Intellectualism

thumb|Prominent contemporary public intellectuals include (left to right): Yuval Noah Harari|Harari, Chomsky, Žižek

thumb|300px|"Evening Party" by Vladimir Makovsky (1897). Three generations of Russian intelligentsia discuss current issues. The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the intelligentsia consists of scholars, academics, teachers, journalists, and literary writers. Conceptually, the intelligentsia status class arose in the late 18th century, during the Partitions of Poland (1772–1795). Etymologically,

thumb|right|300px|The intellect comprises the rational and the [[logical aspects of the human mind.]]

Intellectualism is the mental perspective that emphasizes the use, development, and exercise of the intellect, and is identified with the life of the mind of the intellectual. In the field of philosophy, the term intellectualism indicates one of two ways of critically thinking about the character of the world: (i) rationalism, which is knowledge derived solely from reason; and (ii) empiricism, which is knowledge derived solely from sense experience. Each intellectual approach attempts to eliminate fallacies that ignore, mistake, or distort evidence about "what ought to be" instead of "what is"

In psychology, intellectualization (intellectualisation) is a defense mechanism by which reasoning is used to block confrontation with an unconscious conflict and its associated emotional stress – where thinking is used to avoid feeling. It involves emotionally removing one's self from a stressful event. Intellectualization may accompany, but is different from, rationalization, the pseudo-rational justification of irrational acts.

freedom to receive and give information from all points of view

Perspicacity (also called perspicaciousness) is a penetrating discernment (from the Latin , meaning throughsightedness, discrimination)—a clarity of vision or intellect which provides a deep understanding and insight. It extends the concept of wisdom by denoting a keenness of sense and intelligence applied to insight. It has been described as a deeper level of internalization. Another definition refers to it as the "ability to recognize subtle differences between similar objects or ideas".

period of intellectual movements in Iran from the late 19th century to the early 20th