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Pseudointellectual is a pejorative term used to describe someone who engages in false intellectualism or is intellectually dishonest. The term is often, though not always, used to describe one who regularly critiques the work of professionals, while lacking the requisite background knowledge and experience to have an informed opinion. Image File history File links Circle-question. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... It has been suggested that French Wiktionary be merged into this article or section. ... A word or phrase is pejorative if it implies contempt or disapproval. ... An intellectual is a person who uses his or her intellect to study, reflect, and speculate on a variety of different ideas. ...

A pseudointellectual may affect traits that he associates with persons of intellectual privilege, such as the display of books, classical music and art or the use of complex language, for the purpose of seeming intellectual. Classical music is a broad, somewhat imprecise term, referring to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, European art, ecclesiastical and concert music, encompassing a broad period from roughly 1000 to the present day. ... The Bath, a painting by Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). ...

Blind criticism of popular consumer products and mass market products cannot be considered pseudointellectualism, as most popular products do not profess to appeal to the intellectual. Yet blanket calumnies against popular culture genres generally perceived as intellectually complex, in favor of some older genre solely for its historical age exemplify the actions of a pseudointellectual. In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or need. ... Mass-marketing is the process of widely marketing a mass-produced item. ...

Someone who comments on, or is knowledgeable of, disciplines outside his or her own field of study is not a pseudointellectual, as long as he or she is intellectually honest and does not misrepresent his or her own background and understanding of the subject. For example, polymaths are not considered pseudointellectuals. Ironically enough, the 'wikipedians' are also pseudo-intellectuals. Look up Rigour in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Leonardo da Vinci is seen as an epitome of the Renaissance man or polymath A polymath (Greek polymathēs, πολυμαθής, meaning knowing, understanding, or having learnt in quantity, compounded from πολυ- much, many, and the root μαθ-, meaning learning, understanding[1]) is a person well educated in a wide variety of subjects or...

See also

• Know-it-all
• Pseudoscience