champ said:

It was nice meeting you too Randall, I'm sorry I didn't compliment your nose--but I wasn't sure if it was polite to do so or not. Anyway, it looks good!

And as for Alain de Botton--the idea of the "public intellectual" comes from the radical communist Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci, and all it means is that the reviewer considers de Botton to be someone who does not challenge the status quo, more talk than action--not that his work is pure shite. Frankly, one has to decide if Gramsci's belief that intellectuals must do more than think is valid at all. It even seems that the idea of the public intellectual as ineffectual, complacent and removed from the reality of revolutionary action in society is potentially damaging to social theory and philosophy because it means that the pure thought and analysis have no value outside of their connection to action. For something like a theorizing of "Love"--you can see how that's dangerous.

Anyway...sorry for getting wordy but I think the idea of the public intellectual is used lazily and without reflection here.

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