Intelligentsia
Specialty coffee brand
The intelligentsia are the educated class of a society—writers, academics, artists, and other intellectuals considered as a group.
The term often carries political overtones, suggesting people who shape or critique cultural and political thought: The intelligentsia opposed the regime.
It can be used admiringly or dismissively, depending on the speaker's view of intellectual elites.
Educated, cultured class
- cognoscentiKnowledgeable insiders of a field
- salonGrooming establishment or gathering
- avant-gardeInnovative cultural pioneers
- academicsProfessional researchers and teachers
scholars · intellectuals · thinkers · philosophers · public intellectuals · mandarins · clerisy · brains trust
Prestige from education and taste
- cosmopolitanCulturally sophisticated, internationally fluent
- sophisticationCultured elegance and complexity
- patronageSupporter's financial backing
- worldviewComprehensive belief framework
enlightenment · secularism · rationalism · humanism · modernism · coffeehouse culture · literary circles · artistic circles
Political objectors
- revolutionariesThose seeking systemic overthrow
- ideologuesAdherents of fixed doctrines
- reformersAdvocates for institutional improvement
- activistsPeople working for causes
vanguard · apparatchiks · samizdat · emigres · exiles · Bolsheviks · cadres · agitators
Logical argument through opposition
- symposiumFormal expert discussion meeting
- discourseFormal communication on subjects
- critical theoryAnalysis exposing societal power dynamics
- hermeneuticsStudy of interpretation methods
philosophy · humanities · debate · semiotics · deconstruction · epistemology · rhetoric · polemic
literati
Educated, cultured class
- cognoscentiKnowledgeable insiders of a field
- salonGrooming establishment or gathering
- avant-gardeInnovative cultural pioneers
academics · scholars · intellectuals · thinkers · philosophers · public intellectuals · mandarins · clerisy · brains trust · thought leaders
cultural capital
Prestige from education and taste
- cosmopolitanCulturally sophisticated, internationally fluent
- sophisticationCultured elegance and complexity
- patronageSupporter's financial backing
worldview · enlightenment · secularism · rationalism · humanism · modernism · coffeehouse culture · literary circles · artistic circles · salons
dissidents
Political objectors
- revolutionariesThose seeking systemic overthrow
- ideologuesAdherents of fixed doctrines
- reformersAdvocates for institutional improvement
activists · vanguard · apparatchiks · samizdat · emigres · exiles · Bolsheviks · cadres · agitators · propagandists
dialectic
Logical argument through opposition
- symposiumFormal expert discussion meeting
- discourseFormal communication on subjects
- critical theoryAnalysis exposing societal power dynamics
hermeneutics · philosophy · humanities · debate · semiotics · deconstruction · epistemology · rhetoric · polemic · treatise
- Coffee SourcesStarbucks, Dunkin, Folgers, Maxwell House, Nescafe
- Slavic ThoughtRussian soul, Frank, Bakhtin, Pan-Slavism, Russian Orthodoxy
- Petersburg LiteratureDostoevsky, Pushkin, Nabokov, Crime and Punishment, Leningrad
Intelligentsiamasses
Bulk or populace
common people · working class · proletariat · hoi polloi · peasantry
Intelligentsiaestablishment
Founded organization or venue
ruling class · military-industrial complex · merchant class · technocrats · bureaucracy
IntelligentsiaStarbucks
Ubiquitous coffeehouse chain
Folgers · Dunkin · Maxwell House · instant coffee · Nescafé
intelligent, intelligence, intelligently, unintelligent, intellect, intellectual, intellectually, intellectualism, anti-intellectual