new celebrity eggheads??

Mediocre -> pitching things at a level the public can understand. For hire -> getting philosophy out there in the public sphere. Win-win.

grayling, john gray... roger scruton, probably some other dudes are UK category public intellectuals, like em or not.

Mediocre -> pitching things at a level the public can understand.

Nah. I meant more in the traditional sense of "not very good really"

stupendous hair.

Well I haven't read his more academic stuff so can't comment on that, but for all his Guardian columns, and every time I've heard him on the radio or seen him on Newsnight he's been utterly OTMFM. He might not come across as the deepest of thinkers but for the kind of practical ethics subjects that he comments on I don't think deep thought is required; just a kind of a clarity and commitment, and lack of agenda, that you normally just don't get from pundits.

Indeed, my problem is that I hang out with bitchy philosophers

i doubt he's any worse than the run of public intellectuals in this country over the last century or so -- he's a good example beucause he isn't a massive game-changing wittgenstein/chomsky/foucault-type.

Freddie Ayer >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> AC Grayling

Never read Ayer, but Grayling is engaging and fun and not too lite-- a perfect public intellectual!

I quite enjoyed Steve Fullers "Kuhn vs Popper The Struggle for the Soul of Science" yes a very dramatic title, to my mind he covers way too much ground and his theological asides are annoying but any defence of Popper is ok with me. 8/10 !

re comments on the position of Chomsky/Dennet/Fodor and other "mentals"
my only comment would be reacting to Skinners excesses is well and good but idioms and rules dont have to be "internal", ie at some point "beliefs" are not grounded "on" knowledge, they are grounded "in" action-hence beliefs dont cause , or prefigure our actions.

being a public intellectual in contemporary America is the loneliest number that you'll ever do.

Since Fish has been mentioned this seems timely - O HAI I UPGRADED YR POMO:

http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/french-theory-in-america-part-two/

http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/nl/nlimages/eggheads.jpg

oh right