NationStates Jolt Archive

What is your definition of a pseudo-intellectual?

A pseudo-intellectual is any intellectual the speaker disagrees with.

I started this thread because I think that I may be a bit of a pseudo-intellectual. I pride myself in being intelligent and learned, it's the only thing I'm good at. I answer teacher's questions a lot and I help my classmates with their work a lot. I know many things which are useless or abnormal things for a 17-year-old to know. I also tend to dislike modern movies/books/music, most of the books I read are classical in nature. Am I a pseudo-intellectual?

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I started this thread because I think that I may be a bit of a pseudo-intellectual. I pride myself in being intelligent and learned, it's the only thing I'm good at. I answer teacher's questions a lot and I help my classmates with their work a lot. I know many things which are useless or abnormal things for a 17-year-old to know. I also tend to dislike modern movies/books/music, most of the books I read are classical in nature. Am I a pseudo-intellectual?

[/insecurity]

I wouldn't say you're a pseudo-intellectual, but you're not as unique as you may think you are. I'm not trying to be mean, but you're describing the person that tends to congregate in NS anyway.

I always thought a pseudo-intellectual is someone who pretends to be intelligent and well-informed with the intent of impressing others but really isn't. I guess it could also be an intelligent person who acts like an ass because they have a sense of superiority inspired by their knowledge.

I always thought a pseudo-intellectual is someone who pretends to be intelligent and well-informed with the intent of impressing others but really isn't. I guess it could also be an intelligent person who acts like an ass because they have a sense of superiority inspired by their knowledge.

Agreed

I guess it could also be an intelligent person who acts like an ass because they have a sense of superiority inspired by their knowledge.

That wouldn't be a pseudo-intellectual, just an intellectual asshole.

Yeah. A good example for me would actually be a guy a met today.
So I'm heading to a class, and hop on to the campus transit. I sit next to a guy holding a book under his arm, with a bookmark a good bit into it. I notice that it's a book I've read: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama. So, deciding to be a a bit social, I start trying to chat a bit with him on his opinions on the ideas expressed in the book. I just got an uncomprehending stare. He tried to make some comments, but he didn't seem like he'd READ any of the damn thing.

Another example:
This one girl in one of my classes wants to study for a test with me. So we walk back to her dorm, and I see, on her bookshelf, Sun Tzu's Art of War, Macchiaveli's The Prince, and Darwin's The Origin of Species. I tried to talk a bit about them, you know, between studying. She clearly hadn't read them! She, at least, admitted that she'd only put them on her shelf because she wanted to look sophisticated and intelligent.

I always thought a pseudo-intellectual is someone who pretends to be intelligent and well-informed with the intent of impressing others but really isn't. I guess it could also be an intelligent person who acts like an ass because they have a sense of superiority inspired by their knowledge.

Agreed, and I would also like to add that the pseduo-intellectuals that I've met has this air of smudginess and elitism about them.

A pseudo-intellectual is any intellectual the speaker disagrees with.
I like that definition. :D

A psuedo intellectual is someone who just can't spell pseudo.:D

I started this thread because I think that I may be a bit of a pseudo-intellectual. I pride myself in being intelligent and learned, it's the only thing I'm good at. I answer teacher's questions a lot and I help my classmates with their work a lot. I know many things which are useless or abnormal things for a 17-year-old to know. I also tend to dislike modern movies/books/music, most of the books I read are classical in nature. Am I a pseudo-intellectual?

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There are exceptions, but I find few intelligent youths to be intellectual with all the implicit connotations the word carries. Semi-intellectual, perhaps. As far as I am concerned, an intellectual must be well-read, scholarly, intelligent and have a clear understanding of how the world operates. This is something that requires both maturity and a potent mind. I agree with Vetalia that a pseudo-intellectual is more someone who seeks to impress others with their knowledge moreso than anything else.

I certainly do not consider myself intellectual, or even semi-intellectual - not yet anyway.

