intellectualismn.
/ˌɪntᵻˈlɛktʃʊəlɪz(ə)m/, /ˌɪntᵻˈlɛktʃᵿlɪz(ə)m/, /ˌɪntᵻˈlɛktʃl̩ɪz(ə)m/, /ˌɪntᵻˈlɛktjʊəlɪz(ə)m/, /ˌɪntᵻˈlɛktjᵿlɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /ˌɪn(t)əˈlɛk(t)ʃ(əw)əˌlɪz(ə)m/ 1. The practice of apprehending something only with the intellect; the exercise of the intellect alone. Also: devotion to intellectual pursuits.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > intellectual superiority > [noun] > intellectual matters > devotion to
intellectualism1800
bluestockingism1812
blue1824
cerebralism1881
eggheadism1956
egg-headedness1959
eggheadery1962
1800 A. Plumptre tr. J. K. A. Musäus Physiognomical Trav. I. v. 46 The poetical, heaven-directed aetherial soul, which, wrapt in its intellectualism [Ger. idealische Innigkeit], is to the material world a mere non-entity.
1838 W. E. Gladstone State Relations with Church (1839) 317 The advocates of this theory often deprecate, in words, a mere naked intellectualism.
1859 I. Taylor Logic in Theol. 309 Courting whatever diversions I can find in a sensuous, or a frivolous life, or in a cold intellectualism.
1873 M. Arnold Lit. & Dogma viii. 263 Religion is no intellectualism, but righteousness.
1921 M. Ginsberg Psychol. of Society iii. 35 This anti-intellectualism is really open to much the same sort of objections as the ‘intellectualism’ which it attacks.
1995 B. Sidran Black Talk (new ed.) p. vii (caption) Charles Mingus, an important figure in the transition from the intellectualism of post-war bebop to the emotionalism of 1960s ‘free’ jazz.
2001 FourFourTwo Sept. 77/1 There's a thoroughness of thought and refreshing lack of self-consciousness that displays a lightly worn intellectualism.
2. Philosophy. The doctrine that knowledge is wholly or mainly derived from the action of the intellect or from pure reason. Cf. rationalism n. 2a.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > rationalism > [noun] > intellectualism and its adherents
intellectualist1605
intellectualism1829
1829 W. Hamilton in Edinb. Rev. Oct. 196 Rationalism (more properly Intellectualism) has, from his [sc. Leibnitz's] time, always remained the favorite philosophy of the Germans.
1848 R. I. Wilberforce Incarnation (1852) xiv. 401 The opposite system, which may be called Intellectualism..To Locke's principle, ‘Nihil in intellectu nisi quod prius fuerit in sensu’, he [sc. Leibnitz] added, ‘nisi ipse intellectus’.
1854 J. F. Ferrier Inst. Metaphysic 280 A middle course between two extremes, by which the Scylla of an excessive sensualism is avoided on the one hand, and the Charybdis of an extravagant intellectualism on the other.
1905 Athenæum Feb. 170 Psychology pushes its claim to be the propaedeutic of metaphysics, with dire results to intellectualism.
1996 R. H. Bork Slouching towards Gomorrah i. v. 85 When certain types of German intellectualism turned against religion, there occurred ‘the rise of the economic, eschatological faith of socialism.’
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1800