![]() As editor of the journal Philosophy and Literature, he even launched a “Bad Writing Contest” in which correspondents submitted the most egregious examples of such prose that they had found in an academic text. ![]() Dutton despised the turgid prose that he believed dominated academic writing and frequently linked to articles that lamented its dominance. The site was popular among scholars in spite of the fact that it routinely linked to articles mocking academic pretensions (although it’s equally plausible that this helped explain its success). As a young college student aspiring to greater intellectual heights, I made it my homepage.ĭenis Dutton at the Helm: Arts and Letters Daily At the height of its influence in the early 2000s, it was probably one of the most widely read blogs among American academics. Often eclectic, the links could treat everything from Ancient Roman historiography, developments in economic theory, to the relationship between ideology and bathroom etiquette. A high-brow (and infinitely more sophisticated) version of the Drudge Report, the site provided links to what Dutton and his editorial partner, economist Tran Huu Dung, considered the web’s best articles, op-eds, and book reviews. In 1999, Dutton founded what would become the popular website Arts and Letters Daily. Philosopher Denis Dutton, who died last week at the age of 66, presents a telling example of a scholar who attempted to bridge the gap between academic rigor and public accessibility. Do academics have a responsibility to reach beyond the narrow confines of their disciplines? Does scholarship, specialized by its very nature, translate well into broader public discourse? What exactly is the difference between an “academic” and an “intellectual”? How do they overlap and where exactly do they differ?
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