Intellectualism

Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.

Frederick Douglass

I could understand ignorance, but I could not accept its glorification, still less its right to rule.

Jung Chang, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

Intellectualism is a stance that emphasises the use, development, and exercise of the intellect, and is identified with the life of the mind of the intellectual.

The term usually indicates one of two ways of critically thinking about the character of the world: Rationalism and Empiricism. Each intellectual approach attempts to eliminate fallacies that ignore, mistake, or distort evidence about "what ought to be" instead of "what is" the character of the world.

Intellectualism posits that reason, critical thinking, and knowledge are the pinnacle of human achievement. Rational thought is the primary means of understanding reality and solving problems.

Intellectualism promotes questioning assumptions, traditions, and dogmas. It values evidence-based reasoning over blind faith or emotional impulses. Truth is sought through inquiry and rational discourse.

Morality should be guided by reason rather than emotion, instinct, or religious dogma. Ethical decisions should be made based on logical principles and philosophical reasoning rather than tradition or subjective feeling.

Intellectualism often holds that intellectual and academic pursuits are superior to purely physical or material pursuits. A life dedicated to knowledge and thought is seen as more fulfilling than one focused solely on wealth, power, or physical pleasure.

Moral intellectualism is a meta-ethical view positing that genuine moral knowledge is gained through intellectual understanding, leading to virtuous actions.

Rooted in Socrates' philosophy, it argues that true moral behavior stems from grasping what is right through reason, rather than being driven by mere emotion or unexamined social conventions. Therefore, to know the good is to do the good, as wrongdoing is understood as a failure of knowledge or reason.

Theological Intellectualism is a philosophical concept in theology that holds the intellect is superior to the will, meaning that volitional choices stem from what the intellect recognises as good, and these intellectual recognitions determine the will. This position contrasts with theological voluntarism, which asserts the superiority of the will. Key proponents of theological intellectualism include Thomas Aquinas and Averroës.

Related philosophies: Voluntarism, Marxism

It is certain that knowledge of the liberal arts is quite necessary to a nation, but it is equally certain that they must not be taught willy-nilly to anyone. Just as a body that had eyes on every part would be monstrous, so a realm would be, if every one of its subjects was a learned man. One would see there very little obedience, and pride and presumption would be quite ordinary. [...] The trade of words would banish the trade of merchandise, which makes nations prosperous; it would ruin agriculture, which is the nourishing mother of nations; [...] France would soon be overwhelmed by nitpickers who would ruin families and stir up endless trouble. If the liberal arts were made profane by being spread to all sorts of minds, we would see more people capable of creating doubt than people capable of clearing it up, and many more people trained to oppose truth than to defend it. It is for these reasons that statesmen, in a properly-ordered realm, want more masters in mechanical arts than masters in humanities.

Cardinal Richelieu

In philosophy, Criticism of Intellectualism is a position that opposes intellectualism. It is not to be confused with anti-intellectualism – a sentiment of hostility towards, or mistrust of, intellectuals and intellectual pursuits.

The Marxist criticism of intellectualism emphasizes the struggle against the construction of an intellectual elite that serves bourgeois interests, and the counter-effort to develop a revolutionary intellectual praxis rooted in the material conditions and emancipation of the class.

Related philosophies: Theological Voluntarism, Moral Universalism, Scotism

Theological Intellectualism is mainly criticised by Bl. Duns Scotus and other Voluntarists. WIP

When one thousand people are engaged in agriculture and warfare, yet there is a single man among them engaged in Poems, Documents, argumentativeness and cleverness, then one thousand people all will become remiss in agriculture and warfare. This is the teaching that impoverishes the state and weakens the army.

Shang Yang, The Book of Lord Shang

Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?

Joseph Stalin

The so-called intellectuals represent the biggest problem facing Africa today. With their foreign culture they are contaminating our environment.

Francisco Macías Nguema

Anti-Intellectualism is hostility to and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism. Anti-intellectuals may present themselves and be perceived as "champions of common folk" – populists against political and academic elitism – and tend to see educated people as a status class that dominates political discourse and higher education while being detached from the concerns of "ordinary people".

