Philosophy and sociology of intellectual life: Lithuanian context

Abstract

The article deals with the intellectual life from the philosophical and sociological perspectives using the case of Lithuania. The author analyzes the environment of the academic activity in the university, plagiarism and bullshit as the factors of the intellectual life, the police institution of the expert. According to the author, the academic people develop their activities in the frame of a certain myth (narration). The author raises the
following theses: the ideas influential concerning the university and the society emerge not in a vacuum of the myths but in the environment of different myths, besides, they are developed by an agent of a certain myth instead of a superhero beyond the myths; a myth is developed in a “straight curve”, i. e. a myth turns into that narrative path, which is considered by its members as right; the need of bullshit and plagiarism is grounded on both sociological and philosophical ways in the academic society: these phenomena are required by the competitive community of the myth, by supervisory institutions, as well as by developers of a certain philosophical myth; bullshit is an important factor of the academic myth while being beyond it and forcing its development; if we recognize only one (true) scientific myth, the plagiarism of this metanarration is only one possible way to cognize reality.