I started this thread because I think that I may be a bit of a pseudo-intellectual. I pride myself in being intelligent and learned, it's the only thing I'm good at. I answer teacher's questions a lot and I help my classmates with their work a lot. I know many things which are useless or abnormal things for a 17-year-old to know. I also tend to dislike modern movies/books/music, most of the books I read are classical in nature. Am I a pseudo-intellectual?

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If you're 17 then you arent eligible for being an intellectual anyway, so you're a pseudo-intellectual at best.

I dont consider anyone a real intellectual until he is sufficiently old and experienced, and has devoted enough of his life to intellectual pursuits. A hard age to pin down, but maybe 40 is a good place to start.

In my college career, I have had two real intellectuals, by my estimation, as professors.

It takes not only a life dedicated to and made by learning, but also genuine insight, rigor and intellect.

If you're 17 then you arent eligible for being an intellectual anyway, so you're a pseudo-intellectual at best.

I dont consider anyone a real intellectual until he is sufficiently old and experienced, and has devoted enough of his life to intellectual pursuits. A hard age to pin down, but maybe 40 is a good place to start.
You echoed my thoughts. :) Although, I do not think being young alone makes you a pseudo-intellectual. Semi-intellectual, maybe.

So far I think I have met one intellectual as a professor at university - my Economics tutor. Extremely well-rounded guy, and highly knowledgeable. I consider it a blessing to have encountered him. Unlike other professors he actually goes behind the diagrams, and teaches us how to think like Economists (focusing on things such as methodology and epistemology in economics), rather than just biological automatons storing textbook information.

Semi-intellectual, maybe.

Perhaps a proto-intellectual?

Perhaps a proto-intellectual?
Yes, that is a better term. :)

Perhaps a proto-intellectual?

Well, if you wanted to be intellectual about it....

I agree with the notion that a pseudo intellectual can be someone who either imagines themselves or pretends at being an intellectual. But I also think the phrase can have yet another meaning, referring to someone who intentionally employs 'pseudo intellect' in order to further their own ends.

I've only run into one person who I'd say truly qualifies for the title of pseudointellectual. Some woman (IF she was telling the truth about her age *looks askance* ) I ran into a few years ago on another forum. And one was more than enough!

She would act all smug and superior--VERY elitist, and make comments about how she read these "deep" books nobody'd ever heard of. Books which, it became apparent, she chose precisely *because* nobody had heard of them, and therefore nobody could offer any critiques when she claimed the authors held all these great insights into life (and other blah-blah to that effect). And they weren't popular, not because they suck, but because hardly anyone could understand them.

She was practically a caricature of intellectualism, yet took herself with sickening seriousness.

Then she made one fatal mistake: In the heat of argument, she linked to an online version of one of these books. And, being the opposition in that argument, I bothered to read some passages.

Turns out the so-called "great philosopher" (I forgot who it was) had strung together a bunch of stuff in such a way as to seem deep, but which literally meant nothing. Some arguments canceled each other out, others went in circles...but the bottom line was it was a bunch of zero.

Once I dissected it and proved its nothingness, she suddenly stopped posting about what she was reading. :p

The basic personality didn't change, though...she just moved on to other subjects.

I started this thread because I think that I may be a bit of a pseudo-intellectual. I pride myself in being intelligent and learned, it's the only thing I'm good at. I answer teacher's questions a lot and I help my classmates with their work a lot. I know many things which are useless or abnormal things for a 17-year-old to know. I also tend to dislike modern movies/books/music, most of the books I read are classical in nature. Am I a pseudo-intellectual?

[/insecurity]
Nah. If you really were a psuedo-intellectual, you would have said "learnéd". :p

It usually makes me think of people who use big words when they don't have to. Their superfluous and flagrantly boastful verbiage intimates an atmosphere of intellectual and psychosocial aggressiveness and insecurity that stricken me with nigh-apoplectic ire . :D

Another example:
This one girl in one of my classes wants to study for a test with me. So we walk back to her dorm, and I see, on her bookshelf, Sun Tzu's Art of War, Macchiaveli's The Prince, and Darwin's The Origin of Species. I tried to talk a bit about them, you know, between studying. She clearly hadn't read them! She, at least, admitted that she'd only put them on her shelf because she wanted to look sophisticated and intelligent.

