The phrase "intellectual thrust" is correct and can be used in written English.
It refers to the central or main idea or argument in a piece of writing or discussion. Example: The essay's intellectual thrust was to challenge traditional notions of beauty and encourage readers to embrace a more diverse and inclusive definition.
But he has passed on his enthusiasm for intellectual thrust and parry.
She also wrote to the chairman of the Royal Opera House, Colin Southgate, warning that the Royal Ballet was "sliding into mediocrity" for lack of "intellectual thrust".
Bin Laden was saying pretty radical, clash-of-the-civilizations type things that were no different in intellectual thrust than Bush's comments about a crusade.
Another way of doing it is that employed by Anne Phillips in her book, Multiculturalism without Culture (Phillips, 2007), the intellectual thrust of which, that cultural groups do not exist, simply transposes into accommodating groups when it comes to politics, without any sense of obligation to reconcile these divergent intellectual and political positions.
Moreover, he was passionate about the intellectual cut and thrust of the debates over privatisation and transport policy.
Like Mandela and many others, he grew disillusioned with the intellectual, almost antipolitical thrust of black consciousness and gravitated toward more of a pragmatic outlook.
You see it in Alan Bennett, in the intellectual cut and thrust of The History Boys, and also in the social comedy of A Private Function.
Considered a foremost Hebrew poet of his generation, Greenberg was at odds with the main intellectual and political thrust in Hebrew literature and Israeli politics because of his political and social views.
One thing I will say for Chicago economists — and it has been true for a long time: they are, for the most part, genuine intellectuals, not mere opportunists or party hacks, and they enjoy the cut and thrust of intellectual debate.
But this is narrative thrust without intellectual rigor, more "Braveheart" than "Gandhi".
Though the gentle satire may play into Hollywood's own largely anti-intellectual stereotypes, Rudolph thrusts style to the fore: whether his own or Hemingway's, it comes off as the essence of substance and the stuff that romantic dreams are made of.
