The aim of the paper is to reorient the research on the intellectuals through a new definition of its object.

     Rather  than following the usually approach of demonstrating either the criterion for qualifying as an intellectual or what class factors determine intellectual behavior, the author proposes an idea inspired by Giambattista Vico, the seventeenth-century Italian philosopher: 'intellect', that person is an intellectual.

     According to Vico, 'intellect' is an ability to form ideas by combining elements together. This is a kind of Gestalt, or an ability which can be generated only under a special intense condition called 'collective effervescence' ( Emile Durkheim's terms ). During and after 'collective effervescence,' a person of ideas is born. We call such  an individual an intellectual.    

    Intellectuals can be divided into two kinds according to whether they are self-formed by socialization.  Although these two kinds of intellectuals are both critical in character, the latter are more influential in social and cultural movements because of their reificational attitude towards ideas. Regrettably, most of the Chinese intellectuals who appear only after the beginning of twentieth century are of the latter kind. They are so impatient to bring those western ideas, such as 'freedom, democracy, equality, reason, science,' etc., into realization in Chinese society that their character deserves the Confucian derogatory term 'small man' ( hsiao-jen), in the sense that they are short-sighted in going after whatever result they think good, neglecting important efforts of self-discipline which they have first to do .