Five public intellectuals

Foreign Policy magazine is running a poll of the top 100 public intellectuals. The list of candidates is here - you get to choose five. I must admit I hadn't heard of half of them and most of those whose work I do know, I wouldn't vote for (Noam Chomsky, Al Gore and Peter Singer spring immediately to mind).

Here's the five I've gone with (in no particular order): Amartiya Sen, Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett.

I feel I should qualify a couple of my choices by saying that although I agree with much of what Richard Dawkins has to say, I'm not a great fan of his general approach or his style of writing (though I must say I found "The God Delusion" to be better written than his previous books). Christopher Hitchens, I confess, I have always found insufferably smug though obviously tremendously well read (perhaps the two are in some way connected). And, if I had to choose just one it would be Steven Pinker, not because I believe him to be "topper" than the others in a public intellectual sort of way, but because I've read more of his work than anyone else's and I have a lot of sympathy with his views.

Which five would you choose?