Search People Result | Academic Influence

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).

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Ranking

List of the most influential people in Philosophy,

#5351

David A. Prince

#89967

Overall Influence

1932 - Present (94 years)

#5352

Daniel Innerarity

Daniel Innerarity

#49940

Overall Influence

Daniel Innerarity Grau is a Spanish philosopher and essayist. Biography Daniel Innerarity is a professor of political and social philosophy, Ikerbasque researcher at the University of the Basque Country, director of the Instituto de Gobernanza Democrática and Chair Artificial Intelligence and Democracy at the School of Trasnational Governance . Former fellow of the Fundación Alexander von Humboldt at the University of Munich, visiting professor at the University of Paris 1-Sorbonne former Chair of Intercultural Studies at Georgetown University, distinguished Visiting Chair at the Catholic...

#5353

Andreas Kemmerling

#86483

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Andreas Kemmerling is a German philosopher. He works in the analytic tradition. Life Kemmerling studied philosophy from 1968 to 1972 in Marburg, Frankfurt am Main and Munich. In 1976 he got a doctor degree. After his so-called "Habilitation" in 1981 in Bielefeld he was visiting professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. From 1983 until 1999 he was professor in Munich. Since 1999 he is professor at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg.

#5354

Mikhail Iovchuk

1908 - 1990 (82 years)

Mikhail Trifonovich Iovchuk was a Soviet philosopher, Communist Party official and Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. Biography Born in to a peasant family, Iovchuk joined the Communist Party in 1926.

#5355

Madalyn Murray O'Hair

Madalyn Murray O'Hair

#12954

Overall Influence

1919 - 1995 (76 years)

Madalyn Murray O'Hair was an American activist supporting atheism and separation of church and state. In 1963, she founded American Atheists and served as its president until 1986, after which her son Jon Garth Murray succeeded her. She created the first issues of American Atheist Magazine and identified as a "militant feminist".

#5356

István Aranyosi

#39308

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (51 years)

István Aranyosi is a Hungarian philosopher and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Bilkent University. He is best known for his works on philosophy of mind and metaphysics. Books The Peripheral Mind: Philosophy of Mind and the Peripheral Nervous System, Oxford University Press, 2013God, Mind and Logical Space: A Revisionary Approach to Divinity, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

#5357

Margaret Bent

#27055

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (86 years)

Margaret Bent CBE , is an English musicologist who specializes in music of the late medieval and Renaissance eras. In particular, she has written extensively on the Old Hall Manuscript, English masses as well as the works of Johannes Ciconia and John Dunstaple.

#5358

Lars Wallentin

#78017

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Lars Wallentin is a Swedish physician and cardiologist. In 1998 he was the first recipient of the Nordic Medical Prize, the second largest medical award in the Nordic countries. He was elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2007. He has been described by the European Heart Journal as "an international superstar cardiologist."

#5359

Jelica Šumič Riha

#63280

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

Jelica Šumič Riha is a Slovenian philosopher, political theorist, and translator, associated with the Ljubljana school of psychoanalysis. Biography Riha studied philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, graduating in 1983. Initially member of the League of Communists of Slovenia, she left the party in October 1988, together with 32 other left wing intellectuals, as a protest against the Ljubljana trial, when four civilians were arrested by judged by a Yugoslav military court. In 1989, she was one of the co-founders of the Debate Club 89, which became the intellectual core of the Liberal Demo...

#5360

James Gustafson

#56205

Overall Influence

1925 - 2021 (96 years)

James M. Gustafson was an American theological ethicist. He received an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Theology at Uppsala University in 1985. He has held teaching posts at Yale Divinity School and the Department of Religious Studies , the University of Chicago as professor of theological ethics in the Divinity School , and Emory University as the Henry R. Luce Professor of Humanities and Comparative Studies. He retired in 1998 after 43 years of teaching and research, after being Woodruff Professor of Comparative Studies and of Religion in the Emory College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.

