Jean-Paul Sartre said that “an intellectual is someone who meddles in what is not his business.” In truth, the engaged intellectual has not escaped the historical defeat of the ideologies of the 20th century unscathed. The discrediting of Marxism has affected the image of the engaged intellectual. As a result, we have witnessed the emergence, almost everywhere around the world, of pseudo-intellectuals in the media and of experts. The question remains: basically, what is the role of the intellectual today? Are intellectuals still questioning or even challenging political power?

Ramin Jahanbegloo, professor and ViceDean of the Faculty of Law and Director of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Peace Studies at Jindal Global Law School in Delhi, India. 

He received his B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy, History and Political Science and later his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Sorbonne University. Ramin Jahanbegloo taught in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto from 1997-2001. He is the winner of the Peace Prize from the United Nations Association in Spain (2009) for his extensive academic works in promoting dialogue between cultures and his advocacy for non-violence and more recently the winner of the Josep Palau i Fabre International Essay Prize.

Among his twenty-seven books in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Persian are Conversations with Isaiah Berlin (Peter Halban, 1992), Gandhi: Aux Sources de la Nonviolence ( Felin , 1999),  Penser la Nonviolence (UNESCO,2000),  Iran: Between Tradition and Modernity (Lexington Books, 2004), The Clash of Intolerances (Har-Anand 2007) The Spirit of India (Penguin 2008), Beyond Violence (Har-Anand 2008), Leggere Gandhi a Teheran (Marsilio 2008),  India Analysed (Oxford University Press 2009),Talking Politics (Oxford University Press 2010), Civil Society and Democracy in Iran (Lexington Press, 2011), The Gandhian Moment (forthcoming at Harvard University Press) Democracy in Iran (Palgrave 2013) Introduction to Nonviolence (Palgrave 2013), Time Will Say Nothing (University of Regina Press 2014) and very recently Talking Philosophy (Oxford University Press 2015).

*Lecture in french