Anti-intellectualism is most commonly associated with Dogmatism, Obscurantism, and the authoritarian personality type, aswell as with totalitarian governments, as they manipulate and apply anti-intellectualism to repress political dissent.

If Western, can be portrayed as speaking in either British English (Received Pronunciation) or Midwestern American English. Otherwise, he speaks with the standardised version of any language.

• Meritocracy, Noocracy and Technocracy - Best forms of government!
• Rationalism and Empiricism - We will discover the truth through reason and experience!
• Skepticism - Oh, where would we be and what would we have without you, dear friend?
• Socratism - Big thanks for founding Moral Intellectualism.
• Agnosticism - "Well, let me put it this way....... No, I'm not going to try to be clever. I really don't know. I just don't know."
• Thomism - Scotus was wrong; the will is subject to the intellect.
• Dengism - Thank you for saving China from the straightjacket of Maoism, liberalizing ( at least at first) and opening up the country, carrying out much needed reforms and instituting Technocracy and Meritocracy.

• Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment - The former try to paint themselves as me while claiming the latter is against me, but I have had supporters from both sides.
• Atheism and Theism - Intellectuals often tend to prefer some form of Agnosticism, but again, I've had plenty of supporters from both sides.
• Irrationalism - Speaking of, rationally criticising Rationalism, while seemingly contradictory, has partial merit. The idea that humanity's reason does have its limits sometimes... is worth considering too.
• Scientism - Science is one of the most reliable ways to understand the world, yes. But if I'm being honest, I think you are rather dogmatic. I much prefer Scientific Realism over you.
• Anti-Philosophy - You attack philosophy... with philosophy itself? Paradox level: expert. And yet, somehow it still works.

• Dogmatism - Certainty without reason is just guesswork.
• Fideism - Give me a valid reason to believe, and then I will.
• Voluntarism - The will is subject to the intellect, not the other way around! And by the way, some of your political theories and applications keep saying "action is of value in itself and should be taken without intellectual reflection"? I wonder where have I heard that before?
• Kakistocracy - Now, I don't like to strawman my opposition. However, this... unfortunately, isn't a strawman.
• Totalitarianism - L-look, a-all I said w-was valid criticism of yo- *gets apprehended by secret police and disappeared*
  • Looks like you've had a bit too much to think!
• Actual Idealism and Aryanism - "The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other." Also, screw you, Gentile; I'm not a "sickness of the intellect"!
• Maoism - I know what you did. And you even infected Qian Xuesen, you monster.

Yes – it is true that under democracy the legislative power is often "motley" or heterogeneous, although it does not necessarily have to be "irresponsible". But is it any better when legislative power ends up in the hands of a Bolshevik "Supreme Soviet", whose composition is by no means motley and which unanimously approves whatever Stalin and his clique require, in doing so paying no heed to the real needs of the people? I set Bolshevism against democracy for this reason: I believe that if you remove from a state's political life the dictatorship, the terror, and the fear of opposing the ruling clique, then in any legislative body – even one assembled not on a party basis but on any other principle – the votes of representatives will, in the majority of cases, be divided; complete unanimity will almost never occur, and therefore such a representation will always be "motley". Hence we face a choice: either we do not follow the Bolshevik path and therefore will always, to some degree, have a "motley" representative body; or we make the Bolshevik "Supreme Soviet" our ideal, and then we must, evidently, follow the Bolshevik way.

Petro Fedun

• Intellectualism
  • Moral Intellectualism
  • Theological Intellectualism
• Anti-Intellectualism
  • Persecuted Intellectuals

• Petro Fedun
• Jung Chang
• Józef Bańka ( Polish)

• Między recentywizmem a etyką prostomyślności by Księga Jubileuszowa _{(In Polish)}

• Why Conservatives Need To Embrace Idealism by Lavader

Fedunism:

• The chief ideologist of the UPA was a Epicurean by Volodymyr Hinda _{(In Ukrainian)}

• Город Глуповъ (Town Foolsburg) (Temporarily defunct)
• Табакерка (The Snuffbox)