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 4 Chemistry 6 Physics 1 Mathematics 12 Medicine & Health 6 Technology & Engineering 6 Psychology 1
Philosophy 31 History 11 Literature 26 Language & Linguistics 7 Arts 8
Anthropology & Culture 8 Sociology 7 Religion 7 Education 6 Politics 8
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184 thinkers
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Arts
Ravi Shankar
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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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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Biology
Robin Wall Kimmerer
1953-present · United States, Potawatomi Nation
Robin Wall Kimmerer (born 1953) is an American botanist, ecologist, and writer who is a citizen of the Potawatomi Nation, one of the Indigenous peoples…
Environmental thinking Scientific thinking Research skills Cultural heritage and identity +1
"In the Potawatomi language, to be a human being is to be grateful. It is a reminder to say thank…"
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Chemistry
Rosalind Franklin
1920-1958 · England, United Kingdom
Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer. She was born in London into a prominent Jewish family and showed exceptional scientific ability…
Scientific thinking Research skills Ethical thinking Critical thinking +1
"Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated."
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Law
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
1933-2020 · United States
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer and Supreme Court Justice. She is widely seen as one of the most important legal advocates for gender…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Problem solving +1
"Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time."
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Education
Savitribai Phule
1831-1897 · India (Maharashtra)
Savitribai Phule (1831-1897) was an Indian teacher, poet, and social reformer who is widely recognised as the first female teacher of India and one of…
Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression Critical thinking +1
"Go, get education. Be self-reliant. Be industrious."
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Education
Scott Thornbury
born 1950 · New Zealand
Scott Thornbury is a teacher and writer who works in English language teaching. This field is often called ELT for short. He was born in…
Critical thinking Creative expression Problem solving Research skills +1
"Teaching unplugged means trusting the talk: the lesson grows out of what the learners say."
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Sociology
Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui
1949-present · Bolivia
Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui is a Bolivian sociologist, historian, and activist of Aymara heritage. She is one of the most important thinkers on colonialism and Indigenous…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"There can be no discourse of decolonisation, no theory of decolonisation, without a decolonising practice."
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History
Sima Qian
c. 145 BCE - c. 86 BCE · Han China (modern Shaanxi province)
Sima Qian was a Chinese historian and writer. He lived from around 145 BCE to about 86 BCE, during the Western Han dynasty. He is…
Research skills Critical thinking Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity +1
"I have committed myself to writing the history of all that has happened from the time of the Yellow Emperor…"
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Politics
Simón Bolívar
1783-1830 · Venezuela
Simón Bolívar was a military leader and political thinker who led much of South America to independence from Spain. In Latin America he is known…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Problem solving +1
"A people that loves freedom will in the end be free."
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Arts
Sin Saimdang
1504-1551 · Korea (Joseon)
Sin Saimdang was a Korean artist, calligrapher, poet, and Confucian scholar of the mid-Joseon period. She is widely regarded as the most accomplished female artist…
Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"Talent alone will not make a good painting. One must first calm oneself, then carefully observe the object to be…"
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Literature
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
1648-1695 · New Spain (Mexico)
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695) was a poet, dramatist, scholar, and nun of colonial New Spain, widely regarded as the finest writer of…
Critical thinking Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking +1
"I do not study in order to write, nor still less to teach, but only to see whether by studying…"
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Sociology
Stuart Hall
1932-2014 · Jamaica / United Kingdom
Stuart McPhail Hall was a Jamaican-born British sociologist and cultural theorist. He is one of the founding figures of cultural studies. He was born on…
Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression Ethical thinking +1
"Identity is not as transparent or unproblematic as we think."
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Language & Linguistics
Sībawayh
c. 760-796 · Persia / Iraq (Basra)
Abu Bishr Amr ibn Uthman, known as Sībawayh (c. 760-796), was a Persian-born Arab grammarian whose book Al-Kitāb is the first comprehensive description of the…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Research skills Cultural heritage and identity +1
"A noun is a word that refers to a thing; a verb is a word that indicates an action in…"
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Technology & Engineering
Taiichi Ohno
1912-1990 · Japan
Taiichi Ohno (1912-1990) was a Japanese industrial engineer whose work at the Toyota Motor Company produced the Toyota Production System, a way of organising manufacturing…
Problem solving Critical thinking Scientific thinking Research skills +1
"Having no problems is the biggest problem of all."
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Philosophy
Thomas Aquinas
1225-1274 · Kingdom of Sicily (Italy, Dominican / Catholic)
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and theologian whose synthesis of Christian theology with Aristotelian philosophy became the most influential intellectual achievement…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"Because in created things the existence differs from the essence, it follows that in them also there is a composition…"
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Philosophy
Thomas Kuhn
1922-1996 · United States
Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) was an American philosopher and historian of science. He studied physics at Harvard University and then became interested in the history of…
Scientific thinking Research skills Critical thinking Metacognition +1
"Normal science does not aim at novelties of fact or theory and, when successful, finds none."
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Economics
Thomas Piketty
born 1971 · France
Thomas Piketty is a French economist. He was born in 1971 near Paris. He studied mathematics and economics, and earned his doctorate at just 22…
Critical thinking Research skills Problem solving Ethical thinking +1
"The history of inequality is shaped by the way economic, social, and political actors view what is just and what…"
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Economics
Thorstein Veblen
1857-1929 · United States
Thorstein Veblen was an American economist and social thinker. He was born in 1857 in Wisconsin and died in 1929. His parents were immigrants from…
Critical thinking Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure."
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Law
Thurgood Marshall
1908-1993 · United States
Thurgood Marshall was an American civil rights lawyer and the first Black Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He spent his life using the…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Problem solving +1
"In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute."
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Technology & Engineering
Timnit Gebru
1982/1983 - present · Ethiopia (later United States)
Timnit Gebru is an Ethiopian-American computer scientist. She is one of the most important researchers in the field of AI ethics. Her work has shown…
Scientific thinking Ethical thinking Critical thinking Research skills +1
"We can't take care of all of the problems with our technology by hoping for the best."
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History
Timothy Snyder
1969 - present · United States
Timothy Snyder is an American historian. He is one of the most influential contemporary historians of Eastern Europe and 20th-century atrocity. He has also become…
Research skills Ethical thinking Critical thinking Creative expression +1
"Do not obey in advance."
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Literature
Toni Morrison
1931-2019 · United States
Toni Morrison (1931-2019) was an American novelist, essayist, editor, and professor. She was born Chloe Ardelia Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, into a Black working-class family…
Storytelling and narrative Critical literacy Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking +1
"If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else."
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History
Tony Judt
1948 - 2010 · United Kingdom (later United States)
Tony Judt was a British-American historian. He was one of the most important historians of postwar Europe and a sharp public intellectual. His massive 2005…
Research skills Critical thinking Ethical thinking Creative expression +1
"Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today."
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