Abstract
Intellectualism necessitates the ability to reflect upon and ask questions about this accumulated knowledge, a questioning that goes beyond the paradigms of daily life and politics. In order to take this further step towards the abstract, one needs to know the relevant concepts. That is to say, not everyone who asks questions is an intellectual; one definitely needs knowledge and concepts. I mean this to emphasize that what matters is not merely the amount of knowledge. The knowledge must be questioned, imbibed with experience, the content from the experience must return to experience as a questioning.
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Notes
- 1.
Pınar Selek, Maskeler Süvariler Gacılar Ülker Sokak: Bir Alt Kültürün Dışlanma Mekânı [Masks, Cavaliers, Gacis—Ülker Street: A Place of Marginalization], Ankara: Ayizi, 2011. In this study, Pınar Selek writes about the brutality against the transsexuals of Ülker Street in Taksim, İstanbul in 1996. Selek zooms in on the struggle that the transsexual residents of the street lead against the police, media, and fascist organizations as Grey Wolves who aimed at displacing them by using communal violence.
- 2.
After the military intervention of the year 1980, the people joining the street action and protests were restricted including the acts of the imprisonment and repression of intellectuals and political groups by the regime of the military administration. It can be stated that the military coup of 1980 as a landmark silenced all mass opposition almost overnight. Needless to say, it means the arrests, trials, tortures and convictions of many people who participated in politics prior to the coup.
- 3.
Pınar Selek, Sürüne Sürüne Erkek Olmak [To Become a Man Through Misery], İstanbul: İletişim, 2010. This study focuses on the experience of military service of many men from different sectors of society. The book discusses how the compulsory military service in Turkey contributed to building and reproducing masculinity as an identity.
- 4.
From the web-site of AGOS: “Agos was founded in 1996 by Hrant Dink and a group of his friends, in order to report the problems of the Armenians of Turkey to the public. It is the first newspaper in the Republican period to be published in Turkish and Armenian. Agos’s editorial policy focuses on issues such as democratization, minority rights, coming to terms with the past, the protection and development of pluralism in Turkey… As independent journalism and freedom of expression face increasing restriction in Turkey, Agos also acts as an independent platform for debate”; see http://www.agos.com.tr/en/home [March 30, 2016].
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Selek, P., interviewed by Meral Akbaş (2019). On Intellectuals and Intellectualism. In: Özyürek, E., Özpınar, G., Altındiş, E. (eds) Authoritarianism and Resistance in Turkey. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76705-5_23
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