Reflections on Patrick Baert’s 'The Existentialist Moment: The Rise of Sartre as a Public Intellectual'

Susen, S. ORCID: 0000-0003-0643-1891 (2017). Reflections on Patrick Baert’s 'The Existentialist Moment: The Rise of Sartre as a Public Intellectual'. In: The Sociology of Intellectuals After 'The Existentialist Moment'. (pp. 1-122). London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Abstract

In this chapter, Simon Susen provides an in-depth review of Patrick Baert’s The Existentialist Moment: The Rise of Sartre as a Public Intellectual (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015), focusing on the theoretical dimensions underpinning the analysis developed in this book. The chapter is divided into two parts. In the first part, Susen gives a detailed, and largely sympathetic, overview of Baert’s approach, drawing attention to its main conceptual and methodological contributions to the sociological study of intellectuals. In the second part, Susen grapples with the limitations and shortcomings of Baert’s approach, especially with respect to its plea for a paradigm shift from a ‘vocabulary of intentions’ to a ‘vocabulary of effects’ in the sociology of intellectuals. The chapter concludes with a brief reflection on the role that intellectuals may play in shaping the development of society.