Ernest Gellner Books

  ernest gellner books: Ernest Gellner John A. Hall, 2014-06-10 Ernest Gellner (1925–95) was a multilingual polymath and a public intellectual who set the agenda in the study of nationalism and the sociology of Islam. Having grown up in Paris, Prague, and England, he was also one of the last great Jewish thinkers from Central Europe to experience directly the impact of the Holocaust. His intellectual trajectory differed from that of similar thinkers, both in producing a highly integrated philosophy of modernity and in combining a respect for nationalism with an appreciation of the power of modern science. Gellner was a fierce opponent, in private as well as in public, of such contemporaries as Michael Oakeshott, Isaiah Berlin, Charles Taylor, Noam Chomsky and Edward Said. As this definitive biography shows, he was passionate in the defense of reason against every form of relativism—a battle that his intellectual inheritors continue to this day.
  ernest gellner books: Postmodernism, Reason and Religion Ernest Gellner, 2013-03-01 First Published in 1992. On questions of faith, Ernest Gellner believes, three ideological options are available to us today. One is the return to a genuine and firm faith in a religious tradition. The other is a form of relativism which abandons the notion of unique truth altogether and resigns itself to treating truth as relative to the society or culture in question. The third, which Gellner calls enlightenment rationalism, upholds the idea that there is a unique truth, but denies that any society can ever possess it definitively. Learned and stimulating, Professor Gellner’s book is an important contribution to our understanding of postmodernism and the relations between Islam and the West. It will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the ideological condition of contemporary society.
  ernest gellner books: The State of the Nation John A. Hall, 1998-11-26 An exceptional set of scholars assess every aspect of the most influential theory of nationalism.
  ernest gellner books: Ernest Gellner and Modernity Michael Harry Lessnoff, 2002 An exposition of Gellner's thought, both in terms of the specific areas in which he worked and the underlying consistency of his theoretical principles. It provides a context within which to evaluate Gellner's contribution to social and political thought.
  ernest gellner books: Nations and Nationalism Ernest Gellner, 1983 This thoughtful and penetrating book, addressed to political scientists, sociologists, historians, and anthropologists, interprets nationalism in terms of its social roots, which it locates in industrial social organization. Professor Gellner asserts here that a society's affluence and economic growth depend on innovation, occupational mobility, the effectiveness of the mass media, universal literacy, and an all-embracing educational system based on a shared, standard idiom. These factors, taken together, govern the relationship between culture and the state. Political units that do not conform to the principle, one state, one culture feel the strain in the form of nationalistic activity.
  ernest gellner books: Muslim Society Ernest Gellner, 1983-03-03 Why contemporary Islam is able to support austerely traditional and conservative regimes as well as revolutionary ones is the subject of this collection of essays. Professor Gellner's position is supported by a series of case studies and critical evaluations of rival interpretations.
  ernest gellner books: Relativism and the Social Sciences Ernest Gellner, 1987-02-26 Considers human diversity and change and rejects the usual solutions to problems of relativism. Presents a new mode of inquiry in its stead a mixture of philosophy, history, and anthropology that appears to be more meaningful.
  ernest gellner books: Culture, Identity, and Politics Ernest Gellner, 1987-05-29 An exploration of the relationship between culture and politics in the modern world through essays on such varied topics as the Ayatollah Khomeni, Czech dissidents, and Malinowski.
  ernest gellner books: Conditions of Liberty Ernest Gellner, 1994 A distinguished scholar's provocative analysis of the political forces transforming post-Communist Eastern Europe. What is filling the void left by the fall of Communism in the ex-Soviet Union and Eastern Europe? In this groundbreaking book, one of Europe's most distinguished social anthropologists addresses this question through an examination of the idea of the civil society, which is rooted in the Enlightenment's belief that society can be organized rationally.
  ernest gellner books: Words and Things Ernest Gellner, 2005 First published in 1959, this classic challenge to the prevailing philosophical orthodoxy of the day, remains the most devastating attack on a conventional wisdom in philosophy to this day.
  ernest gellner books: The Devil in Modern Philosophy Ernest Gellner, 2004-11-23 The essays in this volume gather together Gellner's thinking on the connection between philosophy and life and they approach the topic from a number of directions: philosophy of morals, history of ideas, a discussion of individuals including R. G. Collingwood, Noam Chomsky, Piaget and Eysenck and discussions on the setting of philosophy in the general culture of England and America.
  ernest gellner books: Reason and Culture Ernest Gellner, 1992-08-03 This book brings together the philosophical, historical and sociological discussions of rationality and strives to make clear the underlying issues and the continuity of the debate under the various idioms.
