|
The Prospect/FP Top 100 Public Intellectuals
Who are the world's leading public intellectuals?
Foreign Policy and Britain's Prospect magazine selected their top
100, and invited readers to vote for their top five. Here is their selection
criteria.
The irony of this "thinkers" list is that it does not bear thinking
about too closely. The problems of definition and judgment that it
involves would discourage more rigorous souls. But some criteria must
be spelled out. What is a public intellectual? Someone who has shown
distinction in their own field along with the ability to communicate
ideas and influence debate outside of it.
Candidates must have been alive, and still active in public life
(though many on this list are past their prime). Such criteria ruled
out the likes of Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn and Milton
Friedman, who would have been automatic inclusions 20 or so years
ago. This list is about public influence, not intrinsic
achievement. And that is where things get really tricky. Judging
influence is hard enough inside one's own culture, but when you are
peering across cultures and languages, the problem becomes far
harder. Obviously our list of 100 has been influenced by where most of
us sit, in the English-speaking West.
We tried to avoid the "box ticking" problem of having x
Chinese, y economists and z under-50s. But we
have also tried to give due weight to the important thinkers in all
the main intellectual disciplines and centers of population. We also
tried to ensure that all names on the list are influential in at least
a few countries in their region, if not the entire globe.
Voting closed October 10.
—Prospect and Foreign Policy
The Prospect/FP Top 100 Public Intellectuals
Name, Occupation(s), Country
- Chinua Achebe, Novelist, Nigeria
- Jean Baudrillard, Sociologist, cultural critic, France
- Gary Becker, Economist, United States
- Pope Benedict XVI, Religious leader Germany, Vatican
- Jagdish Bhagwati, Economist, India, United States
- Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Sociologist, former president, Brazil
- Noam Chomsky, Linguist, author, activist, United States
- J.M. Coetzee, Novelist, South Africa
- Gordon Conway, Agricultural, ecologist, Britain
- Robert Cooper, Diplomat, writer, Britain
- Richard Dawkins, Biologist, polemicist, Britain
- Hernando de Soto, Economist, Peru
- Pavol Deme, Political analyst, Slovakia
- Daniel Dennett, Philosopher, United States
- Kemal Dervis, Economist, Turkey
- Jared Diamond, Biologist, physiologist, historian, United States
- Freeman Dyson, Physicist, United States
- Shirin Ebadi, Lawyer, human rights activist, Iran
- Umberto Eco, Medievalist, novelist, Italy
- Paul Ekman, Psychologist, United States
- Fan Gang, Economist, China
- Niall Ferguson, Historian, Britain
- Alain Finkielkraut, Essayist, philosopher, France
- Thomas Friedman, Journalist, author, United States
- Francis Fukuyama, Political scientist, author, United States
- Gao Xingjian, Novelist, playwright, China
- Howard Gardner, Psychologist, United States
- Timothy Garton Ash, Historian, Britain
- Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Scholar, cultural critic, United States
- Clifford Geertz, Anthropologist, United States
- Neil Gershenfeld, Physicist, computer scientist, United States
- Anthony Giddens, Sociologist, Britain
- Germaine Greer, Writer, academic, Australia, Britain
- Jürgen Habermas, Philosopher, Germany
- Ha Jin, Novelist, China
- Václav Havel, Playwright, statesman, Czech Republic
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Politician, Somalia, Netherlands
- Christopher Hitchens, Polemicist, United States, Britain
- Eric Hobsbawm, Historian, Britain
- Robert Hughes, Art critic, Australia
- Samuel Huntington, Political scientist, United States
- Michael Ignatieff, Writer, human rights theorist, Canada
- Shintaro Ishihara, Politician, author, Japan
- Robert Kagan, Author, political commentator, United States
- Daniel Kahneman, Psychologist, Israel, United States
- Sergei Karaganov, Foreign-policy analyst, Russia
- Paul Kennedy, Historian, Britain, United States
- Gilles Kepel, Scholar of Islam, France
- Naomi Klein, Journalist, author, Canada
- Rem Koolhaas, Architect, Netherlands
- Enrique Krauze, Historian, Mexico
- Julia Kristeva, Philosopher, France
- Paul Krugman, Economist, columnist, United States
- Hans Küng, Theologian, Switzerland
- Jaron Lanier, Virtual reality pioneer, United States
- Lawrence Lessig, Legal scholar, United States
- Bernard Lewis, Historian, Britain, United States
- Bjørn Lomborg, Environmentalist, Denmark
- James Lovelock, Scientist, Britain
- Kishore Mahbubani, Author, diplomat, Singapore
- Ali Mazrui, Political scientist, Kenya
- Sunita Narain, Environmentalist, India
- Antonio Negri, Philosopher, activist, Italy
- Martha Nussbaum, Philosopher, United States
- Sari Nusseibeh, Diplomat, philosopher, Palestine
- Kenichi Ohmae, Management theorist, Japan
- Amos Oz, Novelist, Israel
- Camille Paglia, Social critic, author, United States
- Orhan Pamuk, Novelist, Turkey
- Steven Pinker, Experimental psychologist, Canada, United States
- Richard Posner, Judge, scholar, author, United States
- Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Writer, dissident, Indonesia
- Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Cleric, Egypt, Qatar
- Robert Putnam, Political scientist, United States
- Tariq Ramadan, Scholar of Islam, Switzerland
- Martin Rees, Astrophysicist, Britain
- Richard Rorty, Philosopher, United States
- Salman Rushdie, Novelist, political commentator, Britain, India
- Jeffrey Sachs, Economist, United States
- Elaine Scarry, Literary theorist, United States
- Amartya Sen, Economist, India
- Peter Singer, Philosopher, Australia
- Ali al-Sistani, Cleric, Iran, Iraq
- Peter Sloterdijk, Philosopher, Germany
- Abdolkarim Soroush, Religious theorist, Iran
- Wole Soyinka, Playwright, activist, Nigeria
- Lawrence Summers, Economist, academic, United States
- Mario Vargas Llosa, Novelist, politician, Peru
- Harold Varmus, Medical scientist, United States
- Craig Venter, Biologist, businessman, United States
- Michael Walzer, Political theorist, United States
- Florence Wambugu, Plant Pathologist, Kenya
- Wang Jisi, Foreign-policy analyst, China
- Steven Weinberg, Physicist, United States
- E.O. Wilson, Biologist, United States
- James Q. Wilson, Criminologist, United States
- Paul Wolfowitz, Policymaker, academic, United States
- Fareed Zakaria, Journalist, author, United States
- Zheng Bijian, Political scientist, China
- Slavoj Zizek, Sociologist, philosopher, Slovenia
Information Please® Database, © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
|