Abstract

All the languages of the world, I believe, have words to distinguish, among men, between intellectuals and manual workers: the former use their brains more than their hands; the latter use their hands more than their brains. Since the beginning of time, many men could easily be classified in one or the other of these groups (and certainly many others could fall into the intermediate zones between the two poles). For example, “ intellectuel “ and “manoeuvre“ are very old words in the French language, direct heirs of Latin words designating the brain and the hand.