Photo: HarvardEthics / CC BY 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Elster is one of those thinkers I find quietly indispensable. A Norwegian who built his career between Paris and Columbia, he refuses to let social science hide behind neat assumptions about how people behave. What grabs me is his honesty about the limits of rationality and the messy pull of emotion and self-deception. The Jean Nicod Prize and Johan Skytte Prize confirm what readers already feel: this is rigor without pretense. He is not a flashy public intellectual, and that is exactly why I trust him. Decades from now I suspect his work on choice and constraint will still feel uncomfortably accurate about us.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Jon Elster
- Name (Japanese)
- ヤン・エルスター
- Reading
- やん・えるすたー
- Born
- February 22, 1940 (age 86)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Pisces / Dragon
- Origin
- Oslo, Norway
- Occupation
- philosopher / professor / sociologist / economist / political scientist
2. Background
- University
- Paris Descartes University
Awards & achievements
- Guggenheim Fellowship
- 2006 Fridtjof Nansen Award for outstanding research, historical-philosophical class
- 2011 Prices of the Norwegian Association of Sociology
- 2002 John von Neumann Award
- 1997 Jean Nicod Prize
- 1995 honorary doctor of the University of Valencia
- 2016 Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Jon Elster born?
Born February 22, 1940 (age 86).
Where is Jon Elster from?
Jon Elster is from Oslo, Norway.
What does Jon Elster do?
Jon Elster works as philosopher, professor, sociologist, economist, political scientist.
Philosopher — see all → · Professor — see all → · More people from Norway →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.