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.
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List of the most influential people in Philosophy,
#15451
Patrick Benedict Zimmer
1752 - 1820 (68 years)
Patrick Benedict Zimmer was a Catholic philosopher and theologian. Life Zimmer studied the Humanities and philosophy at Ellwangen, theology and jurisprudence at Dillingen and was ordained a priest on 1 April 1775. In 1777, he became repetitor of Canon law at the College of St. Jerome at Dillingen, and professor of dogmatic theology at the University of Dillingen in 1783. He was also appointed pastor of Steinheim in 1791. In 1795 he was dismissed from the faculty of the university, ostensibly because as pastor of Steinheim he should reside at that place, but in reality, because of his extreme idealism.
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Leontion
400 BC - 360 BC (40 years)
Leontion was a Greek Epicurean philosopher. Biography Leontion was a pupil of Epicurus and his philosophy. She was the companion of Metrodorus of Lampsacus. The information we have about her is scant. She was said to have been a hetaera – a courtesan or prostitute.
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Mariano Iberico Rodríguez
1892 - 1974 (82 years)
Mariano Iberico Rodríguez was a Peruvian philosopher. Life and education He was born in Cajamarca, Peru on April 11, 1892 and received his higher education at the National University of San Marcos in Lima. In 1919 he was awarded doctorates in Literature, Political Science and Administration, and Jurisprudence. After completing his training, he became a professor in the School of Arts at the University of San Marcos, the same center of Lima where he had completed his studies. Throughout his career he would teach History of Modern Philosophy, Subjective Philosophy, History of Ancient Philosophy, Aesthetics and Contemporary Philosophers.
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Panthoides
400 BC - 300 BC (100 years)
Panthoides was a dialectician and philosopher of the Megarian school. He concerned himself with "the logical part of philosophy", and at some point taught the Peripatetic philosopher Lyco of Troas. He wrote a book called On Ambiguities, against which the Stoic philosopher Chrysippus wrote a treatise.
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Soham Swami
1858 - 1918 (60 years)
Soham Swami was a Hindu guru and yogi from India.
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Edward Henry Hare
#15457
Catharine Trotter Cockburn
1674 - 1749 (75 years)
Catharine Trotter Cockburn was an English novelist, dramatist and philosopher who wrote on various subjects, including moral philosophy and theology, and maintained a prolific correspondence. Trotter's writings encompass a wide range of topics, such as necessity, the infinitude of space and substance. However, her primary focus was on moral issues. She believed that moral principles were not inherent but could be discovered by each individual through the use of reason, a faculty bestowed by God. In 1702, she published her first significant philosophical work, titled "A Defence of Mr. Lock's [...
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Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster
1789 - 1860 (71 years)
Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster was an English astronomer, physician, naturalist and philosopher. An early animal rights activist, he promoted vegetarianism and founded the Animals' Friend Society with Lewis Gompertz. He published pamphlets on a wide variety of subjects, including morality, Pythagorean philosophy, bird migration, Sati, and "phrenology", a term that he coined in 1815.
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Giulio Pace
1550 - 1635 (85 years)
Giulio Pace de Beriga, also known as Giulio Pacio, or by his Latin name Julius Pacius of Beriga was a well-known Italian Aristotelian scholar and jurist. Life He was born in Vicenza, Italy, and studied law and philosophy in Padua.
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Swami Satyabhakta
1899 - 1998 (99 years)
Swami Satyabhakta was an Indian scholar, philosopher, reformer and the founder of Satya Samaj. Early life Born Mulchanda at Shahpur, Sagar, he moved to Damoh to his aunt's house after the death of his mother at age 4, where he was renamed Darbarilal. He met Ganeshprasad Varni at Damoh and influenced by him, he joined the pathshala established by Varniji at Sagar. At age 19, he graduated with the title Nyayatirth and became a teacher at Sdyavad Vdyalaya at Varanasi for a year. He then moved to Seoni and then Indore, where he developed his rationalistic principles.
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Juan José Urráburu
1844 - 1904 (60 years)
Juan José Urráburu was a Spanish Jesuit and a scholastic philosopher who worked for some time as a professor of philosophy at the Gregorian University in Rome. Beginning in 1890, he published eight large volumes treating of Scholastic philosophy under the title Institutiones Philosophicae. The last volume appeared in 1900, though he reworked the Institutiones into the slightly abbreviated five-volume Compendium Philosophiae Scholasticae.
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J. William White
1850 - 1916 (66 years)
James William White was an American surgeon from Philadelphia. After participating in the Hassler expedition to the West Indies, he became a respected surgeon, teacher and author at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, with which he was associated from 1874 to 1916. He was John Rhea Barton Professor of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital from 1900 to 1912 and professor emeritus until his death.
