Top 100 public intellectuals in the world

Who are the world's leading public intellectuals? "FP and Britain’s Prospect magazine would like to know who you think makes the cut. We’ve selected our top 100, and want you to vote for your top five. If you don’t see a name that you think deserves top honors, include them as a write-in candidate." (Voting closed October 10, so it's too late.)

FOR MYSELF, I count 38 people I'd have to google to know who the fuck they are, and some of them are from the States. Notable omissions: Joan Didion, for example. And Terry Eagleton. John Updike, who's still pretty free with his literary opinions.

Noam Chomsky would probably top my list, for his linguistic and political contributions. I bet he wins this one.
My other picks would be Sen, Coetzee, Dawkins, De Soto, Diamond, Krugman, and Singer. I see I picked four out of my eight from the States. I'd put Zizek up there too, but I don't really know whether he has a body of coherent thought; I just know him from self-consciously provocative snippets. Usually a public intellectual is someone known for stirring a lot of shit. In that regard, Chomsky still wins, followed closely by Singer. For sheer shit-stirring, you'd have to add Paglia, Greer, Hitchens, Klein and Braudillard, who make shit-stirring their basic project. Paglia and Hitchens are about shit-stirring pure and simply, more than anything else.

1. Chinua Achebe Novelist Nigeria
2. Jean Baudrillard Sociologist, cultural critic France
3. Gary Becker Economist United States
4. Pope Benedict XVI Religious leader Germany, Vatican (What the fuck is he doing here? If he's an intellectual, my cat is a chef)
5. Jagdish Bhagwati Economist India, United States
6. Fernando Henrique Cardoso Sociologist, former president Brazil
7. Noam Chomsky Linguist, author, activist United States
8. J.M. Coetzee Novelist South Africa
9. Gordon Conway Agricultural ecologist Britain
10. Robert Cooper Diplomat, writer Britain
11. Richard Dawkins Biologist, polemicist Britain (they need to add: outspoken atheist)
12. Hernando de Soto Economist Peru
13. Pavol Demes Political analyst Slovakia
14. Daniel Dennett Philosopher United States
15. Kemal Dervis Economist Turkey
16. Jared Diamond Biologist, physiologist, historian United States
17. Freeman Dyson Physicist United States
18. Shirin Ebadi Lawyer, human rights activist Iran
19. Umberto Eco Medievalist, novelist Italy
20. Paul Ekman Psychologist United States
21. Fan Gang Economist China
22. Niall Ferguson Historian Britain (Too wrong-headed; all this bilge about America having to take up its duties of Empire.)
23. Alain Finkielkraut Essayist, philosopher France
24. Thomas Friedman Journalist, author United States (what the fuck is this globalism blowhard joke doing on the list? If he's an intellectual, my ass excretes icecream)
25 Francis Fukuyama Political scientist, author United States
26. Gao Xingjian Novelist, playwright China
27. Howard Gardner Psychologist United States
28. Timothy Garton Ash Historian Britain
29. Henry Louis Gates Jr. Scholar, cultural critic United States
30. Clifford Geertz Anthropologist United States
31. Neil Gershenfeld Physicist, computer scientist United States
32. Anthony Giddens Sociologist Britain
33. Germaine Greer Writer, academic Australia, Britain
34. Jürgen Habermas Philosopher Germany
35. Ha Jin Novelist China
36. Václav Havel Playwright, statesman Czech Republic
37. Ayaan Hirsi Ali Politician Somalia, Netherlands
38. Christopher Hitchens Polemicist United States, Britain (I guess he's here because he makes a lot of noise)
39. Eric Hobsbawm Historian Britain
40. Robert Hughes Art critic Australia
41. Samuel Huntington Political scientist United States
42. Michael Ignatieff Writer, human rights theorist Canada
43. Shintaro Ishihara Politician, author Japan
44. Robert Kagan Author, political commentator United States
45. Daniel Kahneman Psychologist Israel, United States
46. Sergei Karaganov Foreign-policy analyst Russia
47. Paul Kennedy Historian Britain, United States
48. Gilles Kepel Scholar of Islam France
49. Naomi Klein Journalist, author Canada
50. Rem Koolhaas Architect Netherlands
51. Enrique Krauze Historian Mexico
52. Julia Kristeva Philosopher France
53. Paul Krugman Economist, columnist United States (Yes, yes! I love this guy. He called Bush a liar years before anyone else dared.)
54. Hans Küng Theologian Switzerland
55. Jaron Lanier Virtual reality pioneer United States (Interesting choice)
56. Lawrence Lessig Legal scholar United States
57. Bernard Lewis Historian Britain, United States (Please: this guy is an asshole.)
