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Ernest Gellner
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OverviewAI-generated
Ernest Gellner (1925–1995) was a British philosopher, anthropologist, sociologist, and professor. Born in Paris, Montrouge, he was of Czech ethnic origin and educated at Balliol College. His academic career included positions at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Edinburgh, and Central European University, with work locations including Cambridge. He was a member of the British Academy, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, and received the award of Fellow of the British Academy.
Gellner’s fields of work encompassed political philosophy, philosophy of science, social anthropology, and sociology, with a specific interest in nationalism. Associated with the critical rationalism movement, he participated in World War II. Notable works include *Transition to modernity*, *Populism*, *Arabs and Berbers: from tribe to nation in North Africa*, *Language and solitude*, and *לאומים ולאומיות*. He died in Prague.
Synthesized by Vinony from 35 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Wikiquote, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 9 Dec 1925
- Died
- 5 Nov 1995
- Works
- 44
Top works
- לאומים ולאומיות
- Transition to modernity
- Populism
- Arabs and Berbers: from tribe to nation in North Africa
- Language and solitude
via Open Library + Wikidata
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- Factor structure of the barratt impulsiveness scale
· 1995 · cited 5,591x
- Revised American Thyroid Association Management Guidelines for Patients with Thyroid Nodules and Differentiated Thyroid Cancer
· 2009 · cited 5,524x
- The CCPN data model for NMR spectroscopy: Development of a software pipeline
· 2005 · cited 3,178x
- Accurate whole human genome sequencing using reversible terminator chemistry
· 2008 · cited 3,022x
- Configuration interaction calculations on the nitrogen molecule
· 1974 · cited 2,841x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “The way forward does not lie in amateur and comically timeless linguistic sociology which takes ‘forms of life’ for granted (and this is what philosophy has been recently), but in the systematic study of forms of life which does not take them for granted at all. It hardly matters whether such an inquiry is called philosophy or sociology.”
- “Just as every girl should have a husband, preferably her own, so every culture must have its state, preferably its own.”
- “Dr J. O. Wisdom once observed to me that he knew people who thought there was no philosophy after Hegel, and others who thought there was none before Wittgenstein; and he saw no reason for excluding the possibility that both were right.”
- “When knowledge is the slave of social considerations, it defines a special class; when it serves its own ends only, it no longer does so. There is of course a profound logic in this paradox: genuine knowledge is egalitarian in that it allows no privileged source, testers, messengers of Truth. It tolerates no privileged and circumscribed data. The autonomy of knowledge is a leveller.”
- “It is nationalism which engenders nations, and not the other way round.”
- “[I am a humble adherent of]...Enlightenment Rationalist Fundamentalism.”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1925-12-09 ) 9 December 1925, Paris , France
- Died
- 5 November 1995 (1995-11-05) (aged 69), Prague , Czech Republic
- Alma mater
- Balliol College, Oxford
- Era
- 20th-century philosophy
- Region
- Western philosophy
- School
- Critical rationalism
- Institutions
- University of Edinburgh , London School of Economics , King's College, Cambridge , Central European University
- Main interests
- Political philosophy , philosophy of science , anthropology , nationalism
- Notable ideas
- Gellner's theory of nationalism , Criticism of ordinary language philosophy
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Ernst
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- Place of birth
- Montrouge
- Place of death
- Prague
- Occupation
- essayist
- Employer
- Central European University
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Academic degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Field of work
- sociology
- Movement
- critical rationalism
- Conflict
- World War II
- Image
- Ernest Gellner 2.jpg
- Work location
- Cambridge
Show 9 more facts
- Commons category
- Ernest Gellner
- date of birth
- 1925-12-09
- date of death
- 1995-11-05
- member of
- American Philosophical Society
- interested in
- nationalism
- ethnic group
- Czechs
- P8168
- FK Pobeda
- name in native language
- Ernest Gellner
- birth name
- Ernest André Gellner
Sources (6)
via Wikidata · CC0
~17 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Ernest André Gellner (9 December 1925 – 5 November 1995) was a French-born British-Czech philosopher and social anthropologist. Central themes in his social thought included modernisation theory and nationalism, the latter of which he developed into a leading theory (Gellner's theory of nationalism). His multicultural perspective allowed him to engage with the Western world, the Muslim world, and Russian civilization.
His first book, Words and Things (1959), sparked a leading article in The Times, which then published a month-long correspondence on his analytical critique of linguistic philosophy. Gellner served for 22 years as Professor of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics, eight years as the William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, and later headed the new Centre for the Study of Nationalism in Prague.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ernest Gellner” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.