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).

Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …

See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.

Search Influential People

Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Philosophy,

#5851

Allan C. Carlson

Allan C. Carlson

#19468

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Allan C. Carlson is a scholar and former professor of history at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan. He is the President Emeritus of the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society, former director of the Family in America Studies Center, founder and long time International Secretary of the World Congress of Families and editor of The Natural Family: An International Journal of Research and Policy newsletter. He is also former president of the Rockford Institute.

#5852

Giovanni Ventimiglia

#85597

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Giovanni Ventimiglia is a Swiss–Italian philosopher. He is full Professor of Philosophy at the University of Lucerne and Vice Dean of its Faculty of Theology. He is director of the new Centre for Theology and Philosophy of Religions. Between 2017 and 2022, he was Visiting Professor of Medieval Philosophy in philosophy at the University of Italian Switzerland. He is President of the Reginaldus Foundation, Switzerland.

#5853

Henri Bismuth

#96099

Overall Influence

#5854

Arthur Dobrin

#32586

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Arthur Dobrin is an American author, Professor Emeritus of Management, Entrepreneurship, and General Business at Hofstra University, and Leader Emeritus of the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island.

#5855

C. A. Campbell

1897 - 1974 (77 years)

Charles Arthur Campbell was a Scottish metaphysical philosopher. Biography C.A. Campbell was born in Glasgow on 3 January 1897. He attended secondary school at the Glasgow Academy and continued to the University of Glasgow where he earned a Bachelor's degree in philosophy. He then entered the Balliol College in Oxford, where would eventually achieve a Doctor of Letters. The First World War began during his time at Oxford, and he set aside his studies to serve as an officer in the British Army, with the 10th Borders Regiment.

#5856

Richard Robinson

#68912

Overall Influence

1902 - 1996 (94 years)

Richard Robinson was an English secularist philosopher. Biography Robinson was educated at Repton School and Oxford University. He taught at Cornell University from 1928 to 1946, then returned to Oxford University for over 20 years. He translated and edited books and articles on Plato and Aristotle.

#5857

Joel D. Kopple

#45513

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (88 years)

Joel D. Kopple is an American professor, physician, and clinical investigator in medicine, nephrology, nutrition, and public health. He is professor at David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine and UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. He served from 1982 to 2007 as the chief of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He is also known as the father of the field of Renal Nutrition.

#5858

Carlo Dalla Pozza

#49269

Overall Influence

1942 - 2014 (72 years)

Carlo Dalla Pozza was an Italian philosopher of science and logician. Biography Carlo Dalla Pozza was born in Taranto, in the Southern region Apulia, from Luigi Dalla Pozza, an officer of the Italian Navy from Veneto region, and Cecilia Pontrelli from Apulia. During high school studies at the Liceo Scientifico Battaglini of Taranto, Giovanni De Tommaso, a tough old-style teacher of mathematics, gave him the taste for mathematical problems and for the elegance of proofs. Carlo studied literature and philology at the University of Bari, where he graduated with a dissertation on Renato Serra under the supervision of Aldo Vallone.

#5859

Arnold Munnich

#96152

Overall Influence

#5860

Joachim Sieper

#96154

Overall Influence

#5861

John Michael Gaziano

#96156

Overall Influence

#5862

Benno Kerry

1858 - 1889 (31 years)

Benno Kerry was an Austrian philosopher. Life Kerry was born as Benno Kohn in Vienna. He studied under Ernst Laas and Otto Liebmann at the University of Strassburg and from 1877/78 under Franz Brentano at the University of Vienna. In 1881 he obtained his doctorate with the dissertation Untersuchungen über das Causalproblem auf dem Boden einer Kritik der einschlägigen Lehren J. St. Mills . In Vienna, as part of the School of Brentano he befriended Alois Höfler.

#5863

Mariarosaria Taddeo

#54542

Overall Influence

Mariarosaria Taddeo is a senior research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, part of the University of Oxford, and deputy director of the Digital Ethics Lab. Taddeo is also an associate scholar at Said Business School, University of Oxford.

