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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History
Ibn Khaldun
1332-1406 · Tunisia, North Africa
Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) was a North African Muslim scholar, historian, and thinker. He was born in Tunis, in what is now Tunisia, to a family…
Systems thinking Critical thinking Research skills Civic media and democracy +1
"History is information about human social organisation, which itself is identical with world civilisation. It deals with such conditions affecting…"
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Philosophy
Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
1126-1198 · Al-Andalus (modern Spain)
Ibn Rushd (1126-1198), known in Latin Europe as Averroes, was a philosopher, jurist, physician, and astronomer from Al-Andalus, the Muslim-ruled region of the Iberian Peninsula.…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"Truth does not oppose truth but accords with it and bears witness to it."
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Philosophy
Ibn Sina
980-1037 CE · Persia and Central Asia (present-day Uzbekistan and Iran)
Ibn Sina (980-1037 CE), known in the Western world as Avicenna, was a Persian Muslim philosopher and physician. He was born near Bukhara in what…
Scientific thinking Health literacy Critical thinking Research skills +1
"The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its…"
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Medicine & Health
Ignaz Semmelweis
1818-1865 · Hungary / Austria
Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865) was a Hungarian physician working in Vienna. He was born in Buda, in what is now Budapest, and studied medicine at the…
Scientific thinking Health literacy Critical thinking Research skills +1
"God only knows the number of patients who have gone prematurely to their graves because of me."
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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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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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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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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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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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Economics
Jeffrey Sachs
born 1954 · United States
Jeffrey Sachs is an American economist. He was born in 1954 in Detroit, in the United States. He studied economics at Harvard University, where he…
Problem solving Ethical thinking Critical thinking Research skills +1
"Extreme poverty can be ended, not in the time of our grandchildren, but in our own time."
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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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Economics
Joan Robinson
1903 - 1983 · United Kingdom
Joan Robinson was a British economist. She was one of the most important economists of the 20th century. Many people think she should have won…
Critical thinking Scientific thinking Research skills Ethical thinking +1
"The misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all."
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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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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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Literature
John Milton
1608 - 1674 · England
John Milton was an English poet, political writer, and government official. He wrote one of the greatest poems in the English language, Paradise Lost. He…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Critical thinking Research skills +1
"Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."
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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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