Gramsci’s Theory Of Intellectuals And Its Contemporary Value

Gramsci’s theory of intellectuals resulted from his inheritance and development of Marx’s notion of intellectuals from the social-production perspective, his surpassing the notion of intellectuals in Croce’s philosophy of history from the practical perspective, and his synthesizing the revolutionary thoughts of Sorel and Lenin from the perspective of intellectuals’ mastering cultural hegemony. Gramsci started with the overall connection of economy, ideology and politics, endowed ideology and state apparatus with conspicuous autonomy on the premise of acknowledging the economic foundation was playing a final decisive role, made "civil society" contained in the concept of "integral state", highlighted the significance of culture and ideology, and proposed organic intellectuals’ historical mission that they should stimulate the critical awareness of society, play a role in educating the mass in the aspects of culture morality and vocational technology, integrate individuals’free will into a collective will to construct an overall historic bloc, and win the positional warfare of scrambling for cultural hegemony in civil society.Chinese intellectuals should be based on the contemporary non-identity context, not only borrow Gramsci’s thoughts of scrambling for cultural hegemony, maintain vigilance against the infiltration of western culture-ideology and safeguard our national cultural security to devote to the development of the world’s cultural diversity, but also learn from Gramsci’s discourse mechanism to build a new differences-involving and consistent socialist culture. In contemporary China, with the revolutionary politics increasingly turning into discourse politics, Chinese intellectuals need to absorb organic intellectuals’ critical spirit and shape the social roles of intellectuals with resistance.The limitations of Gramsci’s theory of organic Intellectuals, revealed in contemporary capitalist society with advanced science and technology, involved the little possibility of organic intellectuals’ revolutionary practice, the realization of utopian ideal giving rise to the despotism, and the emphasis on the intellectuals’ organic characteristic just dispelling "the organic" in content. All of these needed an in-depth reflection to adapt to the development of the times.