Born in 1940 in Oslo, Jon Elster studied in Oslo and Paris, where he defended his thesis " Production et Reproduction : Essai sur Marx " for the Doctorat ès lettres et sciences humaines in 1972. After teaching sociology for some time at the University of Paris-VIII, he became a member of the philosophy and history departments at the University of Oslo.
In the 1980s, he began teaching political science in the United States, first at the University of Chicago and then, like Robert K. Merton, Professor of Social Science, at Columbia University in New York.
He is a member of scientific academies in Norway, Great Britain and the USA, as well as Academia Europaea, and holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Valencia, Stockholm and Trondheim.
He has received several awards, including the Prix Jean Nicod and the Nansen Prize.