#5864

Esmail Khoi

#42764

Overall Influence

1938 - 2021 (83 years)

Esmail Khoi or Esmail Khoyi was an Iranian poet and writer. He was living in the United Kingdom after being exiled from Iran during the 1980s. Khoi was originally a lecturer in Philosophy before the Iranian Revolution. He was a member of the Iranian Writers' Association. His poems have been translated in many languages, including English, French, Russian, German and Ukrainian. He wrote a poetry book in English called "Voice of Exile", "What is shall be what is not". He is the first Iranian writer to be awarded the Coburg Rückert Prizen for literature, which he received in 2010.

#5865

Pierre Magistretti

Pierre Magistretti

#75114

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Pierre J. Magistretti is an Italian and Swiss neuroscientist and physician. He is a professor emeritus of neuroscience at EPFL , University of Geneva and University of Lausanne . Until 2012, he was the director of the EPFL's Brain Mind Institute and director of the Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience of the University of Lausanne and Lausanne University Hospital. Since 2012 he has been distinguished professor at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology where he was dean of the division of biological and environmental sciences and engineering between 2012 and 2020.

#5866

W. Ian Mcdonald

#96229

Overall Influence

#5867

Simon Hailwood

#95266

Overall Influence

Simon Hailwood is a British philosopher whose research concerns moral philosophy, political philosophy, environmental philosophy, environmental ethics, political realism, and pragmatism. He is a Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool, which he joined in 2004 as a lecturer.

#5868

Peter Pál Pelbart

#96246

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Peter Pál Pelbart is a Hungarian-born Brazilian philosopher and essayist. He is a professor of philosophy at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo and an essayist of Deleuzian orientation.

#5869

Karl‑heinz Kuck

#96268

Overall Influence

#5870

Dennis Anthony Carson

#96286

Overall Influence

#5871

Valerie Rusch

#54856

Overall Influence

Valerie W Rusch, MD, FACS, is an American thoracic surgeon who is currently the Miner Family Chair for Intrathoracic Cancers and Vice Chair for Clinical Research, Department of Surgery, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

#5872

George W. Comstock

George W. Comstock

#26240

Overall Influence

1915 - 2007 (92 years)

George Wills Comstock was a public health physician, epidemiologist, and educator. He was known for significant contributions to public health, specifically in the fields of micronutrient deficiencies, tuberculosis, and cardiovascular disease. He served as the editor-in-chief for the American Journal of Epidemiology.

#5873

Mabel Besant-Scott

1870 - 1952 (82 years)

Mabel Emily Besant-Scott was a Theosophist, Co-Freemason and Rosicrucian. She was the daughter of the Theosophist, Secularist, and Co-Freemason Annie Besant and her husband Rev. Frank Besant. She had an older brother named Arthur Besant. When her father and mother separated, she was to be under the custody of her mother, but in 1878 her father went to the High Court and won the case for custody. It was not until she was 21 that she returned to her mother.

#5874

Imre Lakatos

#96360

Overall Influence

#5875

Mark T Gladwin

#96377

Overall Influence

#5876

Wayne Norman

#73117

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

Wayne Norman is the Mike and Ruth Mackowski Professor of Ethics in the Philosophy Department and Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. He specializes in political philosophy and business ethics.

#5877

Nathaniel Reichek

#96405

Overall Influence

#5878

Stanislaus von Kalckreuth

Stanislaus von Kalckreuth

1820 - 1894 (74 years)

Count Stanislaus Friedrich Ludwig von Kalckreuth was a German painter who specialized in mountain landscapes. Biography He was born into the Kalckreuth family of the Prussian nobility with roots in the early 13th century. After completing his primary education at the gymnasium in Leszno , he was briefly a member of a cadet corps. At the age of twenty, he went to Potsdam and became an officer in the 1st Foot Guards, but served for only a short time, having decided on a career in art. From 1840 to 1844, he studied with Gustav Wegener, then went to Berlin, where he studied with and Karl Eduard ...

