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You're free to use your own definition for any word you like, but that's not what anti-intellectualism means to the rest of the world. > Anti-intellectualism i

by epgui 4y ago

You're free to use your own definition for any word you like, but that's not what anti-intellectualism means to the rest of the world. > Anti-intellectualism is hostility to and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism, commonly expressed as deprecation of education and philosophy and the dismissal of art, literature, and science as impractical, politically motivated, and even contemptible human pursuits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism#Education_and_knowledge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism#Education...

cmrdporcupine 4y ago
Shrug. You're failing to use your intellect to read the whole definition you just copypastad and see how it might relate to what the commenter said: we're often putting primacy on achievement in mathematics as a gate blocking all the other intellectual pursuits mentioned. Not to mention the bias engineering disciplines seem to have, specifically against art and literature as can be witnessed half the time these topics come on this very forum.
- epgui 4y ago
  I will agree that these things you're naming are "bad things", just like anti-intellectualism is a "bad thing", or that they are counter-productive, or misguided... But they are not anti-intellectual. Can't just lump and confound all the bad categories of things, precision matters.
- simiones 4y ago
  I think the point they're trying to make is that anti-intellectualism means distrust of all intellectual pursuits and those who pursue them, not some specific ones. For example, let's say there is a group that believes that only those that study rock music are truly intellectual, and holds them in high esteem, while thinking that all others (including physicists, great writers, prophets etc) are lesser minds and not worth paying attention to. This group is not anti-intellectual, as they hold intellectuals in high regard, though having a wildly off-kilter definition of one. In contrast, many groups view study itself as a bad activity, and those that practice it as haughty, distant, idealistic, and generally not worth listening to - these groups are what it means to be anti-intellectual; the kind that praise "street smarts" far above "book learning". People advocating for math education as the most important form of human thought are nothing alike (though I do agree they are also wrong, in different ways).
  - epgui 4y ago
    Ahh, yes, the glorification of "street smarts" over the pursuit of knowledge... That really grinds my gears, good example! I think it's possible for someone to have an anti-intellectual attitude with respect to a subset of domains, however. For example, if I believe there's no real purpose to learning more mathematics, then that's an anti-intellectual attitude towards maths. If I believe there's no real purpose to learning more about music, that's also an anti-intellectual attitude towards the study of music. (Side note: if I believe there's no use studying homeopathy, well... that's not anti-intellectual, that's just correctly recognizing that homeopathy is not an epistemic domain, ie.: that it is a pseudoscience.)

by epgui 4y ago

cmrdporcupine 4y ago

Shrug. You're failing to use your intellect to read the whole definition you just copypastad and see how it might relate to what the commenter said: we're often putting primacy on achievement in mathematics as a gate blocking all the other intellectual pursuits mentioned. Not to mention the bias engineering disciplines seem to have, specifically against art and literature as can be witnessed half the time these topics come on this very forum.

epgui 4y ago
I will agree that these things you're naming are "bad things", just like anti-intellectualism is a "bad thing", or that they are counter-productive, or misguided... But they are not anti-intellectual. Can't just lump and confound all the bad categories of things, precision matters.
simiones 4y ago
I think the point they're trying to make is that anti-intellectualism means distrust of all intellectual pursuits and those who pursue them, not some specific ones. For example, let's say there is a group that believes that only those that study rock music are truly intellectual, and holds them in high esteem, while thinking that all others (including physicists, great writers, prophets etc) are lesser minds and not worth paying attention to. This group is not anti-intellectual, as they hold intellectuals in high regard, though having a wildly off-kilter definition of one. In contrast, many groups view study itself as a bad activity, and those that practice it as haughty, distant, idealistic, and generally not worth listening to - these groups are what it means to be anti-intellectual; the kind that praise "street smarts" far above "book learning". People advocating for math education as the most important form of human thought are nothing alike (though I do agree they are also wrong, in different ways).
- epgui 4y ago
  Ahh, yes, the glorification of "street smarts" over the pursuit of knowledge... That really grinds my gears, good example! I think it's possible for someone to have an anti-intellectual attitude with respect to a subset of domains, however. For example, if I believe there's no real purpose to learning more mathematics, then that's an anti-intellectual attitude towards maths. If I believe there's no real purpose to learning more about music, that's also an anti-intellectual attitude towards the study of music. (Side note: if I believe there's no use studying homeopathy, well... that's not anti-intellectual, that's just correctly recognizing that homeopathy is not an epistemic domain, ie.: that it is a pseudoscience.)