Jon Elster is the Robert K. Merton Professor of Social Science at Columbia University. He has previously held positions at the University of Paris VIII, the University of Oslo, the University of Chicago and the Collège de France. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, Academia Europaea and the Norwegian Academy of Science, and a corresponding fellow of the British Academy. Elster is the author of twenty-three monographs, which have been translated into eighteen languages. Most recently, these include L'Irrationalité, Alexis de Tocqueville: The First Social Scientist, Le Désintéressement, Explaining Social Behavior, Agir contre soi, Closing the Books and Alchemies of the Mind.