Great Books Of Western Civilization Used To Accent Den
October 21, 1998 | Issue 34•12

BETHESDA, MD–Beautiful, hand-tooled, leather-bound copies of the greatest works of Western literature "really spiffed up" the den of Elaine Gadsen Monday. "I just love the way the gold embossing on The Great Gatsby balances out that plainer-looking Dickens book on the end," Gadsen said. "And the bright red spine on that one by Faust really looks great over the couch." Gadsen has instructed her housekeeper to dust the books monthly.

From the Onion (http://www.theonion.com/content/node/31950).

Another example:
This one girl in one of my classes wants to study for a test with me. So we walk back to her dorm, and I see, on her bookshelf, Sun Tzu's Art of War, Macchiaveli's The Prince, and Darwin's The Origin of Species. I tried to talk a bit about them, you know, between studying. She clearly hadn't read them! She, at least, admitted that she'd only put them on her shelf because she wanted to look sophisticated and intelligent.
That I cannot comprehend. If I buy a book (and I buy far too many, as it is), I will read it... eventually. What is the point of simply decorating your bookshelf with them? :confused: I love this obsession with the Prince though. I read it last year - and it is very different to what I had anticipated it to be. I was expecting something akin to a medieval version of Nietzsche.

I love this obsession with the Prince though. I read it last year - and it is very different to what I had expected it to be.
I read a good size excerpt from it a few months ago. Guy doesn't deserve the reputation he has. Especially since he basically invented checks and balances and three-branched government in his other work that no one remembers, The Discorsi.

I read a good size excerpt from it a few months ago. Guy doesn't deserve the reputation he has. Especially since he basically invented checks and balances and three-branched government in his other work that no one remembers, The Discorsi.
Exactly. I was somewhat underwhelmed. What his work (in The Prince) came down to was a political manual for the Medici. Some of his insights were interesting though. His synonymity with evil itself is odd indeed.

What is your definition of a pseudo-intellectual?

Someone who tries to pass as an intellectual but fails miserably for one reason or another. Oftentimes they try simply to boost their ego or make themselves look better in a debate. Of course technically it's more of a case by case definition than an actual type of person...all of us act psuedo-intelligently about one subject or another occasionally.

I started this thread because I think that I may be a bit of a pseudo-intellectual. I pride myself in being intelligent and learned, it's the only thing I'm good at. I answer teacher's questions a lot and I help my classmates with their work a lot. I know many things which are useless or abnormal things for a 17-year-old to know. I also tend to dislike modern movies/books/music, most of the books I read are classical in nature. Am I a pseudo-intellectual?

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A psuedo-intellectual is one who pretends to knowledge he/she doesn't have.

I started this thread because I think that I may be a bit of a pseudo-intellectual. I pride myself in being intelligent and learned, it's the only thing I'm good at. I answer teacher's questions a lot and I help my classmates with their work a lot. I know many things which are useless or abnormal things for a 17-year-old to know. I also tend to dislike modern movies/books/music, most of the books I read are classical in nature. Am I a pseudo-intellectual?

[/insecurity]

To me, you'd only be a pseud if you were doing these things because you thought it made you look smart. Like if you actually secretly liked comics but weren't prepared to read them for fear of spoiling your image.
If you genuinely prefer classic novels, fine.

This thread makes my brain hurt...:(

i think it's a term coined to discredit anyone who attempts to be honest with themselves. just like the term political correctness was coined to belittle any sort of real and honest morality.

of course there ARE people who attempt to sound like they know what their talking about while steadfastly refusing to do even a little bit of homework to have the slightest idea what they actually are.

somehow i doubt there is any of us who haven't fudged at least a little once in a while.

the biggest offenders though are probably fanatics (of every belief, idiology and anything else that does so) who deny reason and by doing so, deny also that their very thoughtlessness causes more suffering and harm then is caused deliberately and with malice of forethought.

