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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29 thinkers
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Era: Modern × Problem solving × Page 1 of 2
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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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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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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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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Mathematics
Emmy Noether
1882-1935 · Germany (later United States)
Emmy Noether was a German mathematician who changed how we understand algebra and physics. She was born in 1882 in Erlangen, Germany. Her father was…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Problem solving Creative expression +1
"My methods are really methods of working and thinking; this is why they have crept in everywhere anonymously."
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Medicine & Health
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
1947-present · France
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi is a French virologist. She is one of the two scientists who discovered the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the cause of AIDS. She…
Scientific thinking Research skills Critical thinking Ethical thinking +1
"We are not making science for science. We are making science for the benefit of humanity."
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Technology & Engineering
Frederick Winslow Taylor
1856-1915 · United States
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) was an American mechanical engineer whose systematic approach to industrial work created the school of thought known as scientific management and…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Research skills Ethical thinking +1
"In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first."
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Philosophy
Immanuel Kant
1724-1804 · Prussia (Germany)
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher. He is one of the most influential thinkers in the history of Western philosophy. He was born on 22…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Problem solving Research skills +1
"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity."
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Philosophy
Jeremy Bentham
1748-1832 · England
Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher and legal reformer. He was the founder of modern utilitarianism. He was born on 15 February 1748 in London,…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Problem solving Research skills +1
"It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong."
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Philosophy
John Dewey
1859-1952 · United States
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educator. He was one of the most important thinkers in the United States during the first half…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Problem solving Creative expression +1
"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."
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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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Psychology
Lev Vygotsky
1896-1934 · Russia / Soviet Union
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (1896-1934) was a Russian psychologist whose ideas about how children learn and develop have become central to education and developmental psychology worldwide.…
Scientific thinking Research skills Critical thinking Ethical thinking +1
"What a child can do with assistance today she will be able to do by herself tomorrow."
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Politics
Mao Zedong
1893-1976 · China
Mao Zedong was a Chinese revolutionary and political leader. He founded the People's Republic of China in 1949 and ruled it until his death in…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Problem solving +1
"The Chinese people have stood up."
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Education
Maria Montessori
1870-1952 · Italy
Maria Montessori (1870-1952) was an Italian educator and doctor whose method of teaching young children has spread to thousands of schools around the world. She…
Scientific thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Creative expression +1
"Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed."
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Politics
Mary Parker Follett
1868-1933 · United States
Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933) was an American political philosopher and management thinker whose ideas about authority, conflict, and organisation anticipated much of the later twentieth…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression +1
"Power is with, not power over."
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Economics
Michael Porter
b. 1947 · United States
Michael Eugene Porter (born 1947) is an American academic whose work on competitive strategy, national competitiveness, and the economic analysis of healthcare and social problems…
Critical thinking Scientific thinking Research skills Problem solving +1
"The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do."
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Politics
Millicent Fawcett
1847-1929 · United Kingdom
Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett was an English political activist and writer. She led the largest peaceful campaign for British women's right to vote for over…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Problem solving Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Courage calls to courage everywhere, and its voice cannot be denied."
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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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Philosophy
Peter Singer
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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Law
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
1933-2020 · United States
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer and Supreme Court Justice. She is widely seen as one of the most important legal advocates for gender…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Problem solving +1
"Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time."
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Politics
Simón Bolívar
1783-1830 · Venezuela
Simón Bolívar was a military leader and political thinker who led much of South America to independence from Spain. In Latin America he is known…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Problem solving +1
"A people that loves freedom will in the end be free."
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Mathematics
Srinivasa Ramanujan
1887-1920 · India (British Raj)
Srinivasa Ramanujan was an Indian mathematician born in 1887 in Erode, a small town in Tamil Nadu. His family was poor but educated. His father…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Problem solving Creative expression +1
"An equation for me has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of God."
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Technology & Engineering
Taiichi Ohno
1912-1990 · Japan
Taiichi Ohno (1912-1990) was a Japanese industrial engineer whose work at the Toyota Motor Company produced the Toyota Production System, a way of organising manufacturing…
Problem solving Critical thinking Scientific thinking Research skills +1
"Having no problems is the biggest problem of all."
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Law
Thurgood Marshall
1908-1993 · United States
Thurgood Marshall was an American civil rights lawyer and the first Black Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He spent his life using the…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Problem solving +1
"In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute."
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