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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Philosophy 7 History 1 Literature 6
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24 thinkers
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Era: Medieval × Ethical thinking ×
Philosophy
Adi Shankara
Traditionally 788-820 · India (Hindu, Advaita Vedanta)
Adi Shankara (traditionally 788-820, though some scholars propose earlier dates) was an Indian philosopher and theologian whose consolidation of the Advaita Vedanta school shaped Hindu…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"Brahman is real, the world is false, and the individual soul is no other than Brahman."
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History
Anna Komnene
1083 - c. 1153 · Byzantine Empire (Constantinople, modern Istanbul)
Anna Komnene was a Byzantine princess and historian. The Byzantine Empire was the eastern continuation of the Roman Empire. It survived for a thousand years…
Research skills Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Time, in its irresistible and ceaseless flow, carries off and submerges all that has come into being and plunges it…"
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Literature
Christine de Pizan
c. 1364-c. 1430 · Italy / France
Christine de Pizan was a medieval Italian-French writer. She is widely considered the first woman in Europe to make her living as a professional author.…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking +1
"Just the sight of this book made me wonder how it happened that so many different men have been so…"
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Literature
Dante Alighieri
1265-1321 · Florence, Italy
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was an Italian poet, writer, and political thinker. He was born in Florence, one of the most important cities in medieval Italy,…
Storytelling and narrative Ethical thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight…"
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Religion
Dogen
1200-1253 · Japan (Soto Zen Buddhist)
Eihei Dogen (1200-1253) was a Japanese Buddhist monk whose writings founded the Soto school of Zen Buddhism and produced one of the most original bodies…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression +1
"To study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To…"
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Business & Management
Guru Nanak
1469-1539 · Punjab (Sikh founder)
Guru Nanak (1469-1539) was the founder of Sikhism, whose teaching and poetic hymns established a distinctive religious tradition in the Punjab region of South Asia.…
Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking Creative expression +1
"There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim."
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Philosophy
Heloise
c. 1100 - 1164 · France
Heloise was a French abbess, philosopher, and letter-writer. She was one of the most original intellectual voices of the 12th century. She is often remembered…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Critical thinking Emotional intelligence +1
"I would rather be your whore than wife of an emperor."
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Religion
Hildegard of Bingen
1098-1179 · Germany (Holy Roman Empire)
Hildegard of Bingen was a German nun, writer, composer, and healer. She was one of the most important thinkers in medieval Europe. She was born…
Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking +1
"I am a feather on the breath of God."
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Religion
Huldrych Zwingli
1484-1531 · Swiss Confederacy (now Switzerland)
Huldrych Zwingli was a Swiss priest and reformer. He is one of the three central figures of the Protestant Reformation, along with Martin Luther and…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"Zwingli held that only what the Bible clearly taught should shape Christian belief and worship."
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Literature
Ibn Battuta
1304 - c. 1369 · Morocco
Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan traveller, scholar, and writer. He travelled more widely than almost anyone else in the medieval world. Over about 30 years,…
Research skills Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression Critical thinking +1
"Travelling: it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller."
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Philosophy
Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
1126-1198 · Al-Andalus (modern Spain)
Ibn Rushd (1126-1198), known in Latin Europe as Averroes, was a philosopher, jurist, physician, and astronomer from Al-Andalus, the Muslim-ruled region of the Iberian Peninsula.…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"Truth does not oppose truth but accords with it and bears witness to it."
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Religion
Julian of Norwich
c. 1342-after 1416 · England
Julian of Norwich was an English Christian mystic and theologian. She is thought to be the first woman to have written a book in English…
Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression Emotional intelligence +1
"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."
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Religion
Khadija bint Khuwaylid
c. 555-619 · Arabia (Mecca)
Khadija bint Khuwaylid was a successful Arabian merchant in 6th- and 7th-century Mecca. She is honoured in Islamic tradition as the first Muslim and as…
Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Problem solving Emotional intelligence +1
"By God, God will never humiliate you. You maintain family ties, you help to carry the burdens of the weak,…"
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Politics
King Sejong the Great
1397-1450 · Korea (Joseon)
King Sejong the Great (Sejong Daewang) was the fourth king of Korea's Joseon dynasty and one of the most consequential rulers in Korean history. He…
Problem solving Scientific thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"The sounds of our country's language are different from those of the Middle Kingdom and are not confluent with the…"
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Religion
Martin Luther
1483-1546 · Germany (Lutheran / Protestant Reformer)
Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a German friar, theologian, and biblical scholar whose objections to Catholic practice became the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation — a…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression +1
"Here I stand; I can do no other."
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Literature
Mirabai
c. 1498-c. 1547 · India (Rajasthan)
Mirabai was a sixteenth-century Indian poet and saint. She is one of the most loved figures in the bhakti movement, a Hindu devotional tradition that…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1
"Mira's lord is the clever Mountain Lifter; she is his slave forever, at the dust of his lotus feet."
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Religion
Moses Maimonides
1138-1204 · Al-Andalus / Egypt (Sephardic Jewish)
Moses ben Maimon (1138-1204), a religious figure known in Hebrew as Rambam and in Arabic as Musa ibn Maymun, was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher, legal…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"The truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor…"
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Literature
Niccolò Machiavelli
1469-1527 · Florence (Italy)
Niccolò Machiavelli was an Italian writer, diplomat, and political thinker. He was born in 1469 in Florence, then a powerful Italian city-state. His family was…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Creative expression Research skills +1
"It is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with."
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Philosophy
Peter Abelard
1079 - 1142 · France
Peter Abelard was a French philosopher, theologian, and teacher. He was one of the most influential and controversial intellectual figures of the 12th century. He…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Creative expression Research skills +1
"By doubting we come to inquiry; by inquiry we perceive truth."
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Religion
Rabia of Basra
c. 717 CE - c. 801 CE · Basra, Iraq (Abbasid Caliphate)
Rabia of Basra was an early Sufi mystic and saint. Sufism is the mystical tradition within Islam. It emphasises the inner experience of God rather…
Ethical thinking Emotional intelligence Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity +1
"O God, if I worship Thee for fear of hell, burn me in hell. If I worship Thee for hope…"
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Literature
Rumi
1207-1273 · Khorasan / Anatolia (Persian Sufi)
Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207-1273), known throughout the Islamic world as Mawlana (our master) and in the West by the short name Rumi, was a…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking +1
"Listen to this reed, how it complains, telling tales of separation."
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Philosophy
Thomas Aquinas
1225-1274 · Kingdom of Sicily (Italy, Dominican / Catholic)
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and theologian whose synthesis of Christian theology with Aristotelian philosophy became the most influential intellectual achievement…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"Because in created things the existence differs from the essence, it follows that in them also there is a composition…"
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Philosophy
Wang Yangming
1472 - 1529 · Ming dynasty China
Wang Yangming was a Chinese philosopher, scholar, and military general. He is one of the most important Confucian thinkers of the second millennium CE. His…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Creative expression Emotional intelligence +1
"There is a sage in every person, but they do not believe in themselves and so they bury this sage."
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Philosophy
Zhu Xi
1130-1200 · China
Zhu Xi was a Chinese philosopher, teacher, and government official of the Southern Song dynasty. He was born on 18 October 1130 in Youxi, in…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Research skills Cultural heritage and identity +1
"If we wish to extend our knowledge to the utmost, we must investigate the principles of all things we come…"
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