What does "intellectual"mean to you?

[FuSoYa]

How would you classify someone who has the mental capacity for all that, but is smart enough to realize that there's no point to any of it, so decides to just have fun instead of thinking about stuff and being miserable?

 

[xfer]

Intelligent but not intellectual. Straight up.

There's nothing bad about not being intellectual, just as there's nothing bad about being intellectual.

 

[chupe666]

A poohead that knows he should order the Big Beef Burritos Supreme, yet still calls them Big Beef Burrito Supremes simply to avoid anyone saying anything to him about it.

Pooheads rule.

ALL HAIL THE EVIL LORD BRAK!

 

[xfer]

dude, Zorak is SO MUCH COOLER than Brak.

 

[chupe666]

I'd venture as much as to say he's intelligent, but I'm not sure about him being an intellectual...



BATMANTIS: (BACK IN CONTROL ROOM) You are not Catwoman, Julie Newmar is Catwoman.

LEE MERIWETHER: Julie was our first Catwoman. And then I came in and did the movie...

BATMANTIS: Julie's better.

LEE MERIWETHER: Well, Eartha, for my money, was the best Catwoman.

BATMANTIS: Gimme your money! (STING MUSIC)

LEE MERIWETHER: I beg your pardon?

BATMANTIS: Gimme your money! (STING MUSIC)

LEE MERIWETHER: Oh, I see. (LAUGHS) Actually, that, that was very good.

BATMANTIS: You mock me? (STING MUSIC) Purr like a cat!

LEE MERIWETHER: Oh, please, the children! (LAUGHS)

 

[mindspell]

Originally posted by xfer
Good point. I would say the difference is that 'intellectual' connotes appreciation of external ideas and their internal, uh, ramifications (ie art, music, literature) while philosophical connotes a mode oriented a lot more inward. I think of an intellectual as someone who can talk about Dostoevsky and Gogol and throw in their own observations, but a philosopher as someone who puzzles out how you can have morality in a world without God (hmmm...I just described Dostoevsky. Hee hee, I'm intellectual!) Or something.

I don't agree. Philosophical has an interest in philosophy, which, by definition, is the study of the thought process and how it interacts with the world. There is no inward/outward pattern here. The philosophical likes the thought process and studies it. The intellectual will probably like the thought process also because he will most probably be interested in philosophy.

In my opinion, mentionning Gogol or Dostoevsky has nothing to do with being an intellectual. It is not how much you know that makes you an intellectual it is HOW you know.

 

[xfer]

Originally posted by mindspell
In my opinion, mentionning Gogol or Dostoevsky has nothing to do with being an intellectual. It is not how much you know that makes you an intellectual it is HOW you know.

Hm, I would say "how you know" is what makes you INTELLIGENT. Mentioning Gogol or Dostoevsky means you're either an intellectual or a pseudo-intellectual, but doesn't have any bearing on your intelligence.

 

[chupe666]

In my previous reasoning with the crappy categories, the basic idea I was trying to get at was that perhaps:

Intelligence = the capacity to understand things and process thoughtful ideas and concepts

whereas

Intellectuality = the desire combined with the capacity to attain knowledge and process thoughtful ideas and concepts

Therefore, maybe PseudoIntellectuals possess the desire to be intellectual without possessing the capacity of intelligence to back it up?

I still wanna be a poohead that just has fun.




The following doesn't really help this discussion, but I found it funny.

From Dictionary.com:

in·tel·li·gence Pronunciation Key (n-tl-jns) n.

1. The capacity to acquire and apply knowledge.
2. The faculty of thought and reason.
3. Superior powers of mind.


in·tel·lect Pronunciation Key (ntl-kt) n.

1. The ability to learn and reason; the capacity for knowledge and understanding.
2. The ability to think abstractly or profoundly.




And ultimately:

in·tel·lec·tu·al Pronunciation Key (ntl-kch-l)
adj.

