Abstract

In addressing the main points made by the five discussants, this response acknowledges possible failures of execution in the writing of Absent Minds. But it reaffirms the value of examining British traditions of debate about "the question of intellectuals" in analytical and comparative terms; it emphasizes that the figures and episodes discussed in some detail were not selected to be representative of political affiliations or of gender of any other identity apart from that of having made a significant or revealing contribution to the traditions being examined; and it maintains that a broadly literary-critical approach, partly deploying the terms of everyday discrimination and assessment, is a legitimate and central aspect of the work of the intellectual historian.