The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …
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List of the most influential people in Philosophy,
#5251
Bartha Knoppers
#52249
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Bartha Maria Knoppers, OC OQ is a Canadian law Professor and an expert on the ethical aspects of genetics, genomics and biotechnology. Born in Hilversum, Netherlands, she received a Bachelor of Arts from McMaster University , a Master of Arts degree in comparative literature from the University of Alberta , Bachelor of Common Law and Civil Law degrees from McGill University, where she was selected as an Executive Editor for the McGill Law Journal, a Diploma of Legal Studies from University of Cambridge , and a Doctorate of Laws from the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne . In additio...
Go to Profile#5252
Saba Soomekh
#20903
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
Saba T. Soomekh is an American professor and author. Early life and education Soomekh was born in Tehran, Iran, to a Persian-Jewish family. to Hamid and Manijeh Soomekh. She is a sister of Hollywood actress Bahar Soomekh. The Iranian-Jewish family moved to Los Angeles, California in 1978 to escape the Islamic Revolution of Iran with Soomekh only two years old.
Go to Profile#5253
John Tyrrell
#14925
Overall Influence
1942 - 2018 (76 years)
John Tyrrell was a British musicologist. He published several books on Leoš Janáček, including an authoritative and largely definitive two-volume biography. Tyrrell was born in Salisbury, Zimbabwe and worked as a professor of music and executive editor of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. He died on October 4, 2018, aged 76.
Go to Profile#5254
John C. Marshall
#88718
Overall Influence
#5255
Eben Alexander
#19858
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Eben Alexander III is an American neurosurgeon and author. His book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife describes his near-death experience that happened in 2008 under medically-induced coma when treated for meningitis. He asserts that the coma resulted in brain death, that consciousness is not only a product of the brain and that this permits access to an afterlife.
Go to Profile#5256
Bennett Foddy
#36761
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
Bennett Foddy is an Australian video game designer based in New York. Raised in Australia and trained as a moral philosopher on topics of drug addiction, Foddy was a bassist in the electronic music group Cut Copy and a hobbyist game designer while he finished his dissertation. During his postdoctoral research at Princeton University and time on staff at Oxford University, Foddy developed games of very high difficulty, including QWOP , which became an Internet sensation at the end of 2010 with the rise of new online social sharing tools. He later became an instructor at the NYU Game Center. His...
Go to Profile#5257
Desidério Murcho
#60263
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Desidério Murcho is a Portuguese philosopher, professor, and writer. Desidério Murcho got his BA in philosophy in 1992 from Lisbon University and his MA in 2000 from the same university. He is pursuing a PhD in philosophy at the King's College London since 2000. He is founding member of the Centro para o Ensino da Filosofia da Sociedade Portuguesa de Filosofia .
Go to Profile#5258
Juan Mayorga
#52138
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Juan Antonio Mayorga Ruano is a Spanish dramatist. He is best known in English-speaking countries for his 2004 play Himmelweg , which was brought to the London stage in June 2017 as part of the Festival of Spanish Theatre in London .
Go to Profile#5259
Daniel A. Arnold
#52535
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Daniel A. Arnold is an American scholar and philosopher. He is Associate Professor of the Philosophy of Religions at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. His work focuses on Indian Buddhist philosophy, which he engages in a constructive and comparative way. His particular interests are in Indian Buddhist Madhyamaka, and in the appreciation of Indian Buddhist philosophy as an integral part of the broader tradition of Indian philosophy. In this regard, he has been especially interested in issues disputed between Buddhist schools and the orthodox Brahmanical school of Pūrva Mīmāṃsā.
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Mohit Bhandari
#47362
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Mohit Bhandari is an Indian bariatric surgeon known for his work in laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgery. He is the first surgeon in Asian sub-continent to perform more than twenty one thousand bariatrics and metabolic surgeries. He is the President of IRCAD , India's first centre of excellence solely devoted to training and research & development in the realm of minimally invasive surgery.
Go to Profile#5261
Steven M. Rosen
#64637
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Steven M. Rosen is an American-Canadian philosopher and psychologist, currently based in Vancouver, British Columbia. His writings focus on issues concerning phenomenological ontology, the philosophy and poetics of science, Jungian thought, the gender question, ecological change, and cultural transformation.