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Najm al-Din Razi
1177 - 1256 (79 years)
Abū Bakr 'Abdollāh b. Moḥammad b. Šahāvar b. Anūšervān al-Rāzī commonly known by the laqab, or sobriquet, of Najm al-Dīn Dāya, meaning "wetnurse" was a 13th-century Sufi. Hamid Algar, translator of the Persian Merṣād to English, states the application of "wetnurse" to the author of the Merṣād derives from the idea of the initiate on the Path being a newborn infant who needs suckling to survive. Dāya followed the Sufi order, Kubrawiyya, established by one of his greatest influences, Najm al-Dīn Kubrā. Dāya traveled to Kārazm and soon became a morīd of Najm al-Dīn Kubrā. Kubrā then appointed Shaikh Majd al-Dīn Bagdādī as the spiritual trainer who also became Dāya's biggest influence.
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Benjamin Banneker
1731 - 1806 (75 years)
Benjamin Banneker was an African-American naturalist, mathematician, astronomer and almanac author. A landowner, he also worked as a surveyor and farmer. Born in Baltimore County, Maryland, to a free African-American mother and a father who had formerly been enslaved, Banneker had little or no formal education and was largely self-taught. He became known for assisting Major Andrew Ellicott in a survey that established the original borders of the District of Columbia, the federal capital district of the United States.
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Duncan Liddel
1561 - 1613 (52 years)
Duncan Liddel was a Scottish mathematician, physician and astronomer. Life Liddel was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. Having received an education in languages and philosophy at the local school and the University of Aberdeen, he went abroad at age 18. Moving to Gdańsk in Polish Prussia first, he arrived after a few months at the Viadrina European University , where a Scot, John Craig was teaching logic and mathematics; Craig superintended his studies.
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George Redmayne Murray
1865 - 1939 (74 years)
George Redmayne Murray was an English physician who pioneered in the treatment of endocrine disorders. In 1891, he introduced the successful treatment of myxedema, with injections of sheep thyroid extract, the first instance of hormone replacement therapy.
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Christian August Lorentzen
1749 - 1828 (79 years)
Christian August Lorentzen was a Danish painter. Early life and education Christian August Lorentzen was born in Sønderborg, Denmark. He was the son of Hans Peter Lorentzen and Maria Christina Hansdatter. His father was a watchmaker. He arrived in Copenhagen around 1771 where he frequented the Royal Academy of Fine Arts but it is unclear whether he received formal training. After arriving in Copenhagen, he was soon used as a portrait painter. From 1779 to 1782 he went abroad to develop his skills, visiting the Netherlands, Antwerp and Paris where he copied old masters. In 1792 he traveled to...
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Herbert Gardiner Lord
1849 - 1930 (81 years)
Herbert Gardiner Lord was an American philosopher. Biography Lord was born in Boston on March 29, 1849. He was the son of the Rev. Daniel Miner Lord and was graduated from Amherst College in 1871 and at the Union Theological Seminary in 1877.
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Julia M. Addington‐hall
#15470
Johann Baptist Lüft
1801 - 1870 (69 years)
Johann Baptist Lüft was a German Catholic theologian, known for his contributions made to the Catholic elementary school system in Hesse. He received his education at the episcopal school in Mainz. In 1824 he was ordained as a priest, and later on, he taught classes at the Catholic seminary in Mainz. In 1830 he relocated to Giessen as a pastor and a professor to the theological faculty at the university. In 1835 he became a pastor and superintendent in Darmstadt, then in 1852 was appointed Ehrendomkapitular at Mainz Cathedral.
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Ivan Orlov
1886 - 1936 (50 years)
Ivan Efimovich Orlov was a Russian philosopher, a forerunner of relevant and other substructural logics, and an industrial chemist. The date of his death is unknown, but is most likely between 1936 and 1937.
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John of Mirecourt
1300 - 1349 (49 years)
John of Mirecourt, also known as Monachus Albus , was a Cistercian scholastic philosopher of the fourteenth century, from Mirecourt, Lorraine. He was a follower of William of Ockham; he was censured by Pope Clement VI.
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Josiah C. Nott
1804 - 1873 (69 years)
Josiah Clark Nott was an American surgeon, anthropologist and ethnologist. He is known for his studies into the etiology of yellow fever and malaria, including the theory that they are caused by germs, and for his espousal of scientific racism.
