The 2005 Global Intel­lec­tu­als Poll is a list of the 100 most impor­tant liv­ing pub­lic intel­lec­tu­als […] com­piled in Novem­ber 2005 by Prospect Mag­a­zine and For­eign Pol­icy on the basis of a reader’s ballot.

Top five:

  1. Noam Chom­sky
  2. Umberto Eco
  3. Richard Dawkins
  4. Václav Havel
  5. Christo­pher Hitchens

For­eign Pol­icy requires (free) reg­is­tra­tion to access the list. It’s avail­able hassle-free at Wikipedia.