I would say so. It's been my nature to think a ton about things ever since I can remember. I've always been able to get A's without even trying. I read the whole lord of the rings trilogy in 4th grade... I've always loved reading, creating art, philosophy. Everyone I know tells me I am a philosopher, or should be a philosophy teacher. I think anyone who likes to think deeply and analyze things is an intellectual. Anyone who appreciates knowledge and using one's mind to it's fullest potential. I also consider creativity and imagination to be major properties of intellect. I've met some people who aren't too traditionally smart but are incredibly creative and outside-the-box thinkers, I consider them intellectuals as well.
my idea of an intellectual is someone who is a fervent rationalist, emotional intelligence doesnt play a part in my definition. so no, i would never consider myself an intellectual.
To me an intellectual needs three parts to him: 1) A wide spectrum of knowledge covering nearly all disciplines, 2) Intelligence, 'high IQ (≈130+)', an ability to process ideas, concepts, and logic within these disciplines, and 3) Open-mindedness, an ability to welcome, entertain, process, massage, and append the ideas of other people without prejudice, nervousness, dishonesty, reluctance, reticence, or apprehensiveness. Well as for me, I think I have a good knowledge in science (physics, psychology, biology, chemistry), and in philosophy, but not so much in social science (literature, history, historical analysis, arts, ect). I think I was born pretty intelligent, not quite sure of my exact IQ. My other problem, in addition to a limited scope of my knowledge, is being too nervous around people to share my real ideas with them. My thoughts, for whatever reason, get clogged up no matter what topic we are talking about. I can't put together ideas coherently and include examples and clear graspable core theses...even though to me everything makes sense. So I guess I have to dumb down my ideas maybe, and be more personal and entertaining also maybe? If I could overcome this nervousness and reluctance and so forth around people when I talk and simply discuss the ideas and theses on my mind for the given subject we are discussing then I would be in very good shape and able to share my knowledge on science and philosophy in a comprehensible, memorable way. After solving that problem, I think I need to broaden my knowledge base, even though many people say it is so broad covering almost all of the sciences, I need to expand on my knowledge in history. I'm starting with the beginnings of human history, so naturally I'm getting a bit involved with anthropology. Enough about evaluating myself as an intellectual...I'm stopping that thought prematurely haha... How does everyone else rate themselves on my scale? Does anyone think my classification is missing anything?
i like to think of myself as an intellectual... but i like to get out of my head from time to time... i like the fresh air
I agree with most of what you're saying, but IQ is pretty meaningless and often found to be culturally biased. There are superior ways of testing intelligence.
I'd bet some money that emotional intelligence has a correlation with likelihood of bias/prejudice in a given judgment. Might not be necessary for the definition of intellectual, but those without it are the "dumbest" if it is not considered.
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence[/URL] (thought and reason) and critical[/URL] or analytical[/URL] reasoning in either a professional[/URL] or a personal capacity[/URL]. There is some argument for and against the idea that emotional intelligence (EI)contributes to the overall measurement of "intelligence" but its worthfullness may be more obvious in the term "intellectual" Im still checking out Wikki definitions, so far I havent found any one definition of either term thats not debatable. I think that anybody has the right to identify themselves as a "intellectual" if thats their choice.
Dude. Sorry to spoil your day old buzz, but while reading your post I couldn't but help to notice that you sound autistic. Think about it, are you not a little different? Watch Lars and the Real Girl, it will all start to make sense. PS. You are Lars and I'm tired of your special treatment.
you pretty much summed it up for me. I am a very attentive person who has complex thoughts that i may look at diffently for days i just ponder. I love learning, i make it a point to learn somthing useful every day im an intelligent person when i apply myself yeah motivation is a problem but not for my mind just body lol
I'm not an intellectual, and even if some day, some people might consider me an intellectual, I really wouldn't wanna be called one. It denotes some kind of elitism, as if an intellectual is a measure above mere mortals because his brainpower can shatter mountains and boil the seven seas. I'm a smart guy, there's nothing arrogant in saying you are, if you know you are. But the term intellectual always turned me off...