such pressures. Hence my characterization of the intellectual as an exile and marginal, as amateur, and as the author of a language that tries to speak the truth to power.