structural-functionalism. Value nihilism allows for value-judgements but does not allow them to become theories. In his last work, ""Demokratie ohne Dogma"" published after his death in 1960, Geiger calls for "intellectual humanism", "enlightenment of the masses," "democratization of reason," "asceticism of emotion," and "abstinence from value judgement." He considered this last work to be his greatest political contribution. Intelligentsia Theodor Geiger's definition of intelligentsia is "Those who create the objects of representative culture." In this context, the word "objects" is not to be taken purely in a literal sense. Geiger saw intelligentsia as a functional term, distinct from intellectual which refers to a person that conceives of immaterial concepts and importance but who does not necessarily function to create. According to Geiger, the functions of the intelligentsia include: fueling progression, creating works of art and knowledge that serve to make life spiritual, creating applicable science with the purpose of making life rational, and criticizing power. This last function: criticism of power refers to being critical of any current or potential power structures within society, based on their possible oppression of the group's ability to create. However, they should not be confused as a revolutionary force. His theory was formulated in contrary response to Mannheim's concept of the intelligentsia as political leaders. Geiger saw the intelligentsia's function of criticism as the responsibility to destroy ideologies of the powerful, not to create ideologies of their own. But while this is not their function, according to Geiger, he acknowledges that they do it anyway. He thought that the intelligentsia should create works of art or imagination, and that they should separately support Scientific theories with empirical evidence, but that they should not combine imagination with theory in the form of ideology. The intelligentsia, as a group, do not belong to any one social class, neither objectively or subjectively speaking. In fact, Geiger categorizes them into four social classes: gentry, bourgeois, proletarian, and democratic. After giving lectures in Sweden at Uppsala school on Intelligentsia in 1943, Geiger wrote about their position in society, their functions and their origin in 1944. This work was published in 1949. Shortly after, he returned to Denmark, where he conducted an empirical study on the origins and structure of Danish Intelligentsia, based on the Danish Biographical Encyclopedia, enabling him to study the group over a four hundred year span. Publications 1919 Die Schutzaufsicht. Breslau (then Germany): Schletter. 1920 Das