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 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
233 thinkers
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Chemistry
Percy Julian
1899-1975 · United States
Percy Lavon Julian (1899-1975) was an African American chemist whose pioneering synthesis of plant-derived steroids made cortisone and other hormone-based medicines widely available for the…
Scientific thinking Research skills Ethical thinking Critical thinking +1
"You can do anything you want if you will put enough work into it. That has always been my philosophy."
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Literature
Peter Drucker
1909-2005 · United States (born Austria)
Peter Ferdinand Drucker (1909-2005) was an Austrian-American writer and teacher whose books and articles over seven decades shaped the practice of management and helped establish…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Creative expression +1
"The purpose of a business is to create a customer."
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Philosophy
Peter Singer
1946-present · Australia (currently United States)
Peter Singer is an Australian philosopher. He is one of the most widely read living philosophers and one of the most controversial. He was born…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Problem solving Cultural heritage and identity +1
"The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?"
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Sociology
Pierre Bourdieu
1930-2002 · France
Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) was a French sociologist whose work on class, culture, and power made him one of the most influential social scientists of the…
Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier."
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Philosophy
Plato
c. 428 BCE - c. 348 BCE · Athens, Greece
Plato was an ancient Greek philosopher. He is one of the most important thinkers in human history. The whole tradition of Western philosophy has been…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Creative expression Research skills +1
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
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Language & Linguistics
Pāṇini
c. 5th-4th century BCE · Ancient India (Gandhara)
Pāṇini was an ancient Indian grammarian whose work on the Sanskrit language is often described as one of the greatest intellectual achievements of the ancient…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Research skills Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Vriddhi is ā, ai, au."
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Religion
Rabia of Basra
c. 717 CE - c. 801 CE · Basra, Iraq (Abbasid Caliphate)
Rabia of Basra was an early Sufi mystic and saint. Sufism is the mystical tradition within Islam. It emphasises the inner experience of God rather…
Ethical thinking Emotional intelligence Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity +1
"O God, if I worship Thee for fear of hell, burn me in hell. If I worship Thee for hope…"
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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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Biology
Rachel Carson
1907-1964 · United States
Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist. She was born in rural Pennsylvania and developed a love of the natural world…
Environmental thinking Scientific thinking Critical literacy Citizenship +1
"In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is a story of the earth."
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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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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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Literature
Rumi
1207-1273 · Khorasan / Anatolia (Persian Sufi)
Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207-1273), known throughout the Islamic world as Mawlana (our master) and in the West by the short name Rumi, was a…
Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking +1
"Listen to this reed, how it complains, telling tales of separation."
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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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Literature
Seamus Heaney
1939-2013 · Northern Ireland / Ireland
Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest English-language…
Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence Ethical thinking +1
"Between my finger and my thumb / The squat pen rests; snug as a gun."
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Business & Management
Sigmund Freud
1856–1939 · Austria / Czech Republic
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis — one of the most influential and contested intellectual movements of the 20th…
Critical thinking Metacognition Resilience Critical literacy
"The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind."
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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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Religion
Simon Kimbangu
1887-1951 · Democratic Republic of the Congo
Simon Kimbangu was a Congolese religious leader and the founder of Kimbanguism, one of the largest African-initiated churches in the world. He was born on…
Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking Emotional intelligence +1
"It is now time for me to turn myself in to the authorities; let impatient men prone to anger be…"
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Philosophy
Simone Weil
1909-1943 · France
Simone Weil (1909-1943) was a French philosopher, political activist, and mystic. She was born in Paris into a secular Jewish family of considerable intellectual distinction…
Ethical thinking Metacognition Self regulation Learning how to learn +1
"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity."
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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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