ABSTRACT
The problem of the social responsibility of the philosopher can be approached in two ways: either by considering philosophers or professors of philosophy as private individuals or by regarding them in their capacity as philosophers. This chapter examines few aspects of the social responsibility of the philosopher. The philosopher is first of all responsible to philosophy. To the extent that he serves philosophy and truth he serves society. The ideologue, like the sophist in the past, denies the claims of the philosopher. In the eyes of the ideologue the philosopher is doubly an ideologue because he is an unwitting ideologue who wrongly imagines himself immune to the limitations of the human condition. The philosopher is one who holds a dialogue with himself and others in order actively to overcome this oscillation. Such is his civic duty; such is his duty to society.
