Ernest Gellner - A Great European: In Memoriam Professor Ernest Gellner

Abstract

The 20th-century sociologist Ernest Gellner is eulogized. Gellner's intellectual background is traced through his studies in philosophy & economics, & the influence of the work of Karl Popper on his career is considered. It is proposed that Popper's critical rationalism & anthropological functionalism were an important foundation for Gellner & his intellectual thought. Gellner believed that science was the most reliable system to understand the human race; his fundamental philosophy was a strong devotion to empiricism that would allow for boundless progress.