What do you think is the difference between someone who is intelligent and someone who is intellectual?

My husband is intelligent. He has a good mind, a quick wit, and a memory like a steel trap. He can perform complex mathematical calculations in his head without trouble.

He is not an intellectual. He is content to get information from biased documentaries without having the slightest urge to hunt down and confirm the information via the primary source. He values opinion as much as fact. He makes decisions based on emotion as much as logic. He gets annoyed when he asks what he considers a yes/no question and I dig for clarification before answering.

And let’s be honest, I’m thankful for it. If there were two of me in this relationship nothing would ever get done.

For example, people who can articulate that what Trump is doing, (attempting to buy the presidency and how that is beyond horrid) are intellectuals.

The intelligent or borderline intelligent know instinctively that if their kids’s teacher or the boss or others without billions of dollars said the kinds of things he’s been saying, it would be outrage.

Is this good? http://whatis.thedifferencebetween.com/compare/intellectual-and-intelligent/ I haven’t read it.

@Seek nailed it. One can be intelligent without being an. intellectual. The obverse is not true. The intellectual applies his or her intelligence to the pursuit of knowledge through study.

You can be intelligent and wrong. There are some very intelligent people who have some crazy ideas. I think being an intellectual means you are intelligent AND you research/verify those beliefs against the best known science, research, data, historical proof, literary resources, etc.

This is much along the same lines as @Seek‘s answer.

It’s important to clarify further… an “intellectual” can be someone who is schooled and can use big words but is still functionally stupid. An intellectual is someone who is schooled either officially in an academic setting or self taught that know what they are talking about in a particular area. A detail person is intelligent and will ask for clarification to yes or no questions but may not have specific knowledge on a particular subject. An intelligent person is just smart but may or may not apply those talents. None are mutually exclusive. For example: a philosopher is an intellectual when they talk about Kant but an “intellectual” when the talk with authority on a subject they don’t know about like physics.

Intelligence is a gift; intellectualism is a pursuit.

I love this question.

I think everybody done said it. Natural intelligence allows one to see connections ontuitively, but intellect asks, “Why?”
I guess intellect is a lot like a 3 year old!

They are not the same thing. Intelligence is more about your capacity to understand the problem. Intellectualism is more about how you go about solving the problem. An intellectual is more likely to come up with a theoretical solution.

A intellectual learns from books and experience. A person who is intelligent has fantastic common sense.

I would call the “common sense” person wise, more than intelligent. Totally different D&D stat.

Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.

Intelligence is the ability to solve problems. I think of intellects as having an academic slant, being able to contextualize in terms of history or science and having an interest in knowledge for its own sake.

Actually, often times intelligent people lack common sense.

Perhaps the intellectual results from the pairing of intelligence with curiosity

I think people give the “book smart” but lacks “street smarts/common sense” stereotype a lot more credibility than it deserves. I’ve known some very bright “book smart” people and they all have common sense too. Some that are truly sheltered may be overly trusting of other people, but generally not complete morons. I think a lot of what constitutes “street smarts” really just distills down to being mistrustful of other people.

That attitude can be harmful in academics because collaboration is generally pretty critical for achieving success in the upper levels of academia.

I’m not sure where the origin of “the book smart, street dumb nerd” came from. I do wonder if it’s a stereotype that originated back in the day based on people on the autism spectrum (likely before there ever was an autism spectrum).

I’d say that “intellectualism” is a culture that enshrines thought and ideas. An intellectual, then, is someone who embraces that culture. As a culture, it has its own language, mannerisms, trappings, codes, heirarchy and criteria for inclusion.

One can certainly be highly intelligent yet have no interest in that particular culture.

I think Ben Carson may be a prime example of someone who is intelligent, but doesn’t know what to do with it out side of his field.