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).
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List of the most influential people in Philosophy,
#8651
Anders Wedberg
1913 - 1978 (65 years)
Anders Wedberg was a Swedish philosopher. Wedberg was born in Stockholm. His father was the prominent lawyer and member of the Swedish Academy Birger Wedberg. Anders was the father of chess player Tom Wedberg.
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Evelina Tacconelli
#124308
Overall Influence
#8653
Harold J. Burstein
#124322
Overall Influence
#8654
Andrew Pessin
#77813
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Andrew Pessin is an American philosopher who is currently a professor of philosophy at Connecticut College. Biography Pessin is a graduate of Yale University and holds a PhD from Columbia University. He teaches at Connecticut College. In addition to his academic work he has published a number of philosophy books for the general reader, as well as two novels. His most recent novel, The Irrationalist: The Tragic Murder of René Descartes, is a historical murder mystery based on real events: the life of the famous 17th-century philosopher and mathematician René Descartes, and the mysterious circu...
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James Andrew Phillips
#48847
Overall Influence
James Andrew Phillips is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of New South Wales. He is known for his research on philosophy of art, the philosophy of film and performance, and Martin Heidegger's thought.
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Elizabeth Brake
#96381
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Elizabeth Brake is an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at Rice University. She is known for her works on ethics and political philosophy. Brake coined the term amatonormativity to describe the widespread, but false, belief that everyone is better off in an exclusive, romantic, long-term coupled relationship, and that everyone is seeking such a relationship. Her book Minimizing Marriage received Honorable Mention for the American Philosophical Association Book Prize in 2014. Brake is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Philosophy.
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Nagarjuna G.
#79183
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Nagarjuna G. works in the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India. His major research interests include Science Education, Cognitive Science, History and Philosophy of Science and Structure and Dynamics of Knowledge. As an activist he focuses on promoting free knowledge and free software and serves as the chairperson of Free Software Foundation of India.
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Hartmut Beug
#124367
Overall Influence
#8659
Jan Brueghel the Younger
1601 - 1678 (77 years)
Jan Brueghel the Younger was a Flemish Baroque painter. He was the son of Jan Brueghel the Elder, and grandson of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, both prominent painters who contributed respectively to the development of Renaissance and Baroque painting in the Habsburg Netherlands. Taking over his father's workshop at an early age, he largely painted the same subjects as his father in a style which was similar to that of his father. He gradually was able to break away from his father's style by developing a broader, more painterly, and less structured manner of painting. He regularly collaborated ...
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Beate Roessler
#106999
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Beate Roessler is a German philosopher and researcher who is a Professor of Ethics at the University of Amsterdam. Biography Roessler studied philosophy in several German and English cities, among them London, Oxford, and Berlin. Her Ph.D. was completed in 1988 at the Free University of Berlin. Roessler’s habilitation developed a theory of the value of privacy, and was finalized in 2001 at the University of Bremen.
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Gottlieb Tobias Wilhelm
1758 - 1811 (53 years)
Gottlieb Tobias Wilhelm was a Protestant pastor and natural history writer, probably best known for his monumental "Unterhaltungen aus der Naturgeschichte" . He was the fourth of 14 children and son of Augsburg engraver and publisher Christian Art Wilhelm, proprietor of Martin Engelbrecht Art Dealer. He attended the Gymnasium bei St. Anna from 1767 to 1777, and between 1777 and 1781 studied theology, philosophy and philology in Leipzig under Professor Ernst Platner, Samuel Frederick Nathanael Morus and Johann August Ernesti. From 1781 he was in the service of the Protestant Church in Augsburg, and also a teacher at the high school at St.
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Sigurd Allern
#49863
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Sigurd Allern is a Norwegian media theorist and the first professor of journalism at the University of Oslo. He was also one of the central people in starting the Workers' Communist Party of Norway in the early 1970s, and was the first chairman of the party between 1973 and 1975 and at the same time chairman of the Red Electoral Alliance. He was also editor-in-chief of Klassekampen from 1969 to 1970, and again from 1979 to 1995.
