知识分子范畴像如今其他的任何东西一样被激烈争夺。西格蒙特·鲍曼将作为立法者的知识分子和作为阐释者的知识分子进行了对比:作为立法者的知识分子希望将普遍价值合法化,他们通常是为国家机构效力;而作为阐释者的知识分子仅仅阐释文本、公共事件以及其他的人工制品,运用他们的专门知识来为公众对事物进行说明或阐释(1987;1992)。鲍曼宣称,有一种由现代知识分子向后现代知识分子的转变,现代知识分子是作为普遍价值观念的立法者,使新的现代社会秩序合 The category of intellectuals is fiercely contested like everything else today. Siegmün Baumann compared intellectuals as legislators with intellectuals who were interpreters: intellectuals as legislators wished to legitimize universal values, usually for national institutions; and as interpreters Intellectuals simply interpret texts, public events, and other artifacts and use their expertise to explain or explain things to the public (1987; 1992). Bowman claimed that there was a shift from modern intellectuals to post-modern intellectuals who were lawmakers of universal values ​​and made the new modern social order fit