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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177 thinkers
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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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Mathematics
Isaac Newton
1643-1727 · England, United Kingdom
Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was an English mathematician, physicist, and natural philosopher. He was born prematurely in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, and his father died before he was…
Scientific thinking Research skills Numeracy and mathematical thinking Critical thinking +1
"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
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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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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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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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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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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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Philosophy
John Locke
1632-1704 · England
John Locke was an English philosopher. He is one of the most influential political thinkers in world history. He was born on 29 August 1632…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Scientific thinking +1
"All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions."
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Economics
John Maynard Keynes
1883–1946 · Cambridge, England
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) was a British economist whose ideas changed the way governments manage their economies. He grew up in Cambridge, England, studied mathematics…
Critical thinking Critical literacy Metacognition
"In the long run we are all dead."
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Politics
John Rawls
1921-2002 · United States
John Rawls (1921-2002) was an American political philosopher, widely regarded as the most important political philosopher of the twentieth century. He was born in Baltimore,…
Ethical thinking Citizenship Critical thinking Systems thinking +1
"Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought."
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Literature
José Carlos Mariátegui
1894-1930 · Peru
José Carlos Mariátegui was a Peruvian thinker, journalist, and political activist. He was one of the most original political writers in Latin American history. He…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"We certainly do not want socialism in Latin America to be a copy or an imitation. It must be a…"
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Philosophy
Judith Butler
1956-present · United States
Judith Butler is an American philosopher and gender theorist. They are one of the most influential thinkers in the humanities in recent decades. They were…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1
"Gender is an identity tenuously constituted in time, instituted in an exterior space through a stylized repetition of acts."
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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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Religion
Julian of Norwich
c. 1342-after 1416 · England
Julian of Norwich was an English Christian mystic and theologian. She is thought to be the first woman to have written a book in English…
Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression Emotional intelligence +1
"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."
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Economics
Karl Marx
1818-1883 · Germany / England
Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a German economist, philosopher, historian, and political thinker whose ideas have shaped the modern world more than almost any other thinker…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Cultural heritage and identity +1
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it."
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Arts
Katsushika Hokusai
1760-1849 · Japan (Edo / Tokyo)
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was a Japanese painter and printmaker of the Edo period, widely regarded as the greatest artist of the ukiyo-e tradition and one…
Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"From the age of six I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things."
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Law
Kimberlé Crenshaw
1959-present · United States
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw is an American legal scholar and civil rights lawyer. She is one of the most influential thinkers on race, gender, and the…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"The intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism."
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Religion
Kimpa Vita
c. 1684-1706 · Kingdom of Kongo (Angola / Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita was a Kongolese Christian prophetess and political leader. She founded the Antonian movement, which imagined Christianity in Kongolese terms. She was…
Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking Creative expression +1
"Jesus was born in São Salvador, which is Bethlehem, and he was baptised in Nsundi, which is Nazareth."
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Philosophy
Kitaro Nishida
1870–1945 · Japan
Kitaro Nishida (1870–1945) was a Japanese philosopher and the founder of what is known as the Kyoto School — the first major tradition of Japanese…
Critical thinking Metacognition Intercultural competence Critical literacy
"At the base of our existence, there must be something that unifies the opposition of subject and object."
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Philosophy
Kwame Gyekye
1939-2019 · Ghana, West Africa
Kwame Gyekye (1939-2019) was a Ghanaian philosopher. He was born in Kumasi, Ghana, and studied philosophy at the University of Ghana and Harvard University. He…
Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Citizenship Relationships and communication +1
"The communal life is not an optional extra for the human individual. It is the context in which the individual…"
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Politics
Kwame Nkrumah
1909-1972 · Ghana, West Africa
Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972) was the first president of independent Ghana and one of the most important political thinkers and leaders of the twentieth century. He…
Citizenship Systems thinking Civic media and democracy Financial literacy +1
"The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent."
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