Go to Profile#5262
George Devereux
1908 - 1985 (77 years)
Georges Devereux was a Hungarian-French ethnologist and psychoanalyst, often considered the founder of ethnopsychiatry. He was born into a Jewish family in the Banat, Austria-Hungary . His family moved to France following World War I. He studied the Malayan language in Paris, completing work at the Institut d'Ethnologie. In 1933 he converted to Catholicism and changed his name to Georges Devereux. At that time, he traveled for the first time to the United States to do fieldwork among the Mohave Indians, completing his doctorate in anthropology at University of California at Berkeley in 1936. ...
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Patricia J. Kelly
#88825
Overall Influence
#5264
Peter A. French
#67763
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Peter A. French is an American philosopher and writer. He is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Arizona State University where he taught from 2000 until 2016. He previously was a professor at Northern Arizona University, University of Minnesota, Dalhousie University, Trinity University, and the University of South Florida.
Go to Profile#5265
Mark Colyvan
#41807
Overall Influence
Mark Colyvan is an Australian philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. He is a former president of the Australasian Association of Philosophy. Colyvan is known for his research on philosophy of mathematics.
Go to Profile#5266
Manohar M. Panjabi
#88842
Overall Influence
#5267
Peter-André Alt
#37186
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Peter-André Alt is a German literary scholar, former president of the Freie Universitaet of Berlin and, since August 2018, president of the German Rectors' Conference . Alt is married to the writer Sabine Alt and has two adult sons.
Go to Profile#5268
Glen Newey
#50941
Overall Influence
1961 - 2017 (56 years)
Glen Francis Newey was a political philosopher, last acting as a Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Leiden. He previously taught in Brussels at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and until 2011 was Professor in the School of Politics, International Relations & Philosophy at Keele University, Staffordshire, England. He was a prominent member of the "Realist" school of political philosophers which also includes such figures as Bernard Williams, John N. Gray, and Raymond Geuss. Newey also wrote extensively about toleration, casting doubt on whether it remains a coherent politi...
Go to Profile#5269
Gonzalo Arango
1931 - 1976 (45 years)
Gonzalo Arango Arias was a Colombian writer, poet, and journalist. In 1958 he led a modern literary and cultural movement known as Nadaism , inspired by surrealism, French existentialism, beat generation, dadaism, and influenced by the Colombian writer and philosopher Fernando González Ochoa.
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Li Ao
772 - 841 (69 years)
Li Ao , courtesy name Xizhi , was Chinese philosopher and prose writer of the Tang Dynasty. Biography Li was born in present-day Tianshui, Gansu, but some accounts relate he was from Zhao, Hebei. After achieving the degree of Jinshi in 798, he joined the imperial bureaucracy and served in the history department at Changan.
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Peter Pronovost
#15162
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Peter J. Pronovost is Chief Quality and Transformation Officer at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, the main affiliate of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. At UH, Pronovost is responsible for improving value across the health system, helping people stay well, get well and manage their most acute medical conditions. He is the clinical lead for population health and the lead for high-reliability medicine, with direct responsibility for the UH employee accountable care organization. He is also responsible for telehealth and virtual health programs serving patie...
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Theodor Bergmann
#61543
Overall Influence
1916 - 2017 (101 years)
Theodor Bergmann was a German agronomist and published author. Until 1981 he was Professor for international comparisons in agrarian policy at University of Hohenheim. Bergmann was “the last participant and eyewitness to the German labor movement of the Weimar era”.
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Archibald Arthur
1744 - 1797 (53 years)
Archibald Arthur FRSE was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher. An alumnus of the University of Glasgow, he served as University chaplain from 1774 – 1794, and librarian from 1780 - 1794. Between 1780 and 1794 he worked as an assistant to Professor of Moral Philosophy Thomas Reid, taking on the latter's teaching duties, and succeeding him in 1796.
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Gilbert Meilaender
#38384
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Gilbert Meilaender is a prominent American Lutheran bioethicist and theologian. He is Senior Research Professor of Theology at Valparaiso University, and served on the President's Council on Bioethics from its founding in 2002 until its dissolution in 2009.
