Examining Intellectual Responsibility: Reflections on Dwight Macdonald's Analysis of War Guilt and Accountability

Summary

This article examines the responsibility of intellectuals, drawing on Dwight Macdonald's 20-year-old series in Politics magazine about war guilt and the responsibility of peoples. The author reflects on Macdonald's questions about the extent to which German or Japanese people were responsible for atrocities committed by their governments, and how these questions apply to intellectuals' responsibilities in contemporary contexts. The piece appears to be a philosophical and political analysis of intellectual accountability in society.