Dartblog

Some very interesting material from Foreign Policy/ Prospect, which I found courtesy of Above the Law, the Top 100 Public Intellectuals. Thus far the Top 100 have been submitted to readers (and online viewers such as ourselves), and voting will take place to narrow it down to the Top 20.

Political Scientists and Economists top the list of 100 names, and Journalists, Scientists, and Philosophers round out the most well-represented professions. Two thirds of the Top 100 come from Europe and North America.

A few of the many American intellectuals include Steven Levitt, economist of Freakanomics fame, and political scientists/ writers Thomas Friedman, Samuel Huntington, Robert Kagan, Larry Summers, Francis Fukuyama, and Samantha Power. A number of well known philosopher-atheists also made it on the list including Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett, along with, on a different part of the theological spectrum, Pope Benedict XVI. Economist Amartya Sen, psychologist Daniel Kahneman, judge Richard Posner, and novelist Salmon Rushdie also made the list. The full set of names can be seen here, including a breakdown of the intellectuals’ country of residence and field.

For your interest, the criteria for selecting these 100, which I thought quite good, if somewhat lacking in terms of empirical scrutiny

Candidates must be living and still active in public life. They must have shown distinction in their particular field as well as an ability to influence wider debate, often far beyond the borders of their own country.

UPDATE: I voted for Amartya Sen, Richard Posner, Daniel Kahneman, Samuel Huntington, and Vaclav Havel.

Also Al Gore seems to have to been mistakenly put on this list of esteemed intellectuals.