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 15 Medicine & Health 8 Technology & Engineering 7 Psychology 2
Philosophy 53 History 14 Literature 57 Language & Linguistics 7 Arts 14
Anthropology & Culture 9 Sociology 7 Religion 16 Education 10 Politics 22
Law 11 Economics 19 Business & Management 8
295 thinkers
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Philosophy
Heloise
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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Language & Linguistics
Henry Widdowson
born 1935 · United Kingdom
Henry Widdowson is a British linguist. A linguist is someone who studies language in a scientific way. Widdowson was born in 1935. He became one…
Critical thinking Research skills Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Language learning is not just a matter of acquiring knowledge, but of learning how to put that knowledge to use."
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Literature
Herodotus
c. 484-425 BCE · Halicarnassus, Asia Minor (now Turkey)
Herodotus (c.484-425 BCE) was an ancient Greek writer, born in Halicarnassus, a city on the southwestern coast of what is now Turkey. He lived during…
Research skills Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Storytelling and narrative +1
"Herodotus of Halicarnassus here presents his research so that human events do not fade with time, and that great and…"
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Religion
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."
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Medicine & Health
Hippocrates
c. 460-370 BCE · Cos, Ancient Greece
Hippocrates (c. 460-370 BCE) was an ancient Greek physician, born on the island of Cos. He is one of the most important figures in the…
Health literacy Scientific thinking Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"Life is short, the art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgment difficult."
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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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Law
Hugo Grotius
1583-1645 · Dutch Republic (Netherlands)
Hugo Grotius was a Dutch jurist, philosopher, and diplomat. He is often called the father of international law. He was born on 10 April 1583…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Problem solving +1
"I observed in the whole Christian world a license of fighting at which even barbarous nations might blush."
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Religion
Huldrych Zwingli
1484-1531 · Swiss Confederacy (now Switzerland)
Huldrych Zwingli was a Swiss priest and reformer. He is one of the three central figures of the Protestant Reformation, along with Martin Luther and…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"Zwingli held that only what the Bible clearly taught should shape Christian belief and worship."
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Mathematics
Hypatia of Alexandria
c.350-415 CE · Alexandria, Roman Egypt
Hypatia of Alexandria (c.350-415 CE) was a mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who taught in the Egyptian city of Alexandria during the late Roman Empire. She…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all."
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Literature
Ibn Battuta
1304 - c. 1369 · Morocco
Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan traveller, scholar, and writer. He travelled more widely than almost anyone else in the medieval world. Over about 30 years,…
Research skills Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression Critical thinking +1
"Travelling: it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller."
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History
Ibn Khaldun
1332-1406 · Tunisia, North Africa
Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) was a North African Muslim scholar, historian, and thinker. He was born in Tunis, in what is now Tunisia, to a family…
Systems thinking Critical thinking Research skills Civic media and democracy +1
"History is information about human social organisation, which itself is identical with world civilisation. It deals with such conditions affecting…"
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Philosophy
Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
1126-1198 · Al-Andalus (modern Spain)
Ibn Rushd (1126-1198), known in Latin Europe as Averroes, was a philosopher, jurist, physician, and astronomer from Al-Andalus, the Muslim-ruled region of the Iberian Peninsula.…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"Truth does not oppose truth but accords with it and bears witness to it."
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Philosophy
Ibn Sina
980-1037 CE · Persia and Central Asia (present-day Uzbekistan and Iran)
Ibn Sina (980-1037 CE), known in the Western world as Avicenna, was a Persian Muslim philosopher and physician. He was born near Bukhara in what…
Scientific thinking Health literacy Critical thinking Research skills +1
"The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its…"
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Medicine & Health
Ignaz Semmelweis
1818-1865 · Hungary / Austria
Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865) was a Hungarian physician working in Vienna. He was born in Buda, in what is now Budapest, and studied medicine at the…
Scientific thinking Health literacy Critical thinking Research skills +1
"God only knows the number of patients who have gone prematurely to their graves because of me."
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Business & Management
Ikujiro Nonaka
b. 1935 · Japan
Ikujiro Nonaka (born 1935) is a Japanese organisational theorist whose work on knowledge creation in organisations has made him one of the most influential management…
Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"The knowledge-creating company is as much about ideas as it is about ideals."
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Arts
Imhotep
c. 2650 BCE - c. 2600 BCE · Ancient Egypt (probably Memphis area)
Imhotep was an ancient Egyptian architect, doctor, and high official. He lived around 2,650 BCE, more than 4,500 years ago. This makes him one of…
Scientific thinking Creative expression Problem solving Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Imhotep, son of Ptah, the great chief of artists."
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Philosophy
Immanuel Kant
1724-1804 · Prussia (Germany)
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher. He is one of the most influential thinkers in the history of Western philosophy. He was born on 22…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Problem solving Research skills +1
"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity."
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Business & Management
Indra Nooyi
b. 1955 · India / United States
Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi (born 1955) is an Indian-American businesswoman and former chief executive of PepsiCo, one of the world's largest food and beverage companies. She…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Creative expression +1
"The biological clock and the career clock are in total conflict."
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Philosophy
Iris Murdoch
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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Mathematics
Isaac Newton
1643-1727 · England, United Kingdom
Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was an English mathematician, physicist, and natural philosopher. He was born prematurely in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, and his father died before he was…
Scientific thinking Research skills Numeracy and mathematical thinking Critical thinking +1
"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
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Chemistry
Jabir ibn Hayyan
c.721-815 CE · Persia / Iraq (Abbasid Caliphate)
Jabir ibn Hayyan (c.721-815 CE), known in medieval Europe as Geber, was a scholar of the early Islamic world whose writings on alchemy, chemistry, pharmacy,…
Scientific thinking Research skills Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"He who experiments not, attains nothing."
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Philosophy
Jacques Derrida
1930-2004 · France (born in French Algeria)
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher. He is best known for a way of reading texts called deconstruction. He was born on 15 July 1930…
Critical thinking Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"There is nothing outside the text."
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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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Literature
James Joyce
1882-1941 · Ireland
James Joyce was an Irish writer. He is seen as one of the most important novelists of the twentieth century. He was born in 1882…
Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1
"Joyce once said that if Dublin were destroyed, it could be rebuilt from the pages of his books."
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