More from Hofstadter's book. I haven't read much more, but something else caught my eye.

Few rational men care to deny that the exercise of intellectual power is one of the fundamental manifestations of human dignity or that it is at the very least a legitimate end among the other legitimate ends of life.

In my view, anyone that would use the label of 'intellectual' would deny anything contrary to the above statement and accept it as a given. The author assumes that use of the mental faculties itself is an activity worthy of commendation, and he would not be the first to infer this. The bias is obvious, but I would venture few would consider the presence of bias at all. I'm not saying it is not, but the assumption is contrary to critical consideration. Of course this assumes that critical thinking is an integral part of the process, but the circular reasoning has to end somewhere.