“This paper offers a definition of the intellectual covering both professional & moral dimensions: an intellectual is a specialist who creates & communicates symbolised knowledge as means of living, & hopefully intervenes in social & political affairs in the name of universal values, truth & justice. ‘symbolised knowledge’ is used in the definition to avoid the confusion with other forms of knowledge derived from direct personal experience in production & life. the purpose of using ‘specialist’ as the subject term is to exclude those categories such politicians, soldiers & business people who exercise political, military, financial & other forms of power instead of intellectual power in their social function. this paper argues that there are many roles played by intellectuals, & the social location & function of intellectuals can be fundamentally different in different societies. when production & communication of knowledge are taken as the primary concern of intellectuals, ‘the death of the concerned intellectual’ becomes an unwarranted anxiety, because there is no reason to believe that knowledge & truth will no longer be pursued & valued by humankind. political marginalisation of critical intellectuals, where it is a reality, seems to be caused not so much by the lack of power of intellectuals as by the lack of solidarity among intellectuals to fight for a common cause. the problem lies as much in the lack of enthusiasm among intellectuals to transcend the boundaries of their professional relevance & intervene in broad social & political issues, as in institutional structures consuming too much energy & time of the intellectuals & seducing them to give up their social responsibilities for personal career. references. adapted from the source document.”