1. a. Of or relating to the intellect.
b. Rational rather than emotional.
2. Appealing to or engaging the intellect: an intellectual book; an intellectual problem.
3. a. Having or showing intellect, especially to a high degree.
See Synonyms at intelligent.
b. Given to activities or pursuits that require exercise of the intellect.

 

[mindspell]

Originally posted by xfer


Hm, I would say "how you know" is what makes you INTELLIGENT. Mentioning Gogol or Dostoevsky means you're either an intellectual or a pseudo-intellectual, but doesn't have any bearing on your intelligence.

I don't think you undertstood what I meant. It has to do with my previous post. I said the other day that being an intellectual was being open to learn and love to think. That is the "how you know" comes from. I really don't think that the knowledge that you posses at some point is meaningful as to wether you are an intellectual or not. In your understanding a growing intellectual is a pseudo-intellectualand once he has matured, read and learned enough, he becomes and intellectual, I don't think that can be the case. You either are or you are not an intellectual. It is in in the way you deal with the information that you become an intellectual.

 

[D Mullholand]

Originally posted by xfer
I would say the difference is that 'intellectual' connotes appreciation of external ideas and their internal, uh, ramifications (ie art, music, literature) while philosophical connotes a mode oriented a lot more inward.

and here the "intellectual" can be probably replaced by "aesthete", in the broadest sense (pompous word, can also mean "snob"... but metal can also often mean "caca").

okay, i just realized this remark provokes another question: are all "internal ramifications of external ideas" actually aesthetic?

Originally posted by FuSoYa
How would you classify someone who has the mental capacity for all that, but is smart enough to realize that there's no point to any of it, so decides to just have fun instead of thinking about stuff and being miserable?

Booddah.

 

[speed]

Wow you guys have gone on about a question of semantics for far too long. Who gives a fuck, if you are intellectual or philosophical or a aeshete. Does the search for knowledge- and the meaning of ones life need to be so categorized, or is it not something we all must do. Maybe this words are just a way to recognize how this moronic so called aesthete will converse with people in a social environment. We all have different ways in searching for a meaning.
And really how can anyone stop thinking about the meaning of life etc. It would tale a miracle-and I dont, nor ever want to believe in such nonsense.
Who quoted Dostoevsky and Gogol? I can never find any dostoevsky fans- I've noticed philosophy teachers shy away from Dostoevsky and a few other thinkers like the plague.

 

[ezekiel]

it means you're a nerd and like to show how smart you are, and probably think you're better than stupid people like me.

 

[xfer]

Originally posted by ezekiel
it means you're a nerd and like to show how smart you are, and probably think you're better than stupid people like me.

Exactly. Or we're engaging in some mental masturbation and therefore taking things very unseriously, meaning we probably care less about the real issue of intelligence/intellectual than the people who didn't participate because they took the whole thing seriously!

I can reason my way out of anything. Nyah.

 

[VangelicSurgeon]

Alex loves arguing semantics. it's his meat & potatos!

 

[xfer]

Tru dat!

 

[LoboUivante]

I think we all know for what Death exists, but what’s the meaning of live?
IMHO it’s using her in a manner of doing good stuff to us and others around us… no god/devil… no politics… hollow religions. Just us and the environment we dwell in... of course that life after Death is always a good thing to believe in, but free thinkers need no pious objective and a standard way of living, living under rules of a bunch of Idiots who wrote a book and called it Bible some years ago .

Now... who wants hot gay smauray sex? (damm i'm always saying this!)

 

[LoboUivante]

BTW does thinking sometimes about subjects that have no answer make me a intellectual, intelligent, aeshete or just an idiot with extra free time? eh eh....

 

[D Mullholand]

it's all like, you know what i'm sayin', like punjab elephants turning into baobab trees.

the meaning of life is to be an elephant to other elephants (and trees), when you've become a baobab.


"just like that, kiddo!" (snap)

 

[Cerulean]

Yawn...