#5361

John Wahren

#90126

Overall Influence

#5362

Erich Mühsam

1878 - 1934 (56 years)

Erich Mühsam was a German antimilitarist anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a federated Bavarian Soviet Republic, for which he served 5 years in prison.

#5363

Mark I. Wallace

#36184

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Mark Irvy Wallace is an American Professor of Religion at Swarthmore College, where he teaches courses on religion, environmental studies, and Interpretation theory. A self-described "Christian Animist", his teaching and research interests focus on the intersections between Christian theology, critical theory, environmental studies, and postmodernism as a part of the field of ecological theology. Through his work he seeks to "bring together biblical faith and the liberal arts."

#5364

Gabriel Bonnot de Mably

Gabriel Bonnot de Mably

1709 - 1785 (76 years)

Gabriel Bonnot de Mably , sometimes known as Abbé de Mably, was a French philosopher, historian, and writer, who for a short time served in the diplomatic corps. He was a popular 18th-century writer.

#5365

Ludwig Finscher

#26095

Overall Influence

1930 - 2020 (90 years)

Ludwig Finscher was a German musicologist. He was a professor of music history at the University of Heidelberg from 1981 to 1995 and editor of the encyclopedia Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. He is respected internationally as an authority on the history of Western Classical music from the 16th century to contemporary classical music, with a view on music in cultural, social, historical and philosophical context, in a clear language for both specialists and lay readers.

#5366

Pierius

201 - Present (1825 years)

Pierius was a Christian priest and probably head of the Catechetical School of Alexandria, conjointly with Achillas. He flourished while Theonas was bishop of Alexandria, and died at Rome after 309. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on 4 November.

#5367

Arnold M. Katz

#90258

Overall Influence

#5368

Floris van den Berg

Floris van den Berg

#70511

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (53 years)

Floris van den Berg is a Dutch philosopher and author , mostly known for his atheism campaign in the Netherlands. Activities Van den Berg was raised in a liberal Catholic home, but became an atheist activist as an adult.

#5369

Hendrik Hart

#27933

Overall Influence

1935 - 2021 (86 years)

Hendrik Hart , often known as Henk Hart, was a Dutch-Canadian philosopher based in Toronto. History Hendrik Hart taught systematic philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto, since its founding in 1967 until his retirement in 2001. Prior to that he was head of the philosophical Institute of the Free University in Amsterdam, where he studied under D. H. Th. Vollenhoven. His doctoral dissertation was written on the topic of John Dewey's theory of verification and was supervised by Dutch philosopher S. U. Zuidema.

#5370

Dennis J. Schmidt

#84073

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Dennis Joseph Schmidt is an American philosopher living in Sydney, Australia where he is Research Professor and chair at Western Sydney University. Prior to moving to Sydney in 2015, he taught at Binghamton University , Villanova University , and Penn State University . He is known for his research on ancient Greek philosophy and literature, post-Kantian philosophy, hermeneutics and philosophy of art. He received his PhD in philosophy from the Boston College in 1982.

#5371

John W. Yolton

#51250

Overall Influence

1921 - 2005 (84 years)

John W. Yolton was an American historian of philosophy. He taught at Rutgers University from 1978 to 1992, and was a dean from 1978 to 1985. He authored or edited 15 books, several of which were about John Locke.

#5372

Kurt Rudolf Fischer

#47501

Overall Influence

1922 - 2014 (92 years)

Kurt Rudolf Fischer was a Jewish-Austrian philosopher who emigrated to Brno, Czechoslovakia, in 1938 and to Shanghai in 1940. He was born in Vienna. He became Chinese boxing champion and started studying philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley after World War II, where he made friends with Paul Feyerabend. From 1967 to 1980 he was professor at Millersville University of Pennsylvania in Millersville, Pennsylvania. From 1979 - 2008 he was honorary professor at the University of Vienna.

#5373

Olga Plümacher

1839 - 1895 (56 years)

Olga Marie Pauline Plümacher was a Russian-born Swiss-American philosopher and scholar. She engaged with the philosophies of the German philosophers Arthur Schopenhauer and Eduard von Hartmann, and published three books which contributed to the pessimism controversy in Germany. Her book on the history of philosophical pessimism, Der Pessimismus in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart was influential on Friedrich Nietzsche and Samuel Beckett.

