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,

#5951

Wayne H. Akeson

#126484

Overall Influence

#5952

Moustapha Kassem

#55752

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Moustapha Kassem is a scientist, physician and endocrinologist based in Denmark. He received his medical degree from Kasr-el-Aini Medical School, Cairo University, Egypt and received his post-graduate training in internal medicine and endocrinology in Denmark and the United States. He obtained his PhD degree and DSc degrees from Aarhus University.

#5953

Santiago Castro-Gómez

Santiago Castro-Gómez

#77054

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

Santiago Castro-Gómez is a Colombian philosopher, a professor at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and the director of the Pensar Institute in Bogotá. Career and Work Castro-Gómez began studying philosophy at Santo Tomás University in Bogotá, Colombia with members of the "Bogotá Group." He received his M.A. in Philosophy at the University of Tübingen and his Ph.D at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main in Germany. In addition to his academic positions in Colombia, he has served as visiting professor at Duke University, Pittsburgh University and the Goethe University of Frankfurt.

#5954

Gerald Salen

#126492

Overall Influence

#5955

Howard Davis Thames

#126506

Overall Influence

#5956

Colin Ivor Johnston

#126512

Overall Influence

#5957

Pietro Perconti

#92036

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (58 years)

Pietro Perconti is an Italian philosopher. Currently 'Professor of Philosophy and Theory of Languages' at the Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of Messina. He has written books and texts on cognition and language . He has tried to define common sense.

#5958

Charles Chihara

#114372

Overall Influence

1932 - 2020 (88 years)

Charles Seiyo Chihara was an American philosopher specializing in the philosophy of mathematics and metaphysics. Early life and education Born to Japanese-American parents in Seattle, Chihara spent part of his youth in an internment camp during World War II. After graduating from O'Dea High School, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Seattle, a Master of Science in mathematics from Purdue University, and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Washington.

#5959

Jonathon Pines

#38599

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

Jonathon Noë Joseph Pines is Head of the Cancer Biology Division at the Institute of Cancer Research in London. He was formerly a senior group leader at the Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge.

#5960

Emma Guttman-Yassky

#126580

Overall Influence

Emma Guttman-Yassky is the System Chair of the Department of Dermatology and Waldman professor of dermatology and immunology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. She is also director of its center for excellence in eczema, its occupational dermatitis clinic, and its inflammatory skin disease laboratory.

#5961

Ghulam J. Mufti

#126583

Overall Influence

#5962

Steven Shafer

#34414

Overall Influence

Steven Shafer is a professor of anesthesiology at Stanford University. In 2011, the International Society of Anaesthetic Pharmacology gave him their lifetime achievement award. Education Shafer graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. He received his M.D. from Stanford and completed his anesthesia residency at the University of Pennsylvania.

#5963

Oleksiy Onyschenko

#56740

Overall Influence

1933 - Present (93 years)

Oleksiy Semenovych Onyschenko is a philosopher and culture theorist, Honoured Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine , Recipient of the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology , Professor and Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor Honoris Causa, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. He is the Head of the Division of History, Philosophy and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the General Director of V.I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine.

#5964

Kyra Gaunt

#81522

Overall Influence

Kyra Danielle Gaunt is an African American ethnomusicologist, Black girlhood studies advocate, social media researcher, feminist performance artist, and professor at the University at Albany in New York State. Gaunt's research focuses on the hidden musicianship of black girls' musical play at the intersections of race, racism, gender, heterosexism, misogynoir, age, and the kinetic-orality of the female body in the age of hip-hop. Her current research focuses on "the unintended consequences of gender, race, and technology from YouTube to Wikipedia."

#5965

Floyd D. Loop

#126653

Overall Influence

#5966

Helmut Wachter

#126661

Overall Influence

#5967

Victor Parsonnet

#126670

Overall Influence

#5968

Roger Dadoun

#84660

Overall Influence

1928 - 2022 (94 years)

Roger Dadoun was a French philosopher, psychoanalyst, translator, and art critic. He was a professor of comparative literature at Paris Diderot University. Biography Born in Oran, Dadoun was a student at the École Saint-André and subsequently the Lycée Lamoricière. He enrolled in the University of Algiers in 1946, where he studied philosophy, literature, and psychotechnics. He was a journalist for Alger Soir and Fraternité before studying psychology, philosophy, esthetics, and ethnology at the University of Paris. He studied under the likes of Pierre Francastel, Roland Barthes, Gaston Bachela...

