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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Sociology
Jane Addams
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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Philosophy
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."
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Economics
Jeffrey Sachs
born 1954 · United States
Jeffrey Sachs is an American economist. He was born in 1954 in Detroit, in the United States. He studied economics at Harvard University, where he…
Problem solving Ethical thinking Critical thinking Research skills +1
"Extreme poverty can be ended, not in the time of our grandchildren, but in our own time."
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Philosophy
Jeremy Bentham
1748-1832 · England
Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher and legal reformer. He was the founder of modern utilitarianism. He was born on 15 February 1748 in London,…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Problem solving Research skills +1
"It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong."
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Economics
Joan Robinson
1903 - 1983 · United Kingdom
Joan Robinson was a British economist. She was one of the most important economists of the 20th century. Many people think she should have won…
Critical thinking Scientific thinking Research skills Ethical thinking +1
"The misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all."
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Arts
Johann Sebastian Bach
1685-1750 · Germany
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German composer and organist usually regarded as the supreme master of Baroque music and one of the greatest composers…
Creative expression Scientific thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"I was obliged to work hard. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well."
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Philosophy
John Dewey
1859-1952 · United States
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educator. He was one of the most important thinkers in the United States during the first half…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Problem solving Creative expression +1
"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."
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Economics
John Kenneth Galbraith
1908-2006 · Canada / United States
John Kenneth Galbraith was an economist and writer. He was born in 1908 on a farm in Ontario, Canada, and died in 2006. He later…
Critical thinking Creative expression Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"Wealth is not without its advantages, and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never…"
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Philosophy
John Locke
1632-1704 · England
John Locke was an English philosopher. He is one of the most influential political thinkers in world history. He was born on 29 August 1632…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Scientific thinking +1
"All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions."
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Economics
John Maynard Keynes
1883–1946 · Cambridge, England
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) was a British economist whose ideas changed the way governments manage their economies. He grew up in Cambridge, England, studied mathematics…
Critical thinking Critical literacy Metacognition
"In the long run we are all dead."
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Literature
John Milton
1608 - 1674 · England
John Milton was an English poet, political writer, and government official. He wrote one of the greatest poems in the English language, Paradise Lost. He…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Critical thinking Research skills +1
"Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."
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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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Literature
José Carlos Mariátegui
1894-1930 · Peru
José Carlos Mariátegui was a Peruvian thinker, journalist, and political activist. He was one of the most original political writers in Latin American history. He…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"We certainly do not want socialism in Latin America to be a copy or an imitation. It must be a…"
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Philosophy
Judith Butler
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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Politics
Judith Heumann
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…"
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Religion
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."
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Economics
Karl Marx
1818-1883 · Germany / England
Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a German economist, philosopher, historian, and political thinker whose ideas have shaped the modern world more than almost any other thinker…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Cultural heritage and identity +1
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it."
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Philosophy
Karl Popper
1902-1994 · Austria / United Kingdom
Karl Popper was an Austrian-British philosopher of science and politics. He was born in 1902 in Vienna into a well-off, secular Jewish family that had…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is non-scientific. Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory…"
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Mathematics
Katherine Johnson
1918 - 2020 · United States (African American)
Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician. She did the calculations that helped send the first American astronauts into space and to the Moon. She worked…
Scientific thinking Problem solving Critical thinking Ethical thinking +1
"We will always have STEM with us. Some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away,…"
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Arts
Katsushika Hokusai
1760-1849 · Japan (Edo / Tokyo)
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was a Japanese painter and printmaker of the Edo period, widely regarded as the greatest artist of the ukiyo-e tradition and one…
Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Research skills +1
"From the age of six I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things."
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Religion
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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Law
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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Religion
Kimpa Vita
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."
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Politics
King Sejong the Great
1397-1450 · Korea (Joseon)
King Sejong the Great (Sejong Daewang) was the fourth king of Korea's Joseon dynasty and one of the most consequential rulers in Korean history. He…
Problem solving Scientific thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1
"The sounds of our country's language are different from those of the Middle Kingdom and are not confluent with the…"
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