PHILOSOPHER

Ernest Gellner

1925 - 1995

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Icon of person Ernest Gellner

Ernest André Gellner (9 December 1925 – 5 November 1995) was a 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, particularly communism, psychoanalysis, relativism and the dictatorship of the free market. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Ernest Gellner has received more than 368,108 page views. His biography is available in 38 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 36 in 2019). Ernest Gellner is the 437th most popular philosopher (down from 414th in 2019), the 1,295th most popular biography from France (down from 1,228th in 2019) and the 59th 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

  • 370k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 60.78

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 38

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 8.81

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.77

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among PHILOSOPHERS

Among philosophers, Ernest Gellner ranks 437 out of 1,267. Before him are Henry Suso, Abul A'la Maududi, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Ronald Dworkin, Antoine Destutt de Tracy, and Giles of Rome. After him are Francisco Ferrer, Emmanuel Mounier, Thomas Cajetan, Petrus Ramus, Johannes Althusius, and Diogenes of Babylon.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1925, Ernest Gellner ranks 76. Before him are Moshe Arens, Leo Esaki, Veljko Kadijević, Robert Rauschenberg, Dick Van Dyke, and Oscar Peterson. After him are Hilda Gadea, Charles Chaplin Jr., Claude Lanzmann, Michel de Certeau, Hal Holbrook, and Joshua Lederberg. Among people deceased in 1995, Ernest Gellner ranks 49. Before him are Alonzo Church, Ernest Walton, Lita Grey, Carlos Monzón, Ștefan Kovács, and Siad Barre. After him are Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Peter Townsend, Miklós Rózsa, Don Cherry, César Rodríguez Álvarez, and Georges J. F. Köhler.

Others Born in 1925

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Others Deceased in 1995

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In France

Among people born in France, Ernest Gellner ranks 1,295 out of 6,770. Before him are Margaret of France, Duchess of Berry (1523), Antoine Destutt de Tracy (1754), Gérard Debreu (1921), Bernard Hinault (1954), Clément Marot (1495), and Louis-Claude Daquin (1694). After him are Emmanuel Mounier (1905), Michel Butor (1926), Jean-Louis Barrault (1910), Caterina Valente (1931), Monique Wittig (1935), and Léon Bloy (1846).

Others born in France

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Among PHILOSOPHERS In France

Among philosophers born in France, Ernest Gellner ranks 59. Before him are Étienne Cabet (1788), Hugues Felicité Robert de Lamennais (1782), Alain de Benoist (1943), Pierre d'Ailly (1350), Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (1460), and Antoine Destutt de Tracy (1754). After him are Emmanuel Mounier (1905), Petrus Ramus (1515), Maine de Biran (1766), Michel Serres (1930), Victor Cousin (1792), and Michel de Certeau (1925).

French born Philosophers

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