Great Thinkers

Meet the great minds whose ideas have shaped the world — philosophers, scientists, artists, leaders, and revolutionaries whose thinking still matters today.

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83 thinkers
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Psychology
Abraham Maslow
1908-1970 · United States
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) was an American psychologist. He was born into a poor Jewish immigrant family in Brooklyn, New York, and described his childhood as…
Health literacy Self regulation Goal setting Learning how to learn +1
"What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualisation."
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Literature
Aimé Césaire
1913-2008 · Martinique, Caribbean
Aimé Césaire (1913-2008) was a poet, playwright, and political thinker from Martinique, an island in the Caribbean that was, and still is, a French territory.…
Cultural heritage and identity Critical literacy Citizenship Ethical thinking +1
"A civilisation that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilisation."
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Arts
Akira Kurosawa
1910-1998 · Japan
Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and editor whose thirty completed feature films include some of the most influential works in the…
Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking +1
"To be an artist means never to avert one's eyes."
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Mathematics
Alan Turing
1912-1954 · United Kingdom
Alan Turing was an English mathematician, codebreaker, and founder of modern computer science. He was born in London on 23 June 1912. His father worked…
Critical thinking Problem solving Scientific thinking Creative expression +1
"We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done."
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Literature
Albert Camus
1913-1960 · Algeria / France
Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a French-Algerian novelist, playwright, and philosopher. He was born in Mondovi in French colonial Algeria into a poor working-class family: his…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Resilience Storytelling and narrative +1
"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide."
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Physics
Albert Einstein
1879-1955 · Germany / United States
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. He is widely seen as the most influential scientist of the twentieth century. He was born on 14…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Problem solving Creative expression +1
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
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Politics
Alice Wong
1974-2025 · United States
Alice Wong was an American disability activist, writer, and editor. She founded the Disability Visibility Project, which gathered and amplified the stories of disabled people…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1
"Disability is so much more than pain, trauma and tragedy. There's creativity, adaptation, and talent that comes from living in…"
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Literature
Audre Lorde
1934-1992 · United States
Audre Lorde (1934-1992) was an American poet, essayist, teacher, and political activist whose work insisted on the interconnection of race, gender, sexuality, and class in…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives."
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Law
B.R. Ambedkar
1891-1956 · India, South Asia
B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer, and philosopher. His full name was Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. He was born into a Dalit…
Citizenship Ethical thinking Critical thinking Systems thinking +1
"I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved."
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Business & Management
C.K. Prahalad
1941-2010 · India / United States
Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad (1941-2010) was an Indian-American management scholar whose ideas about corporate strategy, core competence, and the business opportunity at the bottom of the…
Critical thinking Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"The roots of competitive advantage are buried deep inside the corporation."
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History
C.L.R. James
1901-1989 · Trinidad and Tobago
Cyril Lionel Robert James was a Trinidadian historian, political thinker, novelist, and cricket writer. He is one of the most important intellectuals the Caribbean has…
Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking Creative expression +1
"What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?"
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Business & Management
Chester Barnard
1886-1961 · United States
Chester Irving Barnard (1886-1961) was an American business executive whose book The Functions of the Executive (1938) became one of the foundational works of mid-twentieth-century…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Problem solving Research skills +1
"An organization is a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons."
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Literature
Chinua Achebe
1930-2013 · Nigeria, West Africa
Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, critic, and professor. He was born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe in Ogidi, in southeastern Nigeria, into an Igbo…
Storytelling and narrative Critical literacy Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking +1
"Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter."
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Anthropology & Culture
Claude Lévi-Strauss
1908-2009 · Belgium / France
Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009) was a Belgian-French anthropologist, one of the most influential social scientists of the twentieth century. He was born in Brussels to a…
Critical thinking Research skills Storytelling and narrative Scientific thinking +1
"The world began without man and will end without him."
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Anthropology & Culture
Clifford Geertz
1926-2006 · United States
Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) was an American cultural anthropologist and one of the most influential social scientists of the twentieth century. He was born in San…
Research skills Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Storytelling and narrative +1
"Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun. I take culture to be those webs."
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Chemistry
Dorothy Hodgkin
1910-1994 · United Kingdom
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was an English chemist. She remains the only British woman ever to win a Nobel Prize in any of the sciences. She…
Scientific thinking Problem solving Research skills Ethical thinking +1
"I was captured for life by chemistry and by crystals."
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History
E.P. Thompson
1924-1993 · England, United Kingdom
E.P. Thompson (1924-1993) was a British historian, socialist activist, and peace campaigner. His full name was Edward Palmer Thompson. He was born in Oxford into…
Research skills Critical thinking Citizenship Cultural heritage and identity +1
"I am seeking to rescue the poor stockinger, the Luddite cropper, the obsolete hand-loom weaver, the utopian artisan and even…"
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Literature
Edward Said
1935-2003 · Palestine / United States
Edward Wadie Said was a Palestinian-American literary critic, public intellectual, and music critic. He was one of the founders of postcolonial studies. He was born…
Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"The Orient was almost a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories…"
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Politics
Elinor Ostrom
1933-2012 · United States
Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012) was an American political economist. She was born in Los Angeles and grew up during the Great Depression, a period of severe…
Environmental thinking Citizenship Systems thinking Financial literacy +1
"A lot of models in economics assume that human beings are fundamentally selfish. But the evidence shows that many people…"
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Economics
Esther Duflo
1972-present · France / United States
Esther Duflo is a French-American economist. In 2019 she became, at age 46, the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic…
Scientific thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Problem solving +1
"It is not the magnitude of the problem that determines whether we can do something about it."
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Technology & Engineering
Fazlur Rahman Khan
1929-1982 · Bangladesh / United States
Fazlur Rahman Khan (1929-1982) was a Bangladeshi-American structural engineer whose innovations transformed how tall buildings are designed and made the modern generation of skyscrapers possible.…
Scientific thinking Creative expression Research skills Critical thinking +1
"The technical man must not be lost in his own technology. He must be able to appreciate life, and life…"
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Arts
Frida Kahlo
1907-1954 · Mexico
Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (1907-1954) was a Mexican painter whose intensely personal and politically engaged work has made her one of the most…
Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking Critical thinking +1
"I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best."
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Philosophy
G.E.M. Anscombe
1919-2001 · England (born in Ireland)
Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe was a British philosopher. She was one of the most important philosophers writing in English in the 20th century. She was…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"For men to choose to kill the innocent as a means to their ends is always murder."
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Literature
George Orwell
1903-1950 · England
George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, an English writer, journalist, and essayist. He is one of the most quoted writers of…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Creative expression Research skills +1
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
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