Great Thinkers

Meet the great minds whose ideas have shaped the world — philosophers, scientists, artists, leaders, and revolutionaries whose thinking still matters today.

Filter by subject area

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

Philosophy 46 History 11 Literature 37 Language & Linguistics 5 Arts 11

Anthropology & Culture 7 Sociology 7 Religion 11 Education 8 Politics 19

Law 10 Economics 8 Business & Management 7

Ethical thinking × Emotional intelligence × Page 1 of 2

1974-2025 · United States

Alice Wong was an American disability activist, writer, and editor. She founded the Disability Visibility Project, which gathered and amplified the stories of disabled people…

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

"Disability is so much more than pain, trauma and tragedy. There's creativity, adaptation, and talent that comes from living in…"

Meet this Thinker →

1940-present · France

Annie Ernaux is a French writer. In 2022 she became the first French woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was born Annie…

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

"I shall not say my father, my mother, my sister: I shall name them."

Meet this Thinker →

c. 1640-1689 · England

Aphra Behn was an English writer. She is the first woman known to have earned her living by writing in English. Almost every fact about…

Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking +1

"All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn... for it was she who earned…"

Meet this Thinker →

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."

Meet this Thinker →

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."

Meet this Thinker →

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."

Meet this Thinker →

1200-1253 · Japan (Soto Zen Buddhist)

Eihei Dogen (1200-1253) was a Japanese Buddhist monk whose writings founded the Soto school of Zen Buddhism and produced one of the most original bodies…

Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression +1

"To study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To…"

Meet this Thinker →

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."

Meet this Thinker →

Friedrich Nietzsche

1844-1900 · Germany

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher, cultural critic, and classicist. He was one of the most influential and most misunderstood thinkers of the 19th…

Critical thinking Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1

"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him."

Meet this Thinker →

Business & Management

1469-1539 · Punjab (Sikh founder)

Guru Nanak (1469-1539) was the founder of Sikhism, whose teaching and poetic hymns established a distinctive religious tradition in the Punjab region of South Asia.…

Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking Creative expression +1

"There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim."

Meet this Thinker →

1970-present · South Korea

Han Kang is a South Korean writer. In 2024 she became the first Asian woman, and the first Korean writer of any gender, to win…

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

"I have dreams sometimes. Dreams I cannot bear."

Meet this Thinker →

Harriet McBryde Johnson

1957-2008 · United States

Harriet McBryde Johnson was an American lawyer, writer, and disability rights activist. She was one of the sharpest writers on disability in English. She was…

Critical thinking Ethical thinking Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity +1

"He insists he doesn't want to kill me. He simply thinks it would have been better, all things considered, to…"

Meet this Thinker →

Hildegard of Bingen

1098-1179 · Germany (Holy Roman Empire)

Hildegard of Bingen was a German nun, writer, composer, and healer. She was one of the most important thinkers in medieval Europe. She was born…

Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking +1

"I am a feather on the breath of God."

Meet this Thinker →

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."

Meet this Thinker →

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…"

Meet this Thinker →

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."

Meet this Thinker →

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."

Meet this Thinker →

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…"

Meet this Thinker →

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."

Meet this Thinker →

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,…"

Meet this Thinker →

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."

Meet this Thinker →

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."

Meet this Thinker →

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…"

Meet this Thinker →

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."

Meet this Thinker →