#5374

John Bienenstock

#90320

Overall Influence

#5375

Heinrich Christoph Kolbe

Heinrich Christoph Kolbe

1771 - 1836 (65 years)

Heinrich Christoph Kolbe was a German painter. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. Life Kolbe was born and died in Düsseldorf. After his education at the 'old' Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and then went to Paris for ten years to study. He was part of the circle of Friedrich Schlegel and worked on the review "Europa". He later worked in the studio of François Gérard. In 1811 he returned to Düsseldorf, becoming the favorite portraitist of the Rhineland, painting 60 portraits in Barmen and Elberfeld alone. His subjects in Weimar included Goethe, Charles Augustus, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and two of Charles Augustus's mistress Karoline Jagemann.

#5376

Douglas L. Mann

#84359

Overall Influence

Douglas L. Mann is an American physician. He is currently the Lewin Distinguished Professor in Cardiovascular Diseases and professor of medicine, cell biology and physiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

#5377

Jean Reynaud

1806 - 1863 (57 years)

Jean Ernest Reynaud was a French mining engineer and socialist philosopher. He was a member of the Saint-Simonianian community. He was a co-founder of the Encyclopédie nouvelle. Life He was born in Lyon on 4 February 1806. He graduated from the Polytechnic School in Lyon in 1827 and joined the School of Mines. In May 1829 he began a four month study tour of Germany including the Harz Mountains, Black Forest, Saxony, Hanover, Oldenbourg and Westphalia. He then spent a further two months studying mines in Belgium and the Netherlands. He graduated from the mining school in 1830.

#5378

Christopher Heath Wellman

#69083

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (59 years)

Christopher “Kit” Heath Wellman is an American philosopher. He teaches at Washington University in St. Louis, where he is also dean of academic planning for Arts & Sciences. He is best known for his distinctive views on core questions in political theory, including political legitimacy, secession, the duty to obey the law, immigration, and the permissibility of punishment.

#5379

Edward Lhuyd

1660 - 1709 (49 years)

Edward Lhuyd was a Welsh naturalist, botanist, herbalist, alchemist, scientist, linguist, geographer and antiquary. He is also named in a Latinate form as Eduardus Luidius. Life Lhuyd was born in 1660, in Loppington, Shropshire, England, the illegitimate son of Edward Lloyd of Llanforda, Oswestry, and Bridget Pryse of Llansantffraid, near Talybont, Cardiganshire in 1660. His family belonged to the gentry of south-west Wales. Though well-established, the family was not wealthy. His father experimented with agriculture and industry in a manner that impinged on the new science of the day. The ...

#5380

Peter Francis Buckley

#90410

Overall Influence

#5381

James Olen Armitage

#90418

Overall Influence

#5382

Zhi Dun

314 - 366 (52 years)

Zhi Dun was a Chinese Buddhist monk and philosopher. A Chinese author, scholar and confidant of Chinese government officials in 350, he claimed that all who followed Buddhism would, at the end of their life, enter Nirvana.

#5383

Sharyn Clough

#65855

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (61 years)

Sharyn Clough is professor of philosophy at Oregon State University. Her teaching and research specialties focus on public philosophy, Peace Literacy, philosophy of science, social epistemology, contemporary pragmatism, and feminist theory.

#5384

André R. Capron

#90462

Overall Influence

#5385

Delia Graff Fara

#76935

Overall Influence

1969 - 2017 (48 years)

Delia Ruby Graff Fara was an American philosopher who was professor of philosophy at Princeton University. She specialized in philosophy of language, metaphysics, and philosophical logic. Early life Fara's mother was African-American and her father was of Irish and Jewish ancestry. She was raised by her mother as a single parent in New York after her father died when she was a child.

