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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Era: Modern × Emotional intelligence ×

1940-present · France

Annie Ernaux is a French writer. In 2022 she became the first French woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was born Annie…

Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking Emotional intelligence +1

"I shall not say my father, my mother, my sister: I shall name them."

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Language & Linguistics

b. 1945 · United States

Deborah Tannen (born 1945) is an American linguist who has become one of the most widely read scholars of how people talk to each other.…

Critical thinking Emotional intelligence Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1

"Communication is a continual balancing act, juggling the conflicting needs for intimacy and independence."

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1859-1938 · Austria-Hungary / Germany

Edmund Husserl was a German philosopher. He is the founder of phenomenology, one of the most important schools of twentieth-century thought. He was born on…

Critical thinking Research skills Creative expression Ethical thinking +1

"To the things themselves."

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Friedrich Nietzsche

1844-1900 · Germany

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher, cultural critic, and classicist. He was one of the most influential and most misunderstood thinkers of the 19th…

Critical thinking Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1

"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him."

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1860-1935 · United States

Jane Addams was an American sociologist, social reformer, and peace activist. She is one of the founders of American sociology, though she was left out…

Ethical thinking Emotional intelligence Critical thinking Research skills +1

"The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated…"

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1947-2023 · United States

Judith Heumann was an American disability rights activist. She is often called 'the mother of the disability rights movement'. She was born on 18 December…

Ethical thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1

"Some people say that what I did changed the world. But really, I simply refused to accept what I was…"

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Ludwig Wittgenstein

1889-1951 · Austria-Hungary / United Kingdom

Ludwig Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British philosopher. Many consider him the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century. He was born on 26 April 1889 in Vienna,…

Critical thinking Creative expression Research skills Ethical thinking +1

"The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."

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Martha Nussbaum

1947-present · United States

Martha Craven Nussbaum is an American philosopher. She is one of the most influential and widely read philosophers of the past fifty years. She was…

Ethical thinking Critical thinking Emotional intelligence Cultural heritage and identity +1

"The best approach to the question of social justice is the capabilities approach: what are people actually able to do…"

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1918-2013 · South Africa

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African lawyer, freedom fighter, and statesman. He led the long struggle to end apartheid, the racist system that ruled…

Ethical thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1

"I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and…"

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Patrice Lumumba

1925-1961 · Democratic Republic of the Congo

Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese political leader and the first Prime Minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was born in…

Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression +1

"We have known the mockery, the insults, the blows we had to endure morning, noon, and night because we were…"

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Patricia Hill Collins

1948-present · United States

Patricia Hill Collins is an American sociologist. She is one of the most important thinkers on race, gender, and power in recent decades. She was…

Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1

"Self-definition is a way of resisting oppression."

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1946-present · Australia (currently United States)

Peter Singer is an Australian philosopher. He is one of the most widely read living philosophers and one of the most controversial. He was born…

Ethical thinking Critical thinking Problem solving Cultural heritage and identity +1

"The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?"

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1939-2013 · Northern Ireland / Ireland

Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest English-language…

Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence Ethical thinking +1

"Between my finger and my thumb / The squat pen rests; snug as a gun."

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1887-1951 · Democratic Republic of the Congo

Simon Kimbangu was a Congolese religious leader and the founder of Kimbanguism, one of the largest African-initiated churches in the world. He was born on…

Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking Emotional intelligence +1

"It is now time for me to turn myself in to the authorities; let impatient men prone to anger be…"

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Toussaint Louverture

c. 1743-1803 · Haiti (Saint-Domingue)

Toussaint Louverture was the main leader of the Haitian Revolution. This was the only successful slave revolt in modern history. It turned a French slave…

Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Problem solving +1

"In overthrowing me, you have cut down in Saint-Domingue only the trunk of the tree of liberty. It will spring…"

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Ursula K. Le Guin

1929-2018 · United States

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was an American novelist, essayist, and poet. She is one of the most important writers of science fiction and fantasy in…

Creative expression Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1

"We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be…"

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1882-1941 · England

Virginia Woolf was an English novelist, essayist, and literary critic. She is one of the most important writers of the 20th century. She was born…

Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1

"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

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