Jon Elster

Jon Elster (/ˈɛlstər/; born 22 February 1940, Oslo) is a Norwegian philosopher and political theorist who holds the Robert K. Merton professorship of Social Science at Columbia University. He received his Ph.D. in social science from the École Normale Superieure in 1972. He has previously taught at the University of Paris, the University of Oslo, and the University of Chicago, where he became a professor of political science in 1984. Since 1995, he has held the Robert K. Merton professorship of Social Science at Columbia University, as well as being a professor of social science at the Collège de France since 2005.

Elster has authored works in the philosophy of social science and rational choice theory. He is also a notable proponent of analytical Marxism and a critic of neoclassical economics and public choice theory, largely on behavioral and psychological grounds. In 2016, he was awarded the 22nd Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science for his contributions to political science.

Elster is the son of journalist/author and CEO of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation Torolf Elster and poet Magli Elster. He earned his Ph.D. in 1972 from the École Normale Superieure in Paris with a dissertation on Karl Marx under the direction of Raymond Aron. Elster was a member of the September Group for many years but left in the early 1990s. Elster previously taught at the University of Oslo in the department of history and held an endowed chair at the University of Chicago, teaching in the departments of philosophy and political science. 

He is now Robert K. Merton Professor of Social Sciences with appointments in Political Science and Philosophy at Columbia University and professeur honoraire at the Collège de France. He was awarded the Jean Nicod Prize in 1997 and the Skytte Prize in Political Science in 2016. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the American Philosophical Society, the Academia Europaea, and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.

Elster is a doctor honoris causa at the universities of Valencia, Stockholm, Oslo, Trondheim (NTNU), Louvain-la-Neuve, Torcuato di Tella, and the National University of Colombia. He is an honorary professor at the University of Chongqing.