#5386

Henri Wald

#61576

Overall Influence

1920 - 2002 (82 years)

Henri "Ricu" Wald , also known as Henry Wald, was a Romanian professor, philosopher, logician, and essayist. Early life Wald was born to a family of small merchants in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Wald first became interested in philosophy at age sixteen, during a lecture given by one of his teachers. He was forced to leave high school in 1940 due to discriminatory anti-Jewish laws. Thus, Wald studied at a private college for Jewish students.

#5387

David W. Golde

#90523

Overall Influence

#5388

Tony Milligan

#76525

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (60 years)

Tony Milligan is a Scottish philosopher who is currently a Senior Researcher in the Philosophy of Ethics with the Cosmological Visionaries project at King's College London. Much of his research concerns the ethics of human attitudes towards outer space, but he has a broader concern with otherness: other people, other places, other creatures, and political opponents. Publications range across Iris Murdoch, the philosophy of love, animal ethics, space policy and civil disobedience.

#5389

Carlos Pérez Soto

Carlos Pérez Soto

#61140

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Carlos Pérez Soto is a Chilean teacher of physics, lecturer at various universities and a social sciences researcher. He is the author of several works covering a wide range of topics: philosophy of science and epistemology, political philosophy and Marxism, Dance History, anti-psychiatry.

#5390

Juan Arnau

#55527

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (58 years)

Juan Arnau , Spanish philosopher and essayist, a specialist in Eastern philosophies and religions. Biography After a few years working as a sailor and several trips to Africa, Juan Arnau studied Astrophysics at the Complutense University of Madrid, where he graduated in 1994.

#5391

Ron Mittler

#90582

Overall Influence

#5392

Thomas Platts-Mills

Thomas Platts-Mills

#53744

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (85 years)

Thomas Alexander Evelyn Platts-Mills, FRS son of British member of parliament and barrister John Platts-Mills, is a British allergy researcher and director of the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

#5393

Christine Tappolet

#71484

Overall Influence

Christine Tappolet is a philosopher, academic, and author. She is a Full Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Montreal, and has authored and edited several books including, Emotions, Values, and Agency, and Philosophy of Emotion: A Contemporary Introduction.

#5394

V'incent Marks

#90659

Overall Influence

#5395

Bruce Charlton

#16590

Overall Influence

Bruce Graham Charlton is a retired British medical doctor who was Visiting Professor of Theoretical Medicine at the University of Buckingham. Until April 2019, he was Reader in Evolutionary Psychiatry at Newcastle University. Charlton was editor of the controversial and not-conventionally-peer reviewed journal Medical Hypotheses from 2003 to 2010.

#5396

Rosalyn Diprose

#49160

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

Rosalyn Diprose is Emeritus Professor of philosophy at University of New South Wales. A graduate of the University of Technology Sydney, The University of Sydney and UNSW Sydney, she is known for her research on ethics, embodiment, generosity and cultural difference.

#5397

Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens

Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens

1704 - 1771 (67 years)

Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens was a French rationalist, author and critic of the Catholic Church, who was a close friend of Voltaire and spent much of his life in exile at the court of Frederick the Great.

#5398

Alfred Sommer

#12108

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (84 years)

Alfred Sommer is a prominent American ophthalmologist and epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research on vitamin A in the 1970s and 1980s revealed that dosing even mildly vitamin A deficient children with an inexpensive, large dose vitamin A capsule twice a year reduces child mortality by as much as 34 percent. The World Bank and the Copenhagen Consensus list vitamin A supplementation as one of the most cost-effective health interventions in the world.

#5399

Johan F. A. K. Van Benthem

#90723

Overall Influence

#5400

Livingston Farrand

Livingston Farrand

1867 - 1939 (72 years)

Livingston Farrand was an American physician, anthropologist, psychologist, public health advocate and academic administrator. Early life and education Born in Newark, New Jersey, to Dr. Samuel Ashbel Farrand, headmaster of the historic Newark Academy, and Rachel Louise Farrand, Farrand received an undergraduate degree from Princeton in 1888, and went on to the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he earned his M.D. in 1891.

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