58. Bjørn Lomborg Environmentalist Denmark
59. James Lovelock Scientist Britain
60. Kishore Mahbubani Author, diplomat Singapore
61. Ali Mazrui Political scientist Kenya
62. Sunita Narain Environmentalist India
63. Antonio Negri Philosopher, activist Italy
64. Martha Nussbaum Philosopher United States (She's quite bonkable too.)
65. Sari Nusseibeh Diplomat, philosopher Palestine
66. Kenichi Ohmae Management theorist Japan
67. Amos Oz Novelist Israel
68. Camille Paglia Social critic, author United States (Another who's more known for the noise she makes than the thoughts she thinks)
69. Orhan Pamuk Novelist Turkey
70. Steven Pinker Experimental psychologist Canada, United States
71. Richard Posner Judge, scholar, author United States (He once came up with his own list of over 600 U.S. public intellectuals based on media mentions. His top ten were 1. Henry Kissinger (12,570 media mentions between 1995 and 2000) 2. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (12,344) 3. George Will (10,425) 4. Lawrence Summers (9,369) 5. William J. Bennett (9,070) 6. Robert Reich (8,795) 7. Sidney Blumenthal (8,044) 8. Arthur Miller—the law professor, not the playwright—(7,955) 9. Salman Rushdie (7,688) 10. William Safire (6,408) Only Larry Summers and Rushdie make this list, too.)
72. Pramoedya Ananta Toer Writer, dissident Indonesia
73. Yusuf al-Qaradawi Cleric Egypt, Qatar
74. Robert Putnam Political scientist United States
75. Tariq Ramadan Scholar of Islam Switzerland
76. Martin Rees Astrophysicist Britain
77. Richard Rorty Philosopher United States
78. Salman Rushdie Novelist, political commentator Britain, India (I don't know. The man is still coasting on Midnight's Children.)
79. Jeffrey Sachs Economist United States
80. Elaine Scarry Literary theorist United States
81. Amartya Sen Economist India
82. Peter Singer Philosopher Australia
83. Ali al-Sistani Cleric Iran, Iraq (The only man who has kept the U.S. fairly honest in his country.)
84. Peter Sloterdijk Philosopher Germany
85. Abdolkarim Soroush Religious theorist Iran
86. Wole Soyinka Playwright, activist Nigeria
87. Lawrence Summers Economist, academic United States (What? The man's an anti-intellectual.)
88. Mario Vargas Llosa Novelist, politician Peru
89. Harold Varmus Medical scientist United States
90. Craig Venter Biologist, businessman United States (An important scientist, but an intellectual? Has he ever written an essay?)
91. Michael Walzer Political theorist United States
92. Florence Wambugu Plant Pathologist Kenya
93. Wang Jisi Foreign-policy analyst China
94. Steven Weinberg Physicist United States
95. E.O. Wilson Biologist United States
96. James Q. Wilson Criminologist United States
97. Paul Wolfowitz Policymaker, academic United States
98. Fareed Zakaria Journalist, author United States
99. Zheng Bijian Political scientist China
100. Slavoj Zizek Sociologist, philosopher Slovenia

Criteria
"The irony of this “thinkers” list is that it does not bear thinking about too closely. The problems of definition and judgment that it involves would discourage more rigorous souls. But some criteria must be spelled out. What is a public intellectual? Someone who has shown distinction in their own field along with the ability to communicate ideas and influence debate outside of it.

"Candidates must have been alive, and still active in public life (though many on this list are past their prime). Such criteria ruled out the likes of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Milton Friedman, who would have been automatic inclusions 20 or so years ago. This list is about public influence, not intrinsic achievement. And that is where things get really tricky. Judging influence is hard enough inside one’s own culture, but when you are peering across cultures and languages, the problem becomes far harder. Obviously our list of 100 has been influenced by where most of us sit, in the English-speaking West.

"We tried to avoid the “box ticking” problem of having x Chinese, y economists and z under-50s. But we have also tried to give due weight to the important thinkers in all the main intellectual disciplines and centers of population. We also tried to ensure that all names on the list are influential in at least a few countries in their region, if not the entire globe. We may not have succeeded in following all these rules to the letter, but for those of you irritated by our choices, there is a small safety valve—a write-in vote that allows you to nominate a name that wasn’t included on our list." — Prospect and Foreign Policy