In one of his recent studies Kadushin observes that despite many works on intellectuals, there is no adequate sociological theory of intellectuals or of intellectual life. He argues that theory building in this field has been 'marred by an abundance of opinion and moralization, a dearth of facts, and a plethora of parochial definitions" (Kadushin as quoted by Brym, 1980: 73).
The first problem for a sociologically grounded theory of intellectuals is that of definitions. Intellectuals have been primarily viewd in terms of normative defini- tions (Parsons, 1969; Shils, 1974; Hussain, 1977). Even normative judgements are implicit in the views which see them as ocupational or role categories (Lipset, 1959; Merton, 1962). The second problem centres around the relationship between social background of intellectuals and their structural location in a given social system and their world views. Do they reflect their class background or achieved class location or are they relatively classless?