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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162 thinkers
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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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Economics
Ha-Joon Chang
born 1963 · South Korea
Ha-Joon Chang is a South Korean economist. He was born in 1963 in Seoul, South Korea. He grew up during a remarkable period in his…
Critical thinking Creative expression Research skills Cultural heritage and identity +1
"The free market doesn't exist. Every market has some rules and boundaries that restrict freedom of choice."
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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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Literature
Han Kang
1970-present · South Korea
Han Kang is a South Korean writer. In 2024 she became the first Asian woman, and the first Korean writer of any gender, to win…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Emotional intelligence Cultural heritage and identity +1
"I have dreams sometimes. Dreams I cannot bear."
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Religion
Hans Küng
1928-2021 · Switzerland
Hans Küng was a Swiss Catholic priest and theologian. A theologian is a scholar who studies the meaning and history of religion. He was born…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Küng challenged the Catholic teaching that the Pope cannot be wrong on matters of faith and morals."
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Literature
Harriet Martineau
1802-1876 · United Kingdom
Harriet Martineau was an English writer and social theorist. Many scholars now call her the first woman sociologist. She was born on 12 June 1802…
Critical thinking Research skills Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Readers are plentiful: thinkers are rare."
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Law
Harriet McBryde Johnson
1957-2008 · United States
Harriet McBryde Johnson was an American lawyer, writer, and disability rights activist. She was one of the sharpest writers on disability in English. She was…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity +1
"He insists he doesn't want to kill me. He simply thinks it would have been better, all things considered, to…"
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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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Language & Linguistics
Henry Widdowson
born 1935 · United Kingdom
Henry Widdowson is a British linguist. A linguist is someone who studies language in a scientific way. Widdowson was born in 1935. He became one…
Critical thinking Research skills Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Language learning is not just a matter of acquiring knowledge, but of learning how to put that knowledge to use."
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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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Business & Management
Ikujiro Nonaka
b. 1935 · Japan
Ikujiro Nonaka (born 1935) is a Japanese organisational theorist whose work on knowledge creation in organisations has made him one of the most influential management…
Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"The knowledge-creating company is as much about ideas as it is about ideals."
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Arts
Imhotep
c. 2650 BCE - c. 2600 BCE · Ancient Egypt (probably Memphis area)
Imhotep was an ancient Egyptian architect, doctor, and high official. He lived around 2,650 BCE, more than 4,500 years ago. This makes him one of…
Scientific thinking Creative expression Problem solving Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Imhotep, son of Ptah, the great chief of artists."
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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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Business & Management
Indra Nooyi
b. 1955 · India / United States
Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi (born 1955) is an Indian-American businesswoman and former chief executive of PepsiCo, one of the world's largest food and beverage companies. She…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression +1
"The biological clock and the career clock are in total conflict."
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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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Chemistry
Jabir ibn Hayyan
c.721-815 CE · Persia / Iraq (Abbasid Caliphate)
Jabir ibn Hayyan (c.721-815 CE), known in medieval Europe as Geber, was a scholar of the early Islamic world whose writings on alchemy, chemistry, pharmacy,…
Scientific thinking Research skills Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"He who experiments not, attains nothing."
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Philosophy
Jacques Derrida
1930-2004 · France (born in French Algeria)
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher. He is best known for a way of reading texts called deconstruction. He was born on 15 July 1930…
Critical thinking Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"There is nothing outside the text."
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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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Philosophy
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
1712-1778 · Geneva (now Switzerland) and France
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a philosopher and writer. He is one of the most important thinkers of the European Enlightenment. He was born on 28 June…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."
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Arts
Johann Sebastian Bach
1685-1750 · Germany
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German composer and organist usually regarded as the supreme master of Baroque music and one of the greatest composers…
Creative expression Scientific thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"I was obliged to work hard. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well."
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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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Economics
John Kenneth Galbraith
1908-2006 · Canada / United States
John Kenneth Galbraith was an economist and writer. He was born in 1908 on a farm in Ontario, Canada, and died in 2006. He later…
Critical thinking Creative expression Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"Wealth is not without its advantages, and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never…"
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