Intellectual facts for kids

The American intellectual Jacques Barzun was a teacher, a man of letters, and a scholar

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. Often, intellectuals are authors, artists, people who write columns for newspapers and magazines, and college professors.

In the 20th century, the term Intellectual acquired positive connotations of social prestige, derived from possessing intellect and intelligence, especially when the intellectual's activities showed positive consequences in the public sphere and so increased the intellectual understanding of the public.

Images for kids

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  Erasmus of Rotterdam was one of the foremost intellectuals of his time.

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  Foreign Policy magazine named the lawyer Shirin Ebadi a leading intellectual for her work protecting human rights in Iran.

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  The front page of L'Aurore (13 January 1898) featured Émile Zola's open letter J'Accuse…! asking the French President Félix Faure to resolve the Dreyfus affair

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  The Congregational theologian Edwards Amasa Park proposed segregating the intellectuals from the public sphere of society in the United States

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  The economist Milton Friedman identified the intelligentsia and the business class as interfering with capitalism.

See also

In Spanish: Intelectual para niños