What City would you consider the Intellectual Capital of the World? (taxi driver, to live in)
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Kudos also to the men who invented email (military men, I believe), the internet, and those, like Bill Gates and Steven Jobs, who pragmatically, affordably, brought their application to nearly everyone, certainly improving my life and that of millions of others.
See, people like Bill Gates and Steve Job wouldn't have been regarded as intellectuals in Russian culture that used to have its own share of inventors and scientists. They would have been regarded precisely as such - professionals in technological area, scientists (or "technar'" using popular expression,) - not intellectuals. However ( for example) when the father of hydrogen bomb the physicist A. Sakharov questioned the government regarding the place ( and purpose) of his invention and where it would fit in the grand scheme of things in the world - he was already fitting in definition of "intellectuals" by Russian standards. Voltaire, Bismarck, Shopenhauer, various artists would have been considered "intellectuals" in Russian culture, as much as for example merchant Morozov, who was buying the paintings of Russian painters en mass in order to organize a ( later famous) museum - those are all people who'd be considered "intellectuals."
The belief that money and intellect go hand in hand is purely American thing, because enough of Russian intellectuals ( and European too I suppose) were dirt poor. The "Old World" have different understanding of it, that's why I've mentioned that Paris and Berlin come pretty close. I am sure that London was once fitting into this category too, but not any longer I guess for whatever reason.
Oftentimes being intellectual (in a good sense) goes hand in hand with speaking foreign languages and an international, global orientation in general. I would even go so far as to say intellectual places by nature are liberal places.
Wow, this is a tough one. I think it's impossible to pin this down to one city.
In the western world, it might be a 4-way tie between London, Paris, Rome and Boston. But that doesn't begin to take into consideration entire continents like Asia, Africa or South America.
I still don't know what the criteria for an intellectual city are.
Student population or percentage of inhabitants with degrees? Even that would depend on the subjects studied. An MBA mill might produce thousands of economists, but those are not intellectuals.
In terms of the most people with higher degrees per capita, it would be some place like Hanover, New Hampshire, the site of the Ivy League's Dartmouth College:
Population over age 25:
Bachelor's degree or higher: 77.0%
Graduate or professional degree: 40.9%
Here are some others:
Ann Arbor MI
Bachelor's degree or higher: 69.3%
Graduate or professional degree: 39.4%
Princeton NJ
Bachelor's degree or higher: 60.1%
Graduate or professional degree: 39.6%
Cambridge MA
Bachelor's degree or higher: 65.1%
Graduate or professional degree: 38.5%
Los Alamos NM
Bachelor's degree or higher: 62.1%
Graduate or professional degree: 37.3%
Berkeley CA
Bachelor's degree or higher: 64.3%
Graduate or professional degree: 34.3%
Here's one of the funny things you discover when looking things up. For Princeton,, NJ,
Bachelor's degree or higher: 60.1%
Unemployed: 42.3%
Which means that everyone in Princeton over the age of 25 either has a bachelors degree, or is unemployed, or both.
Interesting numbers. So, higher education and/or research locations
I read something similar about Heidelberg, Germany. Nowhere else in Germany are there as many taxi drivers with a PhD
Interestingly enough, even in case of higher education Russian culture still differenciate between "intelligenzia" ( meaning the class with higher education - engineers, doctors, teachers and so on,) and "intellectuals."
"Intellectuals" are people who influence the society and define future trends. They can come with a background of formal higher education, or they might be self-taught.
Interestingly enough, even in case of higher education Russian culture still differenciate between "intelligenzia" ( meaning the class with higher education - engineers, doctors, teachers and so on,) and "intellectuals."
"Intellectuals" are people who influence the society and define future trends. They can come with a background of formal higher education, or they might be self-taught.
It makes sense as holding a degree doesn't mean you will do great things and not holding a degree doesn't mean you will not do great things. Most highly educated people end up being faceless little wheels in the machine, while others become very influential without a formal education.
Berlin? No way, not even close. It's a very creative city but I would never describe it as intellectual. Lots of working class and/or terminally unemployed, lots of 24 hour party people, lots of artists and wanna-bes...I get more of an intellectual vibe from Prague, actually. But I don't think any major city can beat the likes of Cambridge or Oxford where virtually everything revolves around academia.
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