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Jerry L. Martin
#60196
Overall Influence
Jerry L. Martin is the founding chairman of the Theology Without Walls group at the American Academy of Religion, editor of the book Theology Without Walls: The Transreligious Imperative, and author of God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher which was adapted into a podcast, titled God: An Autobiography, as told to a Philosopher - The Podcast, which takes the form of a dramatic conversation. From 1988 to 1995, Martin held senior positions at the National Endowment for the Humanities, including as acting chairman. From 1967 to 1982, Martin was a tenured professor and chairman of the phi...
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Ronald M. Bukowski
#124411
Overall Influence
#8665
Shu-ichi Kaneko
#124414
Overall Influence
#8666
Angelo Avogaro
#124420
Overall Influence
#8667
Jean‐baptiste Michel
#124423
Overall Influence
#8668
Michael G. Rinaldi
#124430
Overall Influence
#8669
Christoph Wolff
#20100
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Christoph Wolff is a German musicologist. He is best known for his works on the music, life, and period of Johann Sebastian Bach. Christoph Wolff is an emeritus professor of Harvard University, and was part of the faculty since 1976, and former director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig from 2001 to 2014.
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Harry R. Keiser
#124436
Overall Influence
#8671
Alexander Bryan Johnson
1786 - 1867 (81 years)
Alexander Bryan Johnson , was a British-born American philosopher and semanticist. He immigrated to the United States as a child and worked as a banker in Utica, New York. He wrote about economics, language, and the nature of knowledge.
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Paul Weiss
#67081
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Paul S. Weiss is a leading American nanoscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. He holds numerous positions, including UC Presidential Chair, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Bioengineering, and of Materials Science and Engineering, and founder and editor-in-chief of ACS Nano. From 2019–2014, he held the Fred Kavli Chair in NanoSystems Sciences and was the director of the California NanoSystems Institute. Weiss has co-authored over 400 research publications and holds over 40 US and international patents.
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Nicholas-Joseph Laforêt
1823 - 1872 (49 years)
Nicholas-Joseph Laforêt was a Belgian Catholic philosopher and theologian. Life After the regular theological course at the seminary of Namur, he entered the Catholic University of Leuven , where he applied himself especially to the study of Oriental languages, Holy Scripture, and philosophy. In 1848, he was appointed to the chair of moral philosophy at the university, and, the same year, received the doctorate in theology.
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Leiv Kreyberg
1896 - 1984 (88 years)
Leiv Kreyberg was a Norwegian pathologist. He was a professor at the University of Oslo from 1938 to 1964. Among his scientific studies was the development and typology of lung cancer. During World War II he contributed to the organizing of the Norwegian Army's medical service, and he participated in the repatriation of prisoners of war in Northern Norway.
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David L. Pauls
#124477
Overall Influence
#8676
Erich K. Lang
#124481
Overall Influence
#8677
Thomas Hedner,
#124485
Overall Influence
#8678
Olivier Ameisen
#17085
Overall Influence
1953 - 2013 (60 years)
Olivier Ameisen was a French-American cardiologist who wrote a best-selling book about curing alcoholism using the drug baclofen. Education and career Ameisen began his medical studies in 1969 at age 16 at Université René Descartes Faculté de Médecine Cochin Port-Royal.
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Gilbert H. Mudge
#124507
Overall Influence
#8680
Jean‐luc Harousseau
#124522
Overall Influence
#8681
Guido I. Marcucci
#124526
Overall Influence
#8682
Géraud de Cordemoy
1626 - 1684 (58 years)
Géraud de Cordemoy was a French philosopher, historian and lawyer. He is mainly known for his works in metaphysics and for his theory of language. Biography Géraud de Cordemoy was born in a family of ancient nobility coming from Auvergne . He was the third of four children. His father was a master in arts at the University of Paris named Géraud de Cordemoy who died when he was nine years old. His mother was named Nicole de Cordemoy. As for Géraud, he was a private tutor and a linguist and practised as a lawyer.
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Monika Safford
#117676
Overall Influence
Monika M. Safford is an American clinician-investigator. She is the Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and John J. Kuiper Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. She was the inaugural Endowed Professor of Diabetes Prevention and Outcomes Research and Assistant Dean for Continuing Medical Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine.
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Georges Dicker
#124527
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Georges Dicker is an American philosopher, currently a SUNY Distinguished Professor at The College at Brockport, State University of New York.