  ernest gellner books: Language and Solitude Ernest Gellner, 1998 Ernest Gellner's last book focuses on two key figures of the twentieth century: Wittgenstein and Malinowski, showing how the thought of both men grew from a common intellectual and social background, epitomising his belief that philosophy is about important historical, social and personal issues.
  ernest gellner books: Arabs and Berbers Ernest Gellner, Charles Antoine Micaud, 1973 Interdisciplinary research study of political systems and social structures in North Africa, illustrating the social adjustment of tribal peoples to the social change and modernization processes spurred by nationalism - gives historical background, and covers the role of France, interethnic relations, political problems, political leadership, social stratification, social and cultural anthropology, etc. Maps, references and statistical tables.
  ernest gellner books: Saints of the Atlas Ernest Gellner, 2008-11
  ernest gellner books: The Psychoanalytic Movement Ernest Gellner, 1996 The aim of this book is the understanding of how psychoanalysis came to be so generally accepted by the public at large. The author, a sociologist, focuses on reconstructing the system of ideas upon which the theory and practice of psychoanalysis rests.
  ernest gellner books: An Analysis of Ernest Gellner's Nations and Nationalism Dale Stahl, 2017-07-05 To the dismay of many commentators – who had hoped the world was evolving into a more tolerant and multicultural community of nations united under the umbrellas of supranational movements like the European Union – the nationalism that was such a potent force in the history of the 20th-century has made a comeback in recent years. Now, more than ever, it seems important to understand what it is, how it works, and why it is so attractive to so many people. A fine place to start any such exploration is with Ernest Gellner's seminal Nations and Nationalism, a ground-breaking study that was the first to flesh out the counter-intuitive – but enormously influential – thesis that modern nationalism has little if anything in common with old-fashioned patriotism or loyalty to one's homeland. Gellner's intensely creative thesis is that the nationalism we know today is actually the product of the 19th-century industrial revolution, which radically reshaped ancient communities, encouraging emigration to cities at the same time as it improved literacy rates and introduced mass education. Gellner connected these three elements in an entirely new way, contrasting developments to the structures of pre-industrial agrarian economies to show why the new nationalism could not have been born in such communities. He was also successful in generating a typology of nationalisms in an attempt to explain why some forms flourished while others fizzled out. His remarkable ability to produce novel explanations for existing evidence marks out Nations and Nationalism as one of the most radical, stimulating – and enduringly influential – works of its day.
  ernest gellner books: Anthropology and Politics Ernest Gellner, 1995-12-04 Ernest Gellner explores here the links between anthropology and politics, and shows just how central these are. The recent postmodernist turn in anthropology has been linked to the expiation of colonial guilt. Traditional, functionalist anthropology is characteristically regarded as an accessory to the crime, and anyone critical of the relativistic claims of interpretative anthropology (as Ernest Gellner is) is likely to be charged (as he sometimes is) with being an ex post imperialist. Ernest Gellner argues that cultures are crucially important in human life as constraining systems of meaning. Cultural transition means that the required characteristics are transmitted from generation to generation, leading, he shows, to both greater diversity and to far more rapid change than is possible among species where transmission is primarily by genetic means. But the relative importance of semantic and physical compulsion needs to be explored rather than pre-judged. The weakness of idealism, which at present operates under the name of hermeneutics, is that it underplays the importance of coercion, and that it presents cultures as self-justifying and morally sovereign: this line of argument, the author demonstrates, is fundamentally flawed.
  ernest gellner books: Mapping the Nation Gopal Balakrishnan, 2012-11-13 In nearly two decades since Samuel P. Huntington proposed his influential and troubling 'clash of civilizations' thesis, nationalism has only continued to puzzle and frustrate commentators, policy analysts and political theorists. No consensus exists concerning its identity, genesis or future. Are we reverting to the petty nationalisms of the nineteenth century or evolving into a globalized, supranational world? Has the nation-state outlived its usefulness and exhausted its progressive and emancipatory role? Opening with powerful statements by Lord Acton and Otto Bauer - the classic liberal and socialist positions, respectively - Mapping the Nation presents a wealth of thought on this issue: the debate between Ernest Gellner and Miroslav Hroch; Gopal Balakrishnan's critique of Benedict Anderson's seminal Imagined Communities; Partha Chatterjee on the limitations of the Enlightenment approach to nationhood; and contributions from Michael Mann, Eric Hobsbawm, Tom Nairn, and Jrgen Habermas.
  ernest gellner books: Nationalism Ernest Gellner, 1997 In this provocative essay, finished just before the author's death, Gellner explores the subject with which he was most associated throughout his life: that of nationalism. He demonstrates how the histories of nationalism and industrialization are crucially linked and, drawing together the history of philosophy, economics and political thought, he contrasts nationalism with religious fundamentalism in a debate that remains of continuing importance to modern politics and international relations.
