An intellectual is one who tries to use his or her intellect to work, study, reflect, speculate, or ask and answer questions about a wide variety of different ideas.
There are, broadly, three modern definitions at work in discussions about intellectuals. First, "intellectuals" as those deeply involved in ideas, books, and the life of the mind. Second, "intellectuals" as a recognizable occupational class consisting of lecturers, professors, lawyers, doctors, scientists, engineers, etc. Third, "cultural intellectuals" are those of notable expertise in culture and the arts, expertise which allows them some cultural authority, which they then use to speak in public on other matters. [edit] 'Men of letters' The expression "man of letters", has been used in many cultures to describe contemporary intellectuals. The term implied a distinction between those "who knew their letters" and those who did not. The distinction thus had great weight when literacy was not widespread. "Men of letters" were also termed literati (from the Latin), as a group; this phrase may also refer to the 'citizens' of the Republic of Letters. Literati survives as a term of abuse and is used in journalism. Literatus, in the singular, is rarely found in English - the English term is litterateur (from the French littérateur). The Republic of Letters grew during the late 1700s in France in salons, many of which were run by women. The term is rarely used to denote "scholars". [edit] Greek usage of the expression In Greece the expression "Learn your letters" finds widespread use in everyday life, especially by the surviving older generations. Its meaning is equivalent to "Study hard" and "learn an intellectual trade". Because of the agricultural background of Greece, the term "man of letters" also signifies the opposite of the usual trades of builder and farmer. In this context, these hand-driven trades are often pointed out as examples to be avoided when parents suggest to a young person to "become a man of letters" in order to live an easier life. [edit] Nineteenth-century English usage By the late eighteenth century, literacy was becoming more widespread in countries such as the United Kingdom. The concept of a "man of letters" shifted to a more specialised meaning, as one who made his living by writing about literature - usually not creative writers as such, but rather essayists, journalists and critics. This kind of activity was gradually replaced in the twentieth century by a more academic approach, and the term "man of letters" fell into disuse, to be replaced by the more generic term "intellectual", which first came into common use at the end of the nineteenth century, when it was used as a term for the defenders of Alfred Dreyfus, see below. The rise and fall of the term "man of letters", and indeed of the activity it described, is charted by Gross (1969); see also Pierson (2006). Societal role of intellectuals Intellectuals have been viewed as a distinct social class, often significantly contributing to the formation and phrasing of ideas as both creators and critics of ideology. Australian writer Rhoderick Gates defined intellectuals as "priests in a secular society, whose role is to uphold Establishment truths and power" in Intellectuals, Society and Oligarchy, 1999, p.1, however some intellectuals in the Establishment are dissenters against the Establishment, such as U.S. linguist and writer Noam Chomsky. In many definitions, intellectuals are perceived as impervious to propaganda, indoctrination, and self-deception. Because of the co-optation of intellectuals by the Soviet Union, the Third Reich, and by other régimes of authoritarian-totalitarian ideology, the begged question is: How and why can intellectuals be vulnerable to indoctrination, despite their intelligence? A possible answer is in the Milgram experiment conclusions. Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram's seminal series of social psychology experiments measured the willingness of people to obey an authority figure instructing them to perform acts conflicting with their personal consciences. Prof. Milgram learned that ordinary people can become agents of a destructive process, even when the destructive effects of their work become clear. Despite intelligence or intellectual capacity, when people are asked to effect actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the intellectual-moral resources needed to resist authority. Another suggested reason for this is the intellectuals' constant criticism of ideological systems in attempting their improvement of them, which often leads to seeking superior alternatives in foreign ideological models, because the foreign models are not seen in action, and, thus, their practicability cannot be accurately gauged before implementation. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