Go to Profile#5275
Johann Konrad Dippel
1673 - 1734 (61 years)
Johann Konrad Dippel, also spelled Johann Conrad Dippel , was a German Pietist theologian, physician, alchemist and occultist. Life Dippel was born at Castle Frankenstein near Mühltal and Darmstadt, and therefore once at his school the addendum Franckensteinensis and once at his university the addendum Franckensteina-Strataemontanus was used.
Go to Profile#5276
Galen Johnson
#80234
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Galen A. Johnson is a professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Rhode Island and the General Secretary of the International Merleau-Ponty Circle. Education and background Johnson received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University in 1977. He has been teaching at the University of Rhode Island since 1976. His research interests include phenomenology, aesthetics, American philosophy, and recent French philosophy. He is the author of numerous articles in contemporary continental philosophy and has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council for Learned Societies, and the American Philosophical Society.
Go to Profile#5277
David Grimes
#82924
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
David Alan Grimes is an American physician and abortion provider who is certified in both obstetrics and gynecology and in preventive medicine. He is known for his research into abortion. Education Grimes received his undergraduate degree in biology from Harvard University, after which he attended medical school at the University of North Carolina. He later earned certification from the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, after which he was also certified in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine from the American Board of Preventive Medicine.
Go to Profile#5278
Michael N. Pollak
#88966
Overall Influence
#5279
Vittorio Vettori
#51531
Overall Influence
1920 - 2004 (84 years)
Vittorio Vettori was an Italian poet, writer and humanist, passionate spokesperson of ‘’Toscana Europea’’. He has been author of more than 200 volumes of poetry, narrative, philosophy, literary criticism and Dante essays translated into diverse languages.
Go to Profile#5280
Jon D. Cohen
#88969
Overall Influence
#5281
Masahiro Morioka
#66985
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
is a Japanese philosopher, who has contributed to the fields of philosophy of life, bioethics, gender studies, media theory, and civilization studies. He is a professor of philosophy and ethics at Waseda University, Japan. He coined the term "life studies" for an integrated approach to the issues of life, death, and nature in contemporary society. Since 2006 he has proposed a new philosophical discipline he calls "philosophy of life". He has published numerous academic books and articles, mainly in Japanese, and has regularly contributed commentaries and book reviews to major Japanese newspapers and magazines.
Go to Profile#5282
Andrej Dudrovich
1782 - 1830 (48 years)
Andrej Dudrovich was a Russian philosopher, professor and president of Kharkov University during the Age of Enlightenment. Biography Andrej Dudrovich was born in Serbia, then part of the Austrian Empire before emigrating to Imperial Russia. Like many intellectuals of his generation who received an education abroad, he became influenced by Immanuel Kant's moral teachings. His chief work was a doctoral dissertation dealing with Kant while in the class of Johann Baptist Schad, a Benedictine monk who converted to Protestanism and became one of Kant's disciples in Imperial Russia. Dudrovich was a...
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Josef E. Fischer
#56050
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Josef E. Fischer, M.D. was an American surgeon, scientist, and professor at Harvard Medical School. Biography A native of Brooklyn, NY, Fischer was a summa cum laude graduate of Yeshiva University and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Medical School. He completed his internship and surgical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. From 1963 -1965 Fischer served as a Research Associate under Nobel Laureate Julius Axelrod at the National Institutes of Health and in 1968 began working as a Teaching Fellow in Surgery and Fellow of the American Cancer Society at Harva...
Go to Profile#5284
Kathryn Norlock
#80460
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Kathryn Norlock is the inaugural Kenneth Mark Drain Endowed Chair in Ethics, the Chair of the Department of Philosophy, an affiliated faculty member in Sustainability Studies, and an associated faculty member in Gender and Women's Studies at Trent University.
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Vittorio Mathieu
#79109
Overall Influence
1923 - 2020 (97 years)
Vittorio Mathieu was an Italian philosopher and historian. Biography Mathieu was born in 1923 in Varazze. After his secondary studies, he enrolled in the Faculty of Law in Turin. He graduated from the University of Turin with a degree in theoretical philosophy.
Go to Profile#5286
Charles Sawyers
#26851
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Charles L. Sawyers is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator who holds the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Chair of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center . HOPP is a program created in 2006 that comprises researchers from many disciplines to bridge clinical and laboratory discoveries.
