PHILOSOPHER

Ernest Gellner

1925 - 1995

Photo of Ernest Gellner

Icon of person Ernest Gellner

Ernest André Gellner (9 December 1925 – 5 November 1995) was a French-born British-Czech philosopher and social anthropologist described by The Daily Telegraph, when he died, as one of the world's most vigorous intellectuals, and by The Independent as a "one-man crusader for critical rationalism". His first book, Words and Things (1959), prompted a leader in The Times and a month-long correspondence on its letters page over his attack on linguistic philosophy. As the Professor of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics for 22 years, the William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge for eight years, and head of the new Centre for the Study of Nationalism in Prague, Gellner fought all his life—in his writing, teaching and political activism—against what he saw as closed systems of thought. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Ernest Gellner is the 482nd most popular philosopher (down from 437th in 2019), the 1,394th most popular biography from France (down from 1,295th in 2019) and the 64th most popular French Philosopher.

Ernest Gellner is most famous for being a scholar of nationalism and for his contributions to the theory of modernization.

Memorability Metrics

Loading...

Page views of Ernest Gellner by language

Loading...

Among PHILOSOPHERS

Among philosophers, Ernest Gellner ranks 482 out of 1,267Before him are H. L. A. Hart, Porcia, Gaius Musonius Rufus, Philodemus, Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri, and Michel de Certeau. After him are Leo Strauss, Pierre Duhem, Ronald Dworkin, Dicaearchus, John Gray, and Zengzi.

Most Popular Philosophers in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1925, Ernest Gellner ranks 91Before him are Paul Greengard, Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen, Martin Rodbell, Hal Holbrook, Hilda Gadea, and Michel de Certeau. After him are Ernesto Cardenal, Nicolai Gedda, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, Toshio Iwatani, Gabriele Ferzetti, and Charles Chaplin Jr.. Among people deceased in 1995, Ernest Gellner ranks 59Before him are César Rodríguez Álvarez, James Meade, Roger Zelazny, Mária Telkes, Rory Gallagher, and John Vincent Atanasoff. After him are Krešimir Ćosić, Carlos Monzón, Günter Guillaume, Rose Kennedy, Yves Congar, and Masashi Watanabe.

Others Born in 1925

Go to all Rankings

Others Deceased in 1995

Go to all Rankings

In France

Among people born in France, Ernest Gellner ranks 1,394 out of 6,770Before him are Antoine Augustin Cournot (1801), Cléo de Mérode (1875), Jean II, Duke of Alençon (1409), Léo Taxil (1854), Benedict of Aniane (750), and Michel de Certeau (1925). After him are Michel Verne (1861), Amandus (600), Pierre Duhem (1861), Arnulf of Metz (582), Pierre de Marivaux (1688), and Magnentius (303).

Among PHILOSOPHERS In France

Among philosophers born in France, Ernest Gellner ranks 64Before him are Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (1460), Alain de Lille (1117), Vincent of Beauvais (1190), Maine de Biran (1766), Guillaume Budé (1467), and Michel de Certeau (1925). After him are Pierre Duhem (1861), Petrus Ramus (1515), Emmanuel Mounier (1905), Jean-Luc Nancy (1940), Victor Cousin (1792), and Michel Serres (1930).