  ernest gellner books: Populism Ghița Ionescu, 1969 Based on papers presented at a conference held at the London School of Economics, May 19-21, 1967. Includes bibliographical references.
  ernest gellner books: Words and things, by ernest gellner Ernest Gellner, 1959
  ernest gellner books: Nationalism Ernest Gellner, 1997-08-01 A defining force in world history, nationalism remains an inescapable feature of a modern condition. It has underpinned the emergence of many states, and the conflict it has often generated has caused enormous suffering, both directly and indirectly. Nationalism remains a powerful influence today; in the former Yugoslavia and the successor states of the Soviet Union it has instigated great violence and attrocity. In this incisive and provocative book, completed just before his death, Ernest Gellner - described as one of the last of the great central European polymath intellectuals by the Financial Times - explores the phenomenon of nationalism, tracing its emergence and roots in the modern industrialized nation state, its links with romanticism and its creation of national myhs. He investigates its various manifestations and reveals how in long established states such as France, it has been relatively benign, while in Eastern Europe in particular - where nationalist feeling preceded the emergence of modern states - its influence has been far more problematic, and at times disastrous. Finally, the book explores the prospects of minimizing the influence of nationalist feeling and cautiously anticipates the possibility of its decline in this decade of continuing atrocities and ethnic cleansing. Lucid and direct, Gellner's work combines politics, history, philosophy, and anthropolgy with the multidisciplinary flair for which he was renowned. As nationalism continues to inform contemporary politics, often with vicious and tragic results, Gellner's last words on the subject are essential reading.
  ernest gellner books: Cause and Meaning in the Social Sciences Ernest Gellner, 2006-02-28 This volume focuses on key conceptual issues in the social sciences, such as Winch's idea of a social science, structuralism, Malinowski and Evans-Pritchard, and the concept of kinship. In particular it deals with such problems as the relationship of nature and culture, the relevance of concepts drawn from within a given society to its understanding, and the relation of theory to time.
  ernest gellner books: The Social Philosophy of Ernest Gellner John A. Hall, Ian Charles Jarvie, 1996
  ernest gellner books: Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson, 2006-11-17 What are the imagined communities that compel men to kill or to die for an idea of a nation? This notion of nationhood had its origins in the founding of the Americas, but was then adopted and transformed by populist movements in nineteenth-century Europe. It became the rallying cry for anti-Imperialism as well as the abiding explanation for colonialism. In this scintillating, groundbreaking work of intellectual history Anderson explores how ideas are formed and reformulated at every level, from high politics to popular culture, and the way that they can make people do extraordinary things. In the twenty-first century, these debates on the nature of the nation state are even more urgent. As new nations rise, vying for influence, and old empires decline, we must understand who we are as a community in the face of history, and change.
  ernest gellner books: Cooking, Cuisine and Class Jack Goody, 1982-06-24 This wide ranging book explores the relationship between cuisine and class structure, and examines how cooking in the Third World is changing as a result of the impact of the West. Material discussed is both historical and anthropological, and ranges from China to Britain.
  ernest gellner books: Encounters with Nationalism Ernest Gellner, 1994-01-01 En gennemgang af de vigtigste, moderne filosoffers tanker om nationalisme ud fra både vestlige, østlige og islamiske synsvinkler
  ernest gellner books: Who Owns the Stock? Anatoly Michailovich Khazanov, Günther Schlee, 2012 The issue of collective and multiple property rights in animals, such as cattle, camels or reindeers, among pastoralists has never been a subject of special cross-cultural and comparative study. Focusing on pastoralist societies in East and West Africa, the Far North and Siberia, and the Eurasian steppes, this volume addresses the issue of property rights and the changes these societies have undergone due to the direct or indirect influence of modernization and globalization processes. The contributors also investigate the interplay of older sets of rights and modern marketing policies; political, ecological and economic effects of collectivization and de-collectivization; the existence of collective and private property in the Soviet Union and its successor states; state taxation and destocking measures in African dry lands; and the effects of quarantine, as well as import and export regulations. The rich and well-researched ethnographic, historical, and economic data in these chapters provides new theoretical insights into the matter of property rights in animals. Anatoly M. Khazanov is Ernest Gellner Professor of Anthropology (Emeritus) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His publications include Nomads and the Outside World (1st. ed. Cambridge University Press, 1984) and After the USSR: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Politics in the Comonwealth of Independent States (University of Wisconsin Press, 1995). Günther Schlee is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle. Until 1999, he was a Professor for Social Anthropology at the University of Bielefeld. His publications include Identities on the Move: Clanship and Pastoralism in Northern Kenya (Manchester University Press 1989).
