Euclid of Cosmopolis: or the Importance of Reading Ernest

Abstract

Ernest Gellner's writings on nationalism need to be read in the wider context of his thought as a whole. The key lies in regarding Gellner as a thinker who was interested in the possibility of understanding particularist sentiments & collectivist political loyalties that radically differed from his own individualistic cosmopolitan worldview. A richer interpretation of Gellner's life & thought emerges from this insight than from more superficial understandings of Gellner as a functionalist or a rationalist.