#5879

Ding-Shinn Chen

#36944

Overall Influence

1943 - 2020 (77 years)

Ding-Shinn Chen was a Taiwanese hepatologist. He was born on 6 July 1943, in what became Yingge District, New Taipei City. Chen's mother became sick when he was a child, and needed surgical intervention. As such, Chen was around medical professionals at a young age, which sparked his interest in the field. Upon high school graduation, Chen was accepted into the National Taiwan University College of Medicine. During his fourth year of medical school, Chen's father died of liver cancer, inspiring him to study hepatology. He completed medical studies in 1968. Chen became a resident at National Taiwan University Hospital and later joined the NTU medical faculty, working closely with .

#5880

Ashish Jha

#12280

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Ashish Kumar Jha is an Indian-American general internist physician and academic who served as the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator from 2022-2023. He has been Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health since 2020. Prior to Brown, he was the K.T. Li Professor of Global Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, faculty director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, and a Senior Advisor at Albright Stonebridge Group. Jha is recognized as one of the leading health policy scholars in the nation. Jha's role at Brown University focuses on improving the quality and cos...

#5881

Allan Mark Lefer

#96472

Overall Influence

#5882

Edwin D. Kilbourne

#41143

Overall Influence

1920 - 2011 (91 years)

Edwin Dennis Kilbourne was an American research scientist. Born in Buffalo, New York, he received his AB and MD degrees from Cornell University. After completion of service in the Medical Corps of the Army of the United States at the end of World War II, he trained in virus research at The Rockefeller Institute. Subsequently, he has taught successively on the faculties of four medical schools: Tulane, Cornell, Mount Sinai , and New York Medical College. .

#5883

Herman Schell

1850 - 1906 (56 years)

Jakob Herman Schell was a German philosopher and theologian. He was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1873, he became Professor of theology in 1888. Biography Schell attended the Gran ducal Lyceum of Freiburg and in 1868 joyned the local seminary. Then he studied theology and philosophy at the University of Freiburg, where he had Constantine von Schäzler as professor of Scholastic dogmatics, meeting Jakob Sengler, one of the later Christian idealists. In 1870, Schell was dismissed by the seminary and moved to University of Würzburg, starting to work with Franz Brentano to his PhD disse...

#5884

Russell Hoban

#8414

Overall Influence

1925 - 2011 (86 years)

Russell Conwell Hoban was an American expatriate writer. His works span many genres, including fantasy, science fiction, mainstream fiction, magical realism, poetry, and children's books. He lived in London from 1969 until his death.

#5885

Hermann von Keyserling

Hermann von Keyserling

1880 - 1946 (66 years)

Hermann Alexander Graf von Keyserling was a Baltic German philosopher from the Keyserlingk family. His grandfather, Alexander von Keyserling, was a notable geologist of Imperial Russia. Life Keyserling was born to a wealthy aristocratic family in the Könno Manor, Kreis Pernau in Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire, now in Estonia. After his education at the universities of Dorpat , Heidelberg, and Vienna, he took a trip around the world. He married Maria Goedela von Bismarck-Schönhausen, granddaughter of Otto von Bismarck. His son Arnold Keyserling followed his fathers footsteps and becam...

#5886

Armando Silva

#80190

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Armando Silva is a Colombian philosopher, semiotician and writer, who is best known for his work on Urban Imaginaries, which was developed in several cities in Latin America, Spain, the United States and other European cities.

#5887

Donald Palmer

#91660

Overall Influence

Donald D. Palmer is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the College of Marin in Kentfield, California. He is known for writing introductory books on philosophy and philosophers which attempt to make philosophical ideas accessible to novices. He also illustrates his own books. Currently he is visiting assistant professor of philosophy at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.

#5888

Emil Iii Frei

#96545

Overall Influence

#5889

Haralampos Moutsopoulos

#96585

Overall Influence

#5890

Mark Coeckelbergh

Mark Coeckelbergh

#77729

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (51 years)

Mark Coeckelbergh is a Belgian philosopher of technology. He is Professor of Philosophy of Media and Technology at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Vienna and former President of the Society for Philosophy and Technology. He was previously Professor of Technology and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, Managing Director of the 3TU Centre for Ethics and Technology, and a member of the Philosophy Department of the University of Twente. Before moving to Austria, he has lived and worked in Belgium, the UK, and the Netherlands. He is the author of sev...

