Richard Posner's Public Intellectuals was a very interesting critique on the lost art of public intellectuals and the impact that they have had, and should continue to have on the public in regards to making informed decisions.
Before I even read Posner's views on public intellectuals, I came into it with my own view of what i believed a public intellectual to be. In a more medieval time, I felt a public intellectual was an individual who stood on a crate preaching to the masses their beliefs about how we the people must be critical of people in power (people making decisions). After reading Posner's view on public intellectuals it seems almost impossible to have public intellectuals. Not because people are incapable of being an intellectual, but because everyone has a platform to speak and preach their beliefs to the public (internet). This is not a bad thing, this just means we may need to redefine what it means to be a public intellectual.
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