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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Biology 5 Chemistry 6 Physics 5 Mathematics 14 Medicine & Health 7 Technology & Engineering 7 Psychology 2

Philosophy 48 History 14 Literature 40 Language & Linguistics 5 Arts 11

Anthropology & Culture 7 Sociology 7 Religion 12 Education 8 Politics 20

Law 10 Economics 8 Business & Management 7

Emotional intelligence × Research skills ×

Augustine of Hippo

354 CE - 430 CE · Roman North Africa (modern Algeria)

Augustine of Hippo was a Christian bishop, theologian, and writer in late Roman North Africa. He is one of the most influential Christian thinkers in…

Ethical thinking Critical thinking Creative expression Research skills +1

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

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1632-1677 · Netherlands (Portuguese Jewish family)

Baruch Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher. He is one of the most important thinkers of the early modern period. He was born on 24 November…

Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Scientific thinking +1

"God, or Nature."

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c. 480 CE - 524 CE · Rome (under Ostrogothic rule)

Boethius was a Roman scholar and statesman who lived during the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. His full name was Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius.…

Critical thinking Creative expression Ethical thinking Research skills +1

"In every adversity of fortune, the most unhappy kind of misfortune is to have been happy."

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Christopher Hitchens

1949 - 2011 · United Kingdom (later United States)

Christopher Hitchens was a British-American journalist, essayist, and writer. He was one of the most famous public intellectuals of the late 20th and early 21st…

Creative expression Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills +1

"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."

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Language & Linguistics

b. 1945 · United States

Deborah Tannen (born 1945) is an American linguist who has become one of the most widely read scholars of how people talk to each other.…

Critical thinking Emotional intelligence Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1

"Communication is a continual balancing act, juggling the conflicting needs for intimacy and independence."

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1859-1938 · Austria-Hungary / Germany

Edmund Husserl was a German philosopher. He is the founder of phenomenology, one of the most important schools of twentieth-century thought. He was born on…

Critical thinking Research skills Creative expression Ethical thinking +1

"To the things themselves."

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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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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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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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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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Khadija bint Khuwaylid

c. 555-619 · Arabia (Mecca)

Khadija bint Khuwaylid was a successful Arabian merchant in 6th- and 7th-century Mecca. She is honoured in Islamic tradition as the first Muslim and as…

Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Problem solving Emotional intelligence +1

"By God, God will never humiliate you. You maintain family ties, you help to carry the burdens of the weak,…"

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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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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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Malala Yousafzai

1997-present · Pakistan

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani education activist. She is the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She was born on 12 July…

Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1

"One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world."

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Murasaki Shikibu

c. 973-c. 1014 · Japan

Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese writer and lady of the imperial court. She is the author of The Tale of Genji, often called the world's…

Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence Critical thinking +1

"At the court of an emperor (he lived it matters not when), there was among the many gentlewomen of the…"

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Patricia Hill Collins

1948-present · United States

Patricia Hill Collins is an American sociologist. She is one of the most important thinkers on race, gender, and power in recent decades. She was…

Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1

"Self-definition is a way of resisting oppression."

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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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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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1920 - 2012 · India (later based in California)

Ravi Shankar was an Indian musician. He played the sitar, a long-necked string instrument from northern India. He is the most famous Indian classical musician…

Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence Research skills +1

"Our music is not entertainment. It is much more."

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Anthropology & Culture

c. 1898 - 1975 · Egypt

Umm Kulthum was an Egyptian singer. She was probably the most famous Arab cultural figure of the 20th century. She was born around 1898 in…

Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence Critical thinking +1

"Sing a beautiful song with a strong meaning, and the people will love you."

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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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