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Most Cited Authors in the Humanities in 2007 (with some law comparisons)

By Larry Solum

<a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=405956&sectioncode=26" target="_blank">From Times Higher Education</a>, hat top to <a href="http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2010/04/most-cited-authors-of-books-in-the-humanities.html">Leiter</a>.  The original numbers (in black) are the basis for the ranking, but I have added citation counts from 2007 in the Westlaw JLR data base in <span style="color: #0000bf; ">blue</span>.<br /><ol> <li>Michel Foucault (1926-1984) Philosophy, sociology, criticism 2,521 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(166)</span></li> <li>Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) Sociology 2,465 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(58)</span></li> <li>Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) Philosophy 1,874 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(72)</span></li> <li>Albert Bandura (1925- ) Psychology 1,536 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(13)</span></li> <li>Anthony Giddens (1938- ) Sociology 1,303 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(37)</span></li> <li>Erving Goffman (1922-1982) Sociology 1,066 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(53)</span></li> <li>Jurgen Habermas (1929- ) Philosophy, sociology 1,049 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(145)</span></li> <li>Max Weber (1864-1920) Sociology 971 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(154)</span></li> <li>Judith Butler (1956- ) Philosophy 960 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(65)</span></li> <li>Bruno Latour (1947- ) Sociology, anthropology 944 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(30)</span></li> </ol> <p><span style="color: #0000bf; ">And a few notables from the rest of the list:</span></p><ul> <li>Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) Philosophy 882 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(224)</span></li> <li>Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) Philosophy 874 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(29)</span></li> <li>Noam Chomsky (1928- ) Linguistics, philosophy 812 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(45)</span></li> <li>John Rawls (1921-2002) Philosophy 708 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(409)</span></li> <li>Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) Sociology 662 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(42)</span></li> <li>Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) Anthropology 596 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(50)</span></li> <li>Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) Political theory 593 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(126)</span></li> <li>Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) Philosophy 583 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(49)</span></li> <li>John Dewey (1859-1952) Philosophy, psychology, education 575 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(105)</span></li> <li>Thomas S. Kuhn (1922-1996) History and philosophy of science 519 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(63)</span></li> <li>Karl Marx (1818-1883) Political theory, economics, sociology 501 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(110)</span></li> <li>Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) Philosophy 501 <span style="color: #0000bf; ">(46)</span></li> </ul> <p><font color="#0000BF">If we were to reorder the list for the top ten in law, we get:</font></p><p></p><ol> <li><font color="#0000BF"><span style="color: #111111; ">John Rawls (409)</span></font></li> <li><font color="#0000BF"><span style="color: #111111; ">Immanuel Kant (224)</span></font></li> <li><font color="#0000BF"><span style="color: #111111; ">Michel Foucault (166)</span></font></li> <li><font color="#0000BF"><span style="color: #111111; ">Max Weber (154)</span></font></li> <li><font color="#0000BF"><span style="color: #111111; ">Jurgen Habermas (145)</span></font></li> <li><font color="#0000BF"><span style="color: #111111; ">Hannah Arendt (126)</span></font></li> <li><font color="#0000BF"><span style="color: #111111; ">Karl Marx (110)</span></font></li> <li><font color="#0000BF"><span style="color: #111111; ">John Dewy (105)</span></font></li> <li><font color="#0000BF"><span style="color: #111111; ">Jacques Derrida (72)</span></font></li> <li><font color="#0000BF"><span style="color: #111111; ">Judith Butler (65)</span></font></li> </ol> <p></p><p><font color="#0000BF">By way of comparison, here are a few numbers for legal scholars (chosen "off the top of my head" from different theoretical orientations):</font></p><p></p><ul> <li><font color="#0000BF"><span style="color: #111111; ">Cass Sunstein (1066)</span></font></li> <li><font color="#0000BF"><span style="color: #111111; ">H.L.A. Hart (342)</span></font></li> <li><font color="#0000BF"><span style="color: #111111; ">Louis Kaplow (234)</span></font></li> <li><font color="#0000BF"><span style="color: #111111; ">Lon Fuller (198)</span></font></li> <li><font color="#111111">Catharine MacKinnon (176)</font></li> </ul> <p style="color: #0000bf; "><font color="#111111" style="color: #0000bf; "><span style="color: #0000bf; "><strong>The difference in the ranking of Rawls and Kant is striking.</strong></span></font></p><p></p><p><font color="#0000BF"><br /></font></p>

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on April 06, 2010 (boomark / email).