  ernest gellner books: Soviet and Western Anthropology Ernest Gellner, 1980-03-02 Studies the relevance of Soviet societal anthropology for its western counterparts with a basic framework of Marxism but also delves into the works of ethnographers, linguists, and demographers.
  ernest gellner books: The Berbers; Their Social and Political Organisation Robert Montagne, 1973-01
  ernest gellner books: Nations and Nationalism since 1780 E. J. Hobsbawm, 2012-03-26 Nations and Nationalism since 1780 is Eric Hobsbawm's widely acclaimed and highly readable enquiry into the question of nationalism. Events in the late twentieth century in Eastern Europe and the Soviet republics have since reinforced the central importance of nationalism in the history of the political evolution and upheaval. This second edition has been updated in light of those events, with a final chapter addressing the impact of the dramatic changes that have taken place. Also included are additional maps to illustrate nationalities, languages and political divisions across Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
  ernest gellner books: The Sociology of Nationalism David McCrone, 2002-05-03 In recent years nationalism has emerged as a dominant issue of our time. This is a balanced account of the key points of a subject which is too often obscured by polemic.
  ernest gellner books: Islamic Dilemmas: Reformers, Nationalists and Industrialization Ernest Gellner, 2019-07-22 The series Religion and Society (RS) contributes to the exploration of religions as social systems - both in Western and non-Western societies; in particular, it examines religions in their differentiation from, and intersection with, other cultural systems, such as art, economy, law and politics. Due attention is given to paradigmatic case or comparative studies that exhibit a clear theoretical orientation with the empirical and historical data of religion and such aspects of religion as ritual, the religious imagination, constructions of tradition, iconography, or media. In addition, the formation of religious communities, their construction of identity, and their relation to society and the wider public are key issues of this series.
  ernest gellner books: Ernest Gellner, Selected Philosophical Themes Director of the Center for the Study of Nationalism Ernest Gellner, Ernest Gellner, 2003-03-27 Ernest Gellner made major contributions in very diverse fields, notably philosophy and social anthropology. This set reprints a collection of three of his classic works.
  ernest gellner books: Postmodernism and Islam Akbar S. Ahmed, 2013-01-11 Can West and East ever understand each other? In this extraordinary book one of the world's leading Muslim scholars explores an area which has which has been almost entirely neglected by scholars in the field - the area of postmodernism and Islam. This landmark work is startling, constantly perceptive and certain to be debated for years to come.
  ernest gellner books: Transition to Modernity Ernest Gellner, 1992-01-16 World languages and human dispersals : a minimalist view / Colin Renfrew -- Nomads and oases in Central Asia / A.M. Khazanov -- Why poverty was inevitable in traditional societies / E.A. Wrigley -- On a little known chapter of Mediterranean history / Karl R. Popper -- Ernest Gellner and the escape to modernity / Alan Macfarlane -- The emergence of modern European nationalism / Michael Mann -- Sovereign individuals / Ronald Dore -- Science, politics, enchantment / Perry Anderson -- Deconstructing post-modernism : Gellner and Crocodile Dundee / Joseph Agassi -- A methodology without presuppositions? / John Watkins -- Gellner's positivism / I.C. Jarvie -- Left versus Right in French political ideology / Louis Dumont -- Property, justice and common good after socialism / John Dunn -- Social contract, democracy and freedom / Gerard Radnitzky -- Thoughts on liberalisation / Jose Merquior -- Peace, peace at last? / John A. Hall.
  ernest gellner books: The Left Against Europe? Tom Nairn, 1973
  ernest gellner books: On the Nation and the Jewish People Ernest Renan, Shlomo Sand, 2020-05-05 Ernest Renan was one of the intellectual giants of the second half of the nineteenth century in France, the man who first opened up the study of nationalism. In this book, Shlomo Sand, the author of the best-selling The Invention of the Jewish People, demonstrates the complexity of Renan's thought. Sand shows the relationship of Renan's work to that of key twentieth-century thinkers on nationalism, such as Raymond Aron and Ernest Gellner, and argues for the continued importance of studying Renan. Alongside his essay, Sand presents two classic lectures by Renan: the first, the renowned What Is a Nation?, argues that nations are not based upon race, religion, and language; in the second he uses historical evidence to show that the Jews cannot be considered a pure ethnos. On the Nation and the Jewish People is an important contribution to the understanding of nationalism, bringing back into play the work of a profoundly misunderstood thinker.
- Ernest
Ernest est un environnement numérique et social de travail conçu pour répondre aux besoins spécifiques des membres de la communauté de l'Université de Strasbourg. C'est un espace …

- Ernest
Ernest est un environnement numérique et social de travail conçu pour répondre aux besoins spécifiques des membres de la communauté de l'Université de Strasbourg. C'est un espace …