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 × Page 1 of 2
Politics
Albert Maori Kiki
1931-1993 · Papua New Guinea
Sir Albert Maori Kiki was a Papua New Guinean pathologist, trade unionist, politician, and writer. He was a co-founder of the Pangu Pati (Pangu Party),…
Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking Problem solving +1
"I have lived ten thousand years in one lifetime."
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Economics
Angus Deaton
born 1945 · United Kingdom
Angus Deaton is an economist. He was born in 1945 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father was a coal miner who valued education highly. Deaton won…
Critical thinking Research skills Ethical thinking Problem solving +1
"Life is better now than at almost any time in history, but this is a story with two sides."
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Literature
Annie Ernaux
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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Literature
Christopher Hitchens
1949 - 2011 · United Kingdom (later United States)
Christopher Hitchens was a British-American journalist, essayist, and writer. He was one of the most famous public intellectuals of the late 20th and early 21st…
Creative expression Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."
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Language & Linguistics
David Crystal
born 1941 · United Kingdom
David Crystal is a British linguist. A linguist is a person who studies language in a careful, scientific way. Crystal was born in 1941 in…
Critical thinking Creative expression Research skills Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Language change is normal, continuous, and not something to be feared."
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Language & Linguistics
Deborah Tannen
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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Religion
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
1906-1945 · Germany
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and resister against Hitler. He was born in 1906 in Breslau, then in Germany, now Wrocław in…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Creative expression Emotional intelligence +1
"Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace."
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Philosophy
Edmund Husserl
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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Arts
Fela Kuti
1938-1997 · Nigeria
Fela Kuti was a Nigerian musician, bandleader, and political activist. He was born in 1938 in Abeokuta, a city in southwest Nigeria. He died in…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Music is the weapon of the future."
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Philosophy
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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Literature
Halide Edib Adıvar
1884-1964 · Ottoman Empire / Republic of Turkey
Halide Edib Adıvar was a Turkish novelist, feminist political leader, soldier, and public intellectual. She is widely regarded as the founding mother of the modern…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking +1
"We Turks have lost so much. We must not also lose our self-respect."
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Philosophy
Iris Murdoch
1919 - 1999 · Ireland / United Kingdom
Iris Murdoch was an Irish-British philosopher and novelist. She is one of the most important moral philosophers of the 20th century. She was also one…
Ethical thinking Creative expression Critical thinking Emotional intelligence +1
"Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real."
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Literature
James Joyce
1882-1941 · Ireland
James Joyce was an Irish writer. He is seen as one of the most important novelists of the twentieth century. He was born in 1882…
Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1
"Joyce once said that if Dublin were destroyed, it could be rebuilt from the pages of his books."
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Sociology
Jane Addams
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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Politics
Judith Heumann
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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Literature
Lesya Ukrainka
1871-1913 · Ukraine (Russian Empire)
Lesya Ukrainka was a Ukrainian poet, dramatist, essayist, and political activist. She is widely regarded as the greatest Ukrainian woman writer and one of the…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking +1
"Without hope, I will hope."
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Philosophy
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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Arts
Ludwig van Beethoven
1770 - 1827 · Germany / Austria
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was born in 1770 in Bonn, in what is now Germany. He is one of…
Creative expression Emotional intelligence Problem solving Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Music can change the world."
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Philosophy
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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Law
Nelson Mandela
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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Arts
Nina Simone
1933 - 2003 · United States (African American, exiled in Europe in later life)
Nina Simone was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. Her real name was Eunice Kathleen Waymon. She was born in 1933 in the small town…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Emotional intelligence Cultural heritage and identity +1
"An artist's duty is to reflect the times."
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Literature
Nora Vagi Brash
1944-2024 · Papua New Guinea
Nora Vagi Brash OBE CMG was a Papua New Guinean playwright, poet, actress, and director, widely regarded as the country's foremost dramatist. She was the…
Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking Ethical thinking +1
"Director of National Identity. As if such a thing could be directed at all."
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Literature
Noémia de Sousa
1926-2002 · Mozambique (Portuguese East Africa)
Noémia de Sousa was a Mozambican poet and journalist who is widely called 'the mother of Mozambican poetry'. She was born Carolina Noémia Abranches de…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking +1
"If you want to understand me, come and bend over my African soul."
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Literature
Oodgeroo Noonuccal
1920 - 1993 · Australia (Noonuccal people, Stradbroke Island/Minjerribah)
Oodgeroo Noonuccal was an Aboriginal Australian poet, activist, teacher, and artist. She was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of poetry. Her work…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking +1
"We are nature and the past, all the old ways gone now and scattered."
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