Saying someone is an intellectual

I think it can be three things [and you can be as little as one to be classed as];

- Academically [maths, science, language, history, religious education, geography ... anything else?]
- Philosophically [just questions to make you think - my favourite ]
- Creatively [music, sport, literature, dance, drama, fine art, structural art, sport]

 

If someone called me an "intellectual" I would assume that's the nicest way they could find of calling me pretentious or petulant to my face.

 

Calling someone an intellectual means that they devote their time to study and scholarly pursuits.

 

For me, personally? Even if someone called me that in a derogatory way, I'd take it as a compliment. I do have above-average intelligence (tested about four years ago and I scored 130 on the test they gave me) and in college I was a straight-A student. I do like to learn about new things; if there's something I don't know or don't understand, I have to figure it out or it'll drive me crazy. And I do tend to be highly analytical.

That, and I can be quite nerdy sometimes.

 

Considering the amount of people that go to college and lack any real reading comprehension, think that Africa is a country, and do not even know their own American history. I will say it not hard to be an intellectual in America the standards been set to low.

---------- Post added 8th Dec 2015 at 01:25 PM ----------

Well petulant is a pretentious word.

 

Usually, I'd see it as an intended put-down, too.

 

I'd say it tends to mean people who do a lot of thinking, and appreciate intelligence as a desirable factor in themselves and other people. But of course, it is arguable that most intellectuals probably are above average intelligence.

:smilewave

 

I think intellectual does have a certain snooty connotation to it, particularly in present day America.

I would tend to think of an intellectual as someone who devotes a lot of time to scholarly pursuits, but most of the people I know that call themselves intellectuals are pretentious twats, whether they are actually scholarly or not, so while I don't see being an actual intellectual to be a bad thing, I can see where it gets a bad reputation.

 

I think of an "intellectual" as someone who is analytical and disciplined.

 

An intellectual person is someone with a deep knowledge of something they are passionate about, along with a large general knowledge and interest in current affairs, a sophisticated vocabulary and is the sort of person who can really hold a serious conversation about academic topics. They're not a nerd or someone generally smart, they're just someone who its fascinating to have a conversation with.

 

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Hear hear.

 

I personally consider as "intellectual" anyone who has, or is capable of writing and publishing an analytical paper on any chosen subject, with all it's scientific rigour successfully applied and presenting a good, well researched argument.

 

"Intellectual" seems to be a catch-all phrase that has many potential ways it can be applied/interpreted. However, I do see it used more as a tool used when alluding to secondary traits that are associated with intelligence. There are many high-IQ individuals (let's call that a metric to measure "primary" intelligence) who look "regular" and would not be considered as "intellectual," yet possess the ability and potential to engage in the "secondary" traits society would consider "of intellectual nature."

A person who goes to college and devoted himself to scholarly pursuits may be considered an intellectual; such a person may possess above average intelligence because, by its very nature, tertiary-level academics seem to favor those with higher levers of innate/cognitive intelligence.

A person who is deemed nerdy because they like comic books or some other form of entertainment that society has deemed to be "nerdy" may be considered an intellectual because anecdotal evidence to society would suggest that people with higher levels of intelligence tend to be over-represented in those pursuits.

There are many ways to slice and dice who and what we considered as "(an) intellectual." That said, in general terms, I'd rather avoid labeling myself or others as "intellectuals." I believe the term is watered down, especially in this era where everyone wants to feel special and everyone wants to be "above-average." By definition of any metric, half the people will be "below-average." We are the most intelligent species on the planet, and if we see lesser animals exhibit signs of intelligence and analytical capability, then I would hope most of us humans would exhibit some level of intellectual capacity.

 

To me an intellectual is somebody who has an interest on any science or any art, somebody who goes beyond what is given to them and feels the need to feed her brain, as well as the need to think about whatever topic of choice with the goal of knowing more. Obviously this person does it because she enjoys it, not just to face the crowd/parents with any lousy paper that says anything about how clever they are. They are the ones that fuel progress, regardless if they want to get rich or not, what they are after is improvement, so I don't see moral stuff like 'greed' as an obstacle for being an intellectual, as many people tend to do.

Don't like compliments, and I'm not interested on being judged by anybody, even the ones I care about, so I don't think I'd have a smile or anything like that. Not that I smile often anyways...

 

I associate 'intellectual' with 'well-read'.
Intellectual people, in my eyes, are smart people who know a lot because they read a lot, and well.

 

I chose other because everyone is an intellectual at something whether it be sports or arts or academics. People can excell outside of education. I consider an intellectual someone who is intelligent about what they do. Yoo can't really measure intelligence on paper .

 

It's the nature of the person. I've met people who are hard working, problem solvers and have a wide vocabulary. Often, these people perform poorly in an academic setting, whilst people like me, who achieve high grades, have no idea how to function in the real world, outside of a classroom.

 

Its a combination.
A lot of academic prowess, great taste in literature, a penchant for knowing things, an insatiable hunger for knowledge, beebopping around different subjects, etc.

 

As others have noted, you forgot to include a "pretentious snob" option.