Gurevich, P. S. Jean-Paul Sartre as a Defender of Joseph Brodsky

Abstract: The article is devoted to the analysis of Jean-Paul Sartre’s views on the role of intelligentsia in the modern world. That topic became very important for Sartre after the trial of Joseph Brodsky in the USSR. After he had failed to obtain the repeat of the sentence on the poet, Sartre started to work on the book devoted to intelligentsia. His book ‘In Defense of Intelligentsia’ is devoted to the analysis of creative activity and the role of intelligentsia in the life of society. Why did Sartre state his views on the mission of that particular social stratum? He shared his thoughts on who could be considered to be intelligentsia and what functions an intelligent had in the society. Sartre defended intelligentsia who inherently were opposed to the government and criticized the thesis that intelligentsia performed only spiritual-protective functions. Based on the contents of the writer’s book, the author of the present article raises a question about the mission of intelligentsia and focuses on the phenomenology of knowledge and the need of the society in implementation of the social-critical function. The novelty of the article is conditioned by the fact that Jean- Paul Sartre’s book and his ideas on the phenomenon of intelligentsia and its role in the society were not known in the Russian academic community. The author of the article also stresses out that Sartre described the three main features of modern practical knowledge. He also underlines that an intelligent will always remain an agent of practical knowledge, i.e. he will always use the same research methods to analyzing the reality even beyond his competence. It is shown that intelligentsia was created as a result of the contradiction between the universal needs of their profession and particular interests of the ruling class.

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