#5891

Joseph Morton Ransdell

#84969

Overall Influence

1931 - 2010 (79 years)

Joseph Morton Ransdell was an associate professor of philosophy from 1974 to 2000 at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. A native of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Ransdell in 1961 received his Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from San Francisco State University in San Francisco, California. He subsequently obtained his Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University in New York City, where he wrote his dissertation on Peirce. Before coming to Texas Tech, Ransdell taught philosophy at the University of California, Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara and then spent a year in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, to write his book Pursuit of Wisdom.

#5892

Madhusūdana Sarasvatī

1540 - 1640 (100 years)

Madhusūdana Sarasvatī was an Indian philosopher in the Advaita Vedānta tradition and devotee of Krishna. He was the disciple of Viśveśvara Sarasvatī and Mādhava Sarasvatī, and is the most celebrated name in the annals of the great debate between Dvaita and Advaita schools of Vedanta. The Nyayamṛta of Vyasatirtha, a text criticising the Advaita view, caused a furore in the Advaita community resulting in a series of scholarly debates over centuries. Madhusūdana composed Advaitasiddhi, a line-by-line refutation of Nyayamṛta. In response to Advaitasiddhi, the Dvaita scholars, Vyasa Ramacharya, an...

#5893

Graham A. Macgregor

#96617

Overall Influence

#5894

Karl Fortlage

1806 - 1881 (75 years)

Karl Fortlage was a German philosopher. Biography Born in Osnabrück, Fortlage taught in Heidelberg and Berlin before becoming professor of philosophy at Jena in 1846 , a post he held until his death. Originally a follower of Hegel, he turned to Fichte and the psychologist Friedrich Eduard Beneke, agreeing with his assertion that psychology is the basis of all philosophy. The fundamental idea of his psychology is impulse, which combines representation and feeling . Reason is the highest thing in nature, i.e. it is divine in its nature. God is the absolute Ego, and the empirical egos are his i...

#5895

Havelock Ellis

1859 - 1939 (80 years)

Henry Havelock Ellis was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in 1897, and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and inclinations, as well as on transgender psychology. He developed the notions of narcissism and autoeroticism, later adopted by psychoanalysis.

#5896

James B. Meigs

#96621

Overall Influence

#5897

René Laennec

1781 - 1826 (45 years)

René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec was a French physician and musician. His skill at carving his own wooden flutes led him to invent the stethoscope in 1816, while working at the Hôpital Necker. He pioneered its use in diagnosing various chest conditions. He became a lecturer at the Collège de France in 1822 and professor of medicine in 1823. His final appointments were that of head of the medical clinic at the Hôpital de la Charité and professor at the Collège de France. He went into a coma and subsequently died of tuberculosis on August 13, 1826 at age 45.

#5898

Andrea Prader

#9372

Overall Influence

1919 - 2001 (82 years)

Andrea Prader was a Swiss scientist, physician, and pediatric endocrinologist. He co-discovered Prader–Willi syndrome and created two physiological sex development scales, the Prader scale and the orchidometer.

#5899

Joseph Xerri

#94087

Overall Influence

Joseph Xerri was a Maltese theologian and minor philosopher. Almost nothing is known about the personal life of Xerri. He might have been a priest. In 1773, Xerri was appointed to the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Malta, the second since its establishment two years earlier, in 1771, by the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, Manuel Pinto da Fonseca. However, Xerri was unfortunate enough to be in office when in that same year the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, Francisco Ximénez de Tejada, brought the activities of the university to a complete stop due to presumed overspending and restrictions in budgetary resources.

#5900

Purana Kassapa

#24934

Overall Influence

Purana Kassapa was an Indian ascetic teacher who lived around the 6th century BCE, contemporaneous with Mahavira and the Buddha. Biography Purana taught a theory of "non-action" whereby the body acts independent of the soul, merit or demerit. In the Pali Canon, Purana is identified as an ahetuvadin, "denier of a cause" .

« Previous Next »

Image Attributions