#5969

James W. Vardiman

#126712

Overall Influence

#5970

Walter Klepetko

#126717

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

#5971

Makoto Nagoya-shi Matsuoka

#126729

Overall Influence

#5972

Ronald A. Malt

#126747

Overall Influence

#5973

Richard McLean

#74845

Overall Influence

1934 - 2014 (80 years)

Richard McLean was a leading artist in the Photorealist movement. Biography Born in Hoquiam, Washington, McLean graduated with a BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts, where he had studied under Richard Diebenkorn, and received an MFA from Mills College in 1962.

#5974

Philip Baker

#111397

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Philip Newton Baker DM, FRCOG, FMedSci, is a British obstetrician, currently head of the College of Medicine, Biological Sciences and Psychology at the University of Leicester. He gained academic degrees from the universities of Nottingham, Cambridge, and Pittsburgh and then held top academic positions at the University of Nottingham and the University of Manchester. Baker has over 450 scientific publications primarily in the field of pre-eclampsia and other obstetric topics.

#5975

P. Aspenberg†

#126803

Overall Influence

#5976

Yemima Ben-Menahem

Yemima Ben-Menahem

#81706

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (80 years)

Yemima Ben-Menahem is a professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her main area of expertise is philosophy of science, in particular philosophy of modern physics. Biography Yemima Goldschmidt earned a BSc in physics and mathematics in 1969 and an MSc in philosophy of science in 1972, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She earned her PhD at the Hebrew University in 1983 with a dissertation entitled "Paradoxes and Intuitions", under the direction of Mark Steiner.

#5977

David J. Moliterno,

#126852

Overall Influence

#5978

Jay Michaelson

#35071

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Jay Michaelson is an American writer, journalist, professor, and rabbi. He is a commentator on CNN, and a columnist for Rolling Stone, and other publications, having been the legal affairs columnist at The Daily Beast for eight years. He is the author of ten books, and won the 2023 National Jewish Book Award for scholarship and the 2023 New York Society for Professional Journalists Award for Opinion Writing.

#5979

Kenneth S. Polonsky

#126900

Overall Influence

#5980

Gaston-Armand Amaudruz

#25292

Overall Influence

1920 - 2018 (98 years)

Gaston-Armand "Guy" Amaudruz was a Swiss neo-fascist political philosopher and Holocaust denier. Biography Initially a supporter of the Swiss fascist movement of Arthur Fonjallaz, he came to wider attention in 1949 when he published Ubu Justicier au Premier Procès de Nuremberg, one of the first works to question the veracity of the Holocaust. Increasingly active in neo-fascism, he organized conferences in Malmö in 1951 which led to the formation of a pan-European nationalist group known as the European Social Movement and then led the more radical splinter group known as the New European Order later that year.

#5981

Marcus M. Reidenberg

#126923

Overall Influence

#5982

David Feldshuh

#42669

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

David Mark Feldshuh is an American physician, playwright, and author. His 1992 play Miss Evers' Boys, based on the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, was a finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The 1997 adaptation of Miss Evers' Boys was nominated for 11 Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards .

#5983

Lewis Landsberg

#126924

Overall Influence

#5984

Ingo Zechner

#68835

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (54 years)

Ingo Zechner is a philosopher and historian. He is the Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital History in Vienna. Research topics: time and memory, aesthetics , film, digital media and Holocaust Studies. Further research on the concept of modernity in the fields of Cultural Studies and Post-structuralism .

