Sunday, October 02, 2005

Top 100 Public Intellectuals

Foriegn Policy is circulating a list of the Top 100 Public Intellectuals in the world. I found out about the list through the ACS Blog who thought the list was interesting/controversial because it contained only 10 women. I'll leave comment on that issue to those who know more about the gender divide, but the issue did get me thinking... what other kind of demographics do we get out of this Top 100 list? With some quick spreedsheet work, here are some interesting statistics.

Top Professions:
  • 9 Economists
  • 8 Novelist
  • 8 Philosopher
  • 6 Historians
  • 4-5 Religious Leaders (depending on how you define religion)
  • 7 Political Scientists/Theorists
  • 2 Politicians
Top Nationalities:
  • 32 United States
  • 13 Great Britian
  • 5 China
  • 4 France
I think the primary thing to pull away from this list is the importance of money. Whether your studying the topic or in a country with a lot of it, you have a much better chance of being considered a top intellectual than those who don't.

Oh, and Prof. Lessig made the list :)

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