"John Gray [1948–] is Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics. Prior to this he was Professor of Politics at Oxford University and Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. He is a former supporter of the New Right, but has since revised his views, and now believes that the conventional political solutions of conservatism and social democracy are no longer viable. He is a regular contributor to the Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement and is the author of many books on political theory. He is married and lives in Oxford." (from Granta website)

"...John Gray is one of the world's most prominent political thinkers. His career has spanned three decades as a scholar, and as a university teacher and public intellectual. Gray's prolific and provocative output—totalling some fourteen books and countless articles, op-ed pieces and newspaper reviews—make him in the opinion of many currently the leading active practitioner of a liberal tradition stretching from Isaiah Berlin back to J.S. Mill and Thomas Hobbes.

His close critical reading of the history of liberal thought has produced an original and controversial response to the conditions of late modernity. Gray's 'agonistic liberalism' exposes the tension between value-pluralism and liberalism's claim to be the sole moral and political doctrine that reasonable people can accept. Because he holds that many conflicts of basic values cannot be resolved by the impartial reasoning advocated by today's neutralist liberal orthodoxy, Gray argues that hard bargaining and brute power—that is, politics—resist the abstract theory and moralizing which marks some modern political and moral philosophy....

...Gray is not a one-theory man. His work reveals a breadth of interest, and a readiness to discard previously held convictions, which is anathema to narrow academic specialisms. He also displays a pragmatism about economic and technological realities which has not always proven popular. His syncretic approach, drawing on many disciplines outside political theory, and receptiveness to new ideas yield sharp new insights and apparent inconsistencies.

His most recent works, Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and other Animals [2002] and Al Qaeda and What it Means to be Modern [2003], illustrate his continuing engagement with the central political issues of our time, including Islam and terrorism, globalization, environmentalism, and the prospects for humanity in the modern world." (from Political Studies Association UK website)

His other publications include Liberalism (1986, 1995), Enlightenment's Wake: Politics and Culture at the Close of the Modern Age (1995), False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism (1999), The Two Faces of Liberalism (2000), and Heresies: Against Progress and Other Illusions (2004).