=^^=
.../\...

What is your definition of a pseudo-intellectual?

A forum poster on NS General.

The hallmark of a pseudo-intellectual is their "generalizations".

A pseudo-intellectual believes superficial knowledge about a subject entitles him to discuss it like he is a master of it. Meaning he discuss about everything believing he knows enough about it, and gets pissed off if someone doesnt respect him.

A real intellectual knows his field of knowledge and knows there are many things he doesnt know or care about. And that doesnt make him less of a scholar or intellectual.

Also, pseudo-intelectuals try to keep their self-steem based on their idea of themselves. If someone offends that idea, they usually turns ugly and ignore or fight back any atempt to diminish their "intellectual" look.

I started this thread because I think that I may be a bit of a pseudo-intellectual. I pride myself in being intelligent and learned, it's the only thing I'm good at. I answer teacher's questions a lot and I help my classmates with their work a lot. I know many things which are useless or abnormal things for a 17-year-old to know. I also tend to dislike modern movies/books/music, most of the books I read are classical in nature. Am I a pseudo-intellectual?

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Heheh it's an insult man, it's like saying you're a pretend intelectual, you don't know as much as you think you do. Why would anybody want to call themsleves one?

just like the term political correctness was coined to belittle any sort of real and honest morality.
Erm, no. It was coined to belittle any sort of attempt to cloak one's real sentiments in the name of not offending someone else. Being polite is fine and all; lying/obscuring your words to satisfy others, that is not. And it is the latter political correctness typically refers to.

In answer to the OP, 99% of what I've seen on NSG.

Someone that read the wikipedia entry and thinks they are an expert.

In answer to the OP, 99% of what I've seen on NSG.

Oh, snap!

Someone that read the wikipedia entry and thinks they are an expert.

Bwhahahahahah :D

What is your definition of a pseudo-intellectual?Someone that uses faulty logic or inconclusive evidence to defend a position that has been proven absurd by more reliable means.

It's somebody who uses stupid terms like "pseudo-intellectual" to make ad hominem attacks instead of debating.

I think that pseudo-intellectuals are basically trendwhores, who choose certain aspects of culture that others perceive to be intellectual (i.e. people who wear Che Guevarra shirts), while having no independent thought of their own.

Oh, snap!

Well, it's true... :p

If you're 17 then you arent eligible for being an intellectual anyway, so you're a pseudo-intellectual at best.

I dont consider anyone a real intellectual until he is sufficiently old and experienced, and has devoted enough of his life to intellectual pursuits. A hard age to pin down, but maybe 40 is a good place to start.
I've never considered myself to be one, just a good student who likes to read.

Yeah. A good example for me would actually be a guy a met today.
So I'm heading to a class, and hop on to the campus transit. I sit next to a guy holding a book under his arm, with a bookmark a good bit into it. I notice that it's a book I've read: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama. So, deciding to be a a bit social, I start trying to chat a bit with him on his opinions on the ideas expressed in the book. I just got an uncomprehending stare. He tried to make some comments, but he didn't seem like he'd READ any of the damn thing.
I own a few books, all of which I've read.
I think that pseudo-intellectuals are basically trendwhores, who choose certain aspects of culture that others perceive to be intellectual (i.e. people who wear Che Guevarra shirts), while having no independent thought of their own.

That's generally my idea of what a pseudo-intellectual is, I tend to see these sort of people a lot at my school.

To me, you'd only be a pseud if you were doing these things because you thought it made you look smart. Like if you actually secretly liked comics but weren't prepared to read them for fear of spoiling your image.
If you genuinely prefer classic novels, fine.

While I do read classics, I also read more modern books, I've the Lord of The Rings series, and the Harry Potter series, I liked them both(although Harry Potter has some plot issues).