#5985

Thomas Hans Newton

#126927

Overall Influence

#5986

Darrell R. Schroeder

#126964

Overall Influence

#5987

Alfred Prettyman

#71338

Overall Influence

1935 - Present (91 years)

Alfred E. Prettyman is an American publisher. Life Alfred E. Prettyman, was born in February 1935, in Baltimore, Maryland. He is one of five children of Edward Prettyman, the conductor of the Colored Park Band #1 of Baltimore, and Helen Prettyman, teacher. Prettyman attended Douglass High School from which he graduated at age 16. While in high school he also made several appearances on WAAM, now known as WJZ-TV, as a singer on the High Times Program, with host Tommy Dukehart and the afternoon sports and news shows. His appearances on WAAM lead to appearances on the radio and television shows of Paul Whiteman.

#5988

Igor Pribac

#78759

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

Igor Pribac is a Slovenian philosopher and political commentator. Life Born in Koper in the Slovenian Littoral, then part of Yugoslavia, where he attended high school. He studied philosophy and sociology at the University of Ljubljana. He obtained a MA with a thesis on Spinoza's criticism of Descartes under the supervision of the philosopher Božidar Debenjak. In 1998, he obtained a PhD with a thesis on natural law in Hobbes and Spinoza. From 1985 to 2021, he was a professor at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana.

#5989

Nándor Wagner

#53204

Overall Influence

1922 - 1997 (75 years)

Nándor Wagner was a Hungarian artist and sculptor. He was the son of a dentist, and was born in Oradea , Romania. Wagner studied at the Budapest Art Academy before and after World War II. He had three art periods as living in Hungary , Sweden and Japan respectively. He became well known for his novel cast stainless steel sculptures made in Sweden and Japan.

#5990

Alessandro Repici

#127028

Overall Influence

#5991

Rudolf Burger

#47672

Overall Influence

1938 - 2021 (83 years)

Rudolf Burger was an Austrian philosopher. Life and career Burger was born in Vienna in the year of the occupation and the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany, called Anschluss. His parents were active communists. He concluded his studies of physics at the Technical University in Vienna and thereafter served as an assistant at the Institute of Applied Physics, where he concluded his doctorate in 1965.

#5992

B. Van Den Berg

#127042

Overall Influence

#5993

Jian-kang Zhu

#127056

Overall Influence

#5994

Hadi Alwai

#53169

Overall Influence

1933 - 1998 (65 years)

Hadi Alwai was an Iraqi Marxist intellectual, Islamic historian, and Arab linguist. He was born in Baghdad and grew up in a poor family of Hashemite descent. He studied at Baghdad University and graduated from the college of Economics in 1956. He left Iraq and travelled to China and then Syria. He lived in exile until he died in Damascus and he was buried there. He is interested in topics of Islam and Chinese philosophy. He has researches and books on Islam, Chinese history, and language.

#5995

James David Richardson

#127076

Overall Influence

#5996

Stascha Rohmer

#99324

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (60 years)

Stascha Rohmer is a German philosopher. His main research topics are Theoretical philosophy, German idealism, Anthropology, Philosophy of Nature and History of Philosophy. He is a specialist of the Metaphysics of Hegel and Alfred North Whitehead and since 2008 permanent member of the Whitehead Research Project in Claremont, California, United States. Currently he holds a visiting professorship at the Universidad de Antioquia.

#5997

Vasilis Politis

#98748

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Vasilis Politis is a Greek philosopher and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin. He is known for his expertise on Plato and Aristotle. Politis is a Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and Trinity College Dublin and director of the Dublin Centre for the Study of the Platonic Tradition.

#5998

John Stuart Soeldner

#127096

Overall Influence

#5999

Philip McShane

#73697

Overall Influence

1932 - 2020 (88 years)

Philip McShane was an Irish mathematician and philosopher-theologian. Originally trained in mathematics, mathematical physics, and chemistry in the 1950s, he went on to study philosophy from 1956 to 1959. In 1960, after teaching mathematical physics, engineering, and commerce to undergraduates, and special relativity and differential equations to graduate students, McShane began studying theology. He did his fourth year of theology in 1963 and in 1968 began reading economics.

#6000

Michael David Lebowitz

#127123

Overall Influence

« Previous Next »

Image Attributions