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Fathollah K. Mostofi
#124537
Overall Influence
#8686
Pope Alexander II
1010 - 1073 (63 years)
Pope Alexander II , born Anselm of Baggio, was the head of the Roman Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1061 to his death in 1073. Born in Milan, Anselm was deeply involved in the Pataria reform movement. Elected according to the terms of his predecessor's bull, In nomine Domini, Anselm's was the first election by the cardinals without the participation of the people and minor clergy of Rome. He also authorized the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.
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Stephen Westaby
#124566
Overall Influence
#8688
Hans Maes
#73687
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Hans Maes is a senior philosophy lecturer and co-director of the Aesthetics Research Centre at the University of Kent. He is known for his work in aesthetics and philosophy of art. Books Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight: A Philosophical Exploration. Routledge. 2021.Portraits and Philosophy. Routledge. 2020Conversations on Art and Aesthetics. Oxford University Press. 2017Pornographic Art and the Aesthetics of Pornography. Palgrave. 2013Art and Pornography: Philosophical Essays, ed. H. Maes and J. Levinson. Oxford University Press. 2012
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Daniel J. Wallace
#84905
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Daniel Jeffrey Wallace is an American rheumatologist, clinical professor, author, and fellow. Wallace has published 500 peer reviewed publications, 9 textbooks, and 28 book chapters on topics such as lupus, Sjögren syndrome, osteoarthritis, and fibromyalgia. He has the largest cohort of lupus patients in the United States . A full professor of medicine , he is associate director of the Rheumatology Fellowship Program at Cedars-Sinai. His seminal contributions to research include being an author of the first paper to demonstrate vitamin D dysfunction and the importance of interleukin 6 in lupu...
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James A. De Lemos
#124582
Overall Influence
#8691
Stephen E. Lipshultz
#124586
Overall Influence
#8692
Thomas A. Buchholz
#124588
Overall Influence
#8693
Ralph D. Feigin
#124641
Overall Influence
#8694
Thomas J. McKay
#120814
Overall Influence
Thomas McKay is an American philosopher currently professor of philosophy and director of graduate studies at the department of philosophy of Syracuse University. He was chairman of the department there from 1995 to 2002. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1969, his M.A. from University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1972, and his Ph.D., also from the University of Massachusetts, 1974, for a dissertation on "Essentialism and Quantified Modal Logic: Quine's Argument and Kripke's Semantics"
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Heinrich Racker
1910 - 1960 (50 years)
Heinrich Racker was a Polish-Argentine psychoanalyst of Austrian-Jewish origin. Escaping Nazism, he fled to Buenos Aires in 1939. Already a doctor in musicology and philosophy, he became a psychoanalyst, first under the direction of Jeanne Lampl-de Groot, and later working with Ángel Garma and Marie Langer in Argentina. His most important work is a study of the psychoanalytic technique known as transference and countertransference, which was published for the first time in 1968.
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John Brown
1735 - 1788 (53 years)
John Brown was a Scottish physician and the creator of the Brunonian system of medicine. Life Brown was born in Berwickshire, the son of a day-labourer. He was able to obtain an early and 'excellent classical education' from Mr. William Cruickshank, "one of the most celebrated teachers Scotland has produced." Brown had a particular ability for Latin, and was an early reader, having read the whole of the Old Testament by age 5. As one of his contemporaries, Thomas Beddoes, a renowned English physician, wrote in 1795: "I conclude that he was endowed with that quickness of sympathy and that sens...
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Alasdair Muir Breckenridge
#124669
Overall Influence
#8698
Jaakko Perheentupa
#124671
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
#8699
H. Richard Winn
#23377
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Dr. H. Richard Winn is an American neurosurgeon, and professor of neurosurgery and neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Winn was chairman of neurological surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine from 1983 to 2002. Winn has made numerous contributions to the field of neurosurgery, specifically to the physiology of cerebral blood flow regulation and clinical studies of the natural history of cerebral aneurysms. A leading international Neurosurgical Prize is named after Dr. Winn.
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Janet McCracken
#97478
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Janet McCracken is the Chair of Classical Studies and Professor of Philosophy at Lake Forest College. She specializes in aesthetics. Biography McCracken earned a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College and a Master of Arts and PhD from University of Texas at Austin. She currently serves as the Director of the Ethics Center at Lake Forest College and was the Krebs Provost and Dean of the Faculty from 2005 to 2011 and the Associate Dean of the Faculty from 2000 to 2002.
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