What does it mean, exactly, to be an educated person? There are many cultural habits and concerns that we could identify with this group of people, and sometimes it is not very clear whether these characteristics really speak to us about someone’s way of thinking or are simply a description of the ways in which their pride or vanity is expressed.

Sometimes, what we know as educated people are only members of the upper classes who have had the privilege of having access to books, films and other cultural products too luxurious to be afforded by the majority of the people. In others, what we call culture is a simple facade used to achieve power of influence .

Both options were despised by the young Anton Chekhov, born in 1860, who would grow up to be one of the most important Russian writers in history. However, Chekhov did believe in the existence of truly educated people , and in one of his letters to his brother Nikolai he spoke about the eight characteristics that, according to him, define them.

The real educated people according to Anton Chekhov

Nikolai, who was 28 years old when his younger brother Anton wrote him the letter, was beginning to be a recognized painter and people with studies were beginning to take an interest in him. Because of this fact, Anton Chekhov included in one of his letters to Nikolai a list of what he considered to be the defining characteristics of educated people , so that his brother could see to what extent he did not belong to such circles.

In this way, Anton Chekhov tried to encourage his brother to undertake the lifestyle of truly cultured people, far from any trace of vanity and superficiality, and to start working every day to train himself in this direction.

Beyond the intentions that 26-year-old Anton Chekhov had at the time of writing this text (which can be found in Chekhov’s collection of letters), anyone can find in this list of characteristics a reasonable way to identify learned people. It is summarized below.

1. are friendly and respect others

Chekhov maintained that, by default, everyone is treated with respect and kindness by educated people . That means that they never get to prejudice those they do not know and that they show themselves to be polite to everyone, without going so far as to do favors only to the people who can return them.

2. Show sympathy not only for beggars and cats

Educated people take the initiative to help others and care for people with whom they have established little or no contact.

3. Respect the property of others

Educated people know that stealing is not the only way to damage the properties of others , and therefore they pay all their debts.

4. They run away from the lie

Educated people do not lie even in the smallest details . They consider the lie as a lack of respect towards the interlocutor and show themselves on the street just as they are at home.

5. Do not manipulate or allow themselves to be manipulated by compassion

They are not afraid to arouse compassion in others , nor do they try to produce compassion to take advantage of the favor of others.

6. Do not embrace vanity

Educated people do not try to relate to other people simply because they are popular or powerful . Nor do they strut their stuff to speculate on their own public image.

7. They cultivate their talents

If they have a talent, educated people strive to develop it, and sacrifice immediate pleasures for it.

8. Develop aesthetic intuition

They are not concerned only with living life through a pragmatic sense of usefulness, but think about what they do in aesthetic terms . Therefore, especially if they are artists, they reject some habits simply because of the aesthetic appreciations they have about them.

Another conception of culture

In his letter, Chekhov emphasized the fact that whether or not one becomes an educated person is a matter of attitude , rather than access to books.

Therefore, culture is defined as the property of internalizing the most positive and socializing elements of the culture in which a person lives, not in isolating oneself from others through the elitist barrier of access to luxury. It is an idea that, today, we could claim more.