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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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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Philosophy
Karl Popper
1902-1994 · Austria / United Kingdom
Karl Popper was an Austrian-British philosopher of science and politics. He was born in 1902 in Vienna into a well-off, secular Jewish family that had…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is non-scientific. Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory…"
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Mathematics
Katherine Johnson
1918 - 2020 · United States (African American)
Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician. She did the calculations that helped send the first American astronauts into space and to the Moon. She worked…
Scientific thinking Problem solving Critical thinking Ethical thinking +1
"We will always have STEM with us. Some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away,…"
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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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Mathematics
Kurt Gödel
1906 - 1978 · Austria (later United States)
Kurt Gödel was an Austrian-American logician, mathematician, and philosopher. He is widely considered the greatest logician of the 20th century. His incompleteness theorems changed how…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Problem solving Research skills +1
"Either mathematics is too big for the human mind, or the human mind is more than a machine."
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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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Literature
Laozi
c. 6th century BCE (traditional) / 4th century BCE (modern view) · China
Laozi is the name given to the author of the Daodejing, one of the most important books in Chinese thought. The name means 'Old Master'.…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1
"The Dao that can be spoken of is not the true Dao. The name that can be named is not…"
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Literature
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
1971 - present · Mississauga Nishnaabeg / Canada
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a Mississauga Nishnaabeg writer, scholar, musician, and activist. She is one of the most important contemporary indigenous thinkers in North America.…
Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression Ethical thinking Critical thinking +1
"Resurgence is the act of building our own house, our own way, in our own time, on our own land."
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Arts
Leonardo da Vinci
1452 - 1519 · Florence and Milan, Italy
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian artist, scientist, and inventor. He was born in 1452 in the small town of Vinci, near Florence, in what…
Creative expression Scientific thinking Problem solving Research skills +1
"Learning never exhausts the mind."
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Literature
Lesya Ukrainka
1871-1913 · Ukraine (Russian Empire)
Lesya Ukrainka was a Ukrainian poet, dramatist, essayist, and political activist. She is widely regarded as the greatest Ukrainian woman writer and one of the…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking +1
"Without hope, I will hope."
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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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Education
Linda Tuhiwai Smith
1950-present · Aotearoa New Zealand
Linda Tuhiwai Smith is a Māori scholar from Aotearoa New Zealand. She is one of the most important Indigenous thinkers on research and education in…
Critical thinking Research skills Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"The word itself, 'research', is probably one of the dirtiest words in the Indigenous world's vocabulary."
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Philosophy
Ludwig Wittgenstein
1889-1951 · Austria-Hungary / United Kingdom
Ludwig Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British philosopher. Many consider him the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century. He was born on 26 April 1889 in Vienna,…
Critical thinking Creative expression Research skills Ethical thinking +1
"The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."
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Arts
Ludwig van Beethoven
1770 - 1827 · Germany / Austria
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was born in 1770 in Bonn, in what is now Germany. He is one of…
Creative expression Emotional intelligence Problem solving Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Music can change the world."
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Biology
Lynn Margulis
1938-2011 · United States
Lynn Margulis (1938-2011) was an American biologist and theorist. She was born Lynn Alexander in Chicago, graduated from the University of Chicago at eighteen, and…
Scientific thinking Environmental thinking Critical thinking Systems thinking +1
"Life did not take over the globe by combat, but by networking."
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Religion
Mahmoud Mohamed Taha
1909-1985 · Sudan
Mahmoud Mohamed Taha was a Sudanese Islamic reformer, political thinker, civil engineer, and Sufi mystic, known to his followers as Ustadh ('the teacher') Mahmoud. He…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Research skills Cultural heritage and identity +1
"The Meccan message is the message of equality and freedom. The Medinan message was for its time. The Second Message…"
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