philistines
Enemies of refinement
Philistines are people who are hostile or indifferent to culture, the arts, and intellectual pursuits—those who value material comfort over aesthetic or spiritual matters: The philistines on the city council voted to defund the orchestra.
The term carries condescension, implying boorishness or crude taste. (Capitalized Philistines were an ancient people.)
Crudely ill-mannered
- lowbrowLacking intellectual depth
- tastelessHaving no flavor
- unrefinedNot processed or polished
- unsophisticatedLacking refinement or complexity
crass · uncouth · vulgar · coarse · middlebrow · anti-intellectual · materialistic · conventional
boorish
Crudely ill-mannered
unsophisticated · crass · uncouth · vulgar · coarse · middlebrow · anti-intellectual · materialistic · conventional · bourgeois
- philistine groups
- Matthew ArnoldDover Beach, sweetness and light, best self
philistinesaesthetes
Appreciators of beauty
connoisseurs · cognoscenti · art lovers · literati · sophisticates
philistinesintellectuals
People of scholarly pursuits
scholars · savants · erudites · men of letters · polymaths