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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Subject: Philosophy × Page 2 of 2
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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Philosophy
Mary Anning
1799-1847 · England
Mary Anning (1799-1847) was an English fossil collector and self-taught palaeontologist whose discoveries on the cliffs of Lyme Regis in Dorset transformed scientific understanding of…
Scientific thinking Research skills Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"The world has used me so unkindly, I fear it has made me suspicious of everyone."
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Philosophy
Mary Midgley
1919 - 2018 · United Kingdom
Mary Midgley was a British moral philosopher. She is one of the most original ethical thinkers of the 20th century. She is best known for…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Scientific thinking Creative expression +1
"Philosophy is like plumbing. It is something nobody notices until it goes wrong."
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Philosophy
María Lugones
1944-2020 · Argentina / United States
María Lugones (1944-2020) was an Argentine-American philosopher. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and moved to the United States as a young woman, where…
Cultural heritage and identity Relationships and communication Ethical thinking Citizenship +1
"I am a being in multiple worlds and I travel among them, feeling at ease in some of them, not…"
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Philosophy
Mencius
c. 371-289 BCE · China
Mencius was a Chinese philosopher. His Chinese name was Meng Ke, which means 'Master Meng'. Later Chinese tradition called him the 'Second Sage', meaning second…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Emotional intelligence Cultural heritage and identity +1
"The feeling of pity is the beginning of kindness. The feeling of shame is the beginning of doing right. The…"
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Philosophy
Michel Foucault
1926-1984 · France
Michel Foucault was a French philosopher and historian. He was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. He was born on 15…
Critical thinking Research skills Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Where there is power, there is resistance."
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Philosophy
Mogobe Ramose
1944-present · South Africa, Southern Africa
Mogobe Ramose (born 1944) is a South African philosopher. He was born in the North West Province of South Africa and grew up under the…
Ethical thinking Citizenship Cultural heritage and identity Leadership +1
"Ubuntu is the basis of African philosophy. The Nguni Bantu expression umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu means that to be human is…"
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Philosophy
Nagarjuna
c. 150-250 CE · India, South Asia
Nagarjuna (approximately 150-250 CE) was an Indian Buddhist philosopher, widely considered one of the most important and influential thinkers in the entire history of Asian…
Metacognition Ethical thinking Scientific thinking Critical thinking +1
"Whatever is dependently arisen, that is explained to be emptiness. That, being a dependent designation, is itself the middle way."
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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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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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Philosophy
Plato
c. 428 BCE - c. 348 BCE · Athens, Greece
Plato was an ancient Greek philosopher. He is one of the most important thinkers in human history. The whole tradition of Western philosophy has been…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Creative expression Research skills +1
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
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Philosophy
Simone Weil
1909-1943 · France
Simone Weil (1909-1943) was a French philosopher, political activist, and mystic. She was born in Paris into a secular Jewish family of considerable intellectual distinction…
Ethical thinking Metacognition Self regulation Learning how to learn +1
"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity."
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Philosophy
Simone de Beauvoir
1908-1986 · France, Western Europe
Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) was a French philosopher, novelist, and feminist thinker. She was born in Paris and studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, where she…
Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking Relationships and communication +1
"One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman."
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Philosophy
Socrates
c. 470–399 BCE · Athens, Ancient Greece
Socrates (c. 470–399 BCE) was a philosopher in ancient Athens, Greece. He wrote nothing himself — everything we know about him comes from the writings…
Critical thinking Metacognition Collaboration Resilience
"I know that I know nothing."
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Philosophy
Søren Kierkegaard
1813-1855 · Denmark, Northern Europe
Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a Danish philosopher, writer, and theologian. He was born in Copenhagen, the youngest of seven children, and spent almost his entire…
Ethical thinking Metacognition Self regulation Learning how to learn +1
"The most common form of despair is not being who you are."
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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
Thomas Hobbes
1588–1679 · England, United Kingdom
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) was an English philosopher who lived through one of the most turbulent periods in British history — the English Civil War, the…
Critical thinking Critical literacy Collaboration
"The life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
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Philosophy
Thomas Kuhn
1922-1996 · United States
Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) was an American philosopher and historian of science. He studied physics at Harvard University and then became interested in the history of…
Scientific thinking Research skills Critical thinking Metacognition +1
"Normal science does not aim at novelties of fact or theory and, when successful, finds none."
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Philosophy
Umberto Eco
1932-2016 · Italy, Southern Europe
Umberto Eco (1932-2016) was an Italian philosopher, semiotician, literary theorist, and novelist. He was born in Alessandria in northern Italy and studied philosophy at the…
Critical literacy Media literacy Storytelling and narrative Critical thinking +1
"A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands.…"
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Philosophy
V. Y. Mudimbe
1941-2025 · Democratic Republic of the Congo (later United States)
Valentin-Yves Mudimbe was a Congolese philosopher, novelist, and linguist. He was one of the most important African thinkers of the late 20th century. He was…
Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills Ethical thinking +1
"There exists an African way of interpreting the world which presents the universe as a totality."
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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
Zera Yacob
c. 1599-c. 1692 · Ethiopia
Zera Yacob was an Ethiopian philosopher of the seventeenth century. His main work is a short book called the Hatata, which means 'inquiry' or 'investigation'.…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Cultural heritage and identity +1
"All men are equal in the presence of God; and all are intelligent since they are his creatures."
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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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Philosophy
Zhuangzi
c. 369-286 BCE · China
Zhuangzi was a Chinese philosopher of the 4th century BCE. His name means 'Master Zhuang'. His personal name was Zhuang Zhou. He lived during a…
Critical thinking Creative expression Emotional intelligence Ethical thinking +1
"Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as…"
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