The Intellectual

The book is supposed to be modelled on Machiavelli's The Prince, and it does share some of its aphoristic style. However, what's most like the original is the bluntness with which Fuller deals with the intellectual pretensions of academics. He seems to think that most of the intellectual action in today's world has migrated off campus, as academics have remained mired in their powergames. But he clearly wants intellectuals to have spent some time in the Ivory Tower to get the needed forms of mental agility. The dialogue in the mid-section of the book is aimed mostly at philosophers but the last third of the book is a set of very useful FAQs.