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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23 thinkers
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Ethical thinking × Citizenship ×
Literature
Aimé Césaire
1913-2008 · Martinique, Caribbean
Aimé Césaire (1913-2008) was a poet, playwright, and political thinker from Martinique, an island in the Caribbean that was, and still is, a French territory.…
Cultural heritage and identity Critical literacy Citizenship Ethical thinking +1
"A civilisation that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilisation."
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Literature
Albert Camus
1913-1960 · Algeria / France
Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a French-Algerian novelist, playwright, and philosopher. He was born in Mondovi in French colonial Algeria into a poor working-class family: his…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Resilience Storytelling and narrative +1
"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide."
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Economics
Amartya Sen
1933-present · India / United Kingdom
Amartya Sen (born 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher. He was born in West Bengal, India, and grew up during a period of great…
Financial literacy Citizenship Ethical thinking Systems thinking +1
"Development can be seen as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy."
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Law
B.R. Ambedkar
1891-1956 · India, South Asia
B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer, and philosopher. His full name was Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. He was born into a Dalit…
Citizenship Ethical thinking Critical thinking Systems thinking +1
"I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved."
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Education
Confucius
551-479 BCE · China, East Asia
Confucius (551-479 BCE) was a Chinese thinker, teacher, and social philosopher. His Chinese name was Kong Qiu, and he is also known as Kongzi, meaning…
Ethical thinking Relationships and communication Leadership Citizenship +1
"Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application? Is it not delightful to have friends coming…"
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Literature
Frederick Douglass
c. 1818-1895 · United States
Frederick Douglass (c.1818-1895) was an American abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland, the son of an enslaved…
Citizenship Critical literacy Ethical thinking Storytelling and narrative +1
"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."
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Anthropology & Culture
Gloria Anzaldúa
1942-2004 · Texas, United States / Mexico border
Gloria Anzaldúa (1942-2004) was a Chicana cultural theorist, poet, and writer. She was born in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas into a family…
Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking Creative thinking Ethical thinking +1
"The US-Mexican border es una herida abierta where the Third World grates against the First and bleeds."
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Politics
Hannah Arendt
1906-1975 · Germany / United States
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was a German-American political philosopher. She was born into a Jewish family in Hanover, Germany, and studied philosophy under Martin Heidegger and…
Citizenship Ethical thinking Civic media and democracy Critical thinking +1
"The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good…"
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History
Howard Zinn
1922-2010 · United States
Howard Zinn (1922-2010) was an American historian, playwright, and activist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish immigrant parents who worked in factories,…
Critical thinking Citizenship Research skills Critical literacy +1
"I thought it important to put back in the historical record the countless struggles of ordinary people who fought against…"
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Literature
James Baldwin
1924-1987 · United States
James Baldwin (1924-1987) was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, and activist. He was born in Harlem, New York, the eldest of nine children. His mother's…
Critical literacy Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Storytelling and narrative +1
"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."
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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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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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Philosophy
María Lugones
1944-2020 · Argentina / United States
María Lugones (1944-2020) was an Argentine-American philosopher. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and moved to the United States as a young woman, where…
Cultural heritage and identity Relationships and communication Ethical thinking Citizenship +1
"I am a being in multiple worlds and I travel among them, feeling at ease in some of them, not…"
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Philosophy
Mogobe Ramose
1944-present · South Africa, Southern Africa
Mogobe Ramose (born 1944) is a South African philosopher. He was born in the North West Province of South Africa and grew up under the…
Ethical thinking Citizenship Cultural heritage and identity Leadership +1
"Ubuntu is the basis of African philosophy. The Nguni Bantu expression umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu means that to be human is…"
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Law
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
1841-1935 · United States
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841-1935) was an American jurist, legal philosopher, and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was born in Boston,…
Critical thinking Citizenship Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience."
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Medicine & Health
Paul Farmer
1959-2022 · United States / Haiti / Rwanda
Paul Farmer (1959-2022) was an American physician, anthropologist, and global health activist. He was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, and grew up in modest and…
Health literacy Citizenship Ethical thinking Systems thinking +1
"The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world."
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Literature
Rabindranath Tagore
1861-1941 · Bengal, India / South Asia
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was an Indian poet, philosopher, and educator from Bengal, a region now divided between India and Bangladesh. He was born into a…
Learning how to learn Creativity Citizenship Ethical thinking +1
"The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all…"
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Politics
Rigoberta Menchú
born 1959 · Guatemala, Central America
Rigoberta Menchú Tum (born 1959) is an indigenous Maya K'iche' woman from Guatemala and one of the most important human rights activists of the twentieth…
Citizenship Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"I am still keeping secret what I think no-one should know. Not even anthropologists or intellectuals, no matter how many…"
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Medicine & Health
Rudolf Virchow
1821-1902 · Germany
Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902) was a German physician, pathologist, anthropologist, and politician. He was born in Schivelbein in Pomerania, now part of Poland, and studied medicine…
Health literacy Scientific thinking Citizenship Systems thinking +1
"Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing but medicine on a large scale."
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Philosophy
Simone de Beauvoir
1908-1986 · France, Western Europe
Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) was a French philosopher, novelist, and feminist thinker. She was born in Paris and studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, where she…
Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking Relationships and communication +1
"One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman."
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Politics
Steve Biko
1946-1977 · South Africa
Steve Biko (1946-1977) was a South African activist and philosopher. He was born in King William's Town in the Eastern Cape, and grew up under…
Citizenship Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Self regulation +1
"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."
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Physics
Vandana Shiva
1952-present · India, South Asia
Vandana Shiva (born 1952) is an Indian physicist, environmental activist, and philosopher. She was born in Dehradun in the foothills of the Himalayas, into a…
Nutrition and food systems Environmental thinking Citizenship Systems thinking +1
"Seed is the source of life and the first link in the food chain. Control over seed means control over…"
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Sociology
W.E.B. Du Bois
1868-1963 · United States
W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, and one of the most important intellectual figures of the twentieth century. His…
Critical thinking Citizenship Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the colour line."
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