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Melissa
280 BC - 210 BC (70 years)
Melissa was a Pythagorean philosopher. Her name derives from the Greek word melli meaning honey. Nothing is known about her life. She is known only from a letter written to another woman named Cleareta . The letter is written in a Doric Greek dialect dated to around the 3rd century BC. The letter discusses the need for a wife to be modest and virtuous, and stresses that she should obey her husband. The content has led to the suggestion that it was written pseudonymously by a man. On the other hand, the author of the letter does not suggest that a woman is naturally inferior or weak, or that s...
Go to Profile#5288
Nosratola D. Vaziri
#89115
Overall Influence
#5289
Peter K. Machamer
#41801
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Peter K. Machamer was an American philosopher and historian of science. Machamer was Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. His work has been influential in philosophy of science in developing an account of mechanistic explanation which rejects standard deductive models of explanation, such as the deductive-nomological model by understanding scientific practice as the search for mechanisms. His research has also focused on 17th-century history of philosophy and science, on Galileo Galilei and René Descartes in particular, and on values and science. He...
Go to Profile#5290
Tobias Welte
#89187
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
#5291
Ernesto Mayz Vallenilla
#27818
Overall Influence
1925 - 2015 (90 years)
Ernesto Mayz Vallenilla was a Venezuelan philosopher. Biography Vallenilla graduated from Liceo Andrés Bello High School in Caracas. He graduated with degrees in philosophy and literature from Universidad Central de Venezuela in 1950, where he also obtained his PhD in Philosophy. He also studied at universities in Göttingen, Freiburg, and Munich, Germany.
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Lewis E. Braverman
#55182
Overall Influence
1929 - 2019 (90 years)
Lewis E. Braverman was a U.S. endocrinologist who specialized in thyroid gland problems. He discovered that humans converted thyroxine to triiodothyronine. He was a mentor to physicians for over 40 years.
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Martin Moors
#22745
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Martin Moors is a professor of Philosophy and is the Chair of Contemporary Metaphysics at the Higher Institute of Philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven , Belgium, where he lectures. He has published work on Kant, German idealism and Schelling.
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Jerry Balmuth
#79098
Overall Influence
1924 - 2017 (93 years)
Jerome "Jerry" Balmuth was an American philosopher and the Harry Emerson Fosdick Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Emeritus, at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. Early life Balmuth developed his interest in philosophy after high school, when he enrolled in a philosophy night course at the City College of New York. In 1944 he joined the United States Army and was assigned to a Signal Corps unit. He subsequently attended officer candidate school and was commissioned as a second lieutenant, transferring to the military police. In 1948 he was discharged at the rank of first lieutenant.
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Maurice Tubiana
#89196
Overall Influence
#5296
Morgan Carpenter
#11986
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Morgan Carpenter is a bioethicist, intersex activist and researcher. In 2013, he created an intersex flag, and became president of Intersex Human Rights Australia . He is now a co-executive director. In 2015, he cofounded a project to mark Intersex Awareness Day.
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Clara D. Bloomfield
#37929
Overall Influence
1942 - 2020 (78 years)
Clara Derber Bloomfield , was an American physician and cancer researcher. Her work focused on the genetic changes that are present in certain types of blood cancers, and how those can be utilized to improve treatment for the affected patients.
Go to Profile#5298
Paul Kleihues
#89250
Overall Influence
#5299
Metrocles
400 BC - 300 BC (100 years)
Metrocles was a Cynic philosopher from Maroneia. He studied in Aristotle’s Lyceum under Theophrastus, and eventually became a follower of Crates of Thebes, who married Metrocles’ sister Hipparchia. Very little survives of his writings, but he is important as one of the first Cynics to adopt the practice of writing moral anecdotes about Diogenes and other Cynics.
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James W. Lance
#55298
Overall Influence
1926 - 2019 (93 years)
James Waldo Lance AO, CBE , often referred to as James Lance and James W. Lance, was an Australian neurologist. He was the founder of the School of Neurology at the University of New South Wales and president of the International Headache Society in 1987–89, and a "world authority on the diagnosis and treatment" of headache and migraine.
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