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Charles R. Drew
1904 - 1950 (46 years)
Charles Richard Drew was an American surgeon and medical researcher. He researched in the field of blood transfusions, developing improved techniques for blood storage, and applied his expert knowledge to developing large-scale blood banks early in World War II. This allowed medics to save thousands of Allied forces' lives during the war. As the most prominent African American in the field, Drew protested against the practice of racial segregation in the donation of blood, as it lacked scientific foundation, and resigned his position with the American Red Cross, which maintained the policy un...
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Pascal James Imperato
#15476
Edward S. Henderson
#15477
Heinrich Christoph Wilhelm Sigwart
1789 - 1844 (55 years)
Heinrich Christoph Wilhelm von Sigwart was a German philosopher and logician. He was the father of Christoph von Sigwart , who also was a philosopher and logician. Life Sigwart was born into a family with a long history of philosophers, theologians and physicians at Remmingsheim in Württemberg. From 1813 he served as a repentant at Tübinger Stift in Tübingen, and obtained an associate professorship at the University of Tübingen in 1816. He became a full professor of philosophy at Tübingen in 1818 and wrote numerous books on the history of philosophy. He died in Stuttgart.
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T. Jacob John
#15479
A. D. Gardner
1884 - 1977 (93 years)
Arthur Duncan Gardner, FRCP, FRCS was a British physician and scientist known for his contributions to the development of penicillin and his role as the Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford from 1948 to 1954.
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John Alexander Stewart
1846 - 1933 (87 years)
John Alexander Stewart was a Scottish writer, educator and philosopher. He was a university professor and classical lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford from 1875 to 1883, White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford, and professorial fellow of Corpus Christi College, from 1897 to his retirement in 1927. Throughout his academic career, he was an editor and author of works on Aristotle and considered one of the foremost experts on the subject. His best known books were Notes on the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle and The Myths of Plato .
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George Whipple
1878 - 1976 (98 years)
George Hoyt Whipple was an American physician, pathologist, biomedical researcher, and medical school educator and administrator. Whipple shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1934 with George Richards Minot and William Parry Murphy "for their discoveries concerning liver therapy in cases of anemia". This makes Whipple the first of several Nobel laureates affiliated with the University of Rochester.
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Moses ben Joshua
1300 - 1362 (62 years)
Moses Narbonne, also known as Moses of Narbonne, mestre Vidal Bellshom, maestro Vidal Blasom, and Moses Narboni, was a medieval Catalan philosopher and physician. He was born at Perpignan, in the Kingdom of Majorca, at the end of the thirteenth century and died sometime after 1362. He began studying philosophy with his father when he was thirteen and then studied with Moses and Abraham Caslari. He studied medicine and eventually became a successful physician, and was well versed in Biblical and rabbinical literature.
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Khoren Sargsian
1891 - 1970 (79 years)
Khoren Sargsian was an Armenian writer, critic, doctor of philology, and professor. He graduated from Saint Petersburg University and later went on to become the director of the Literature Institute of the Armenian SA from 1943 to 1947. He authored many publications on famous Armenian figures such as Vahan Terian, Levon Shant, Stepan Zoryan, and Sayat-Nova.
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Denis Daneman,
#15485
Ishak Efendi
1774 - 1835 (61 years)
Hoca Ishak Efendi was an Ottoman mathematician and engineer. Life Ishak Efendi was born in Arta , probably in 1774, to a Jewish family. His father had converted to Islam. After his father died, he went to Constantinople, where he studied mathematics and foreign languages, learning French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew alongside Turkish, Arabic and Persian.
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Jason of Nysa
100 BC - 60 BC (40 years)
Jason of Nysa was a Stoic philosopher, the son of Menecrates, and, on his mother's side, grandson of Posidonius, of whom he was also the disciple and successor at the Stoic school at Rhodes. He therefore flourished after the middle of the 1st century BC. The Suda lists four works of his:Βίοι Ἐνδόξων Vii Endoxon – Famous LivesΦιλοσόφων Διαδοχαί Filosofon Diadoche – Successions of PhilosophersΒίος Ἑλλάδος Vios Ellados – Life of Greece, in 4 booksΠερὶ Ῥόδου Peri Rodou – On RhodesHowever, the Suda expresses doubt about whether the third book is his, and also credits Jason of Argos as having writt...
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Petrus Adrianus Fre Doevendans
#15488
Marc Blitzstein
1905 - 1964 (59 years)
Marcus Samuel Blitzstein , was an American composer, lyricist, and librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration. He is known for The Cradle Will Rock and for his off-Broadway translation/adaptation of The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. His works also include the opera Regina, an adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes; the Broadway musical Juno, based on Seán O'Casey's play Juno and the Paycock; and No for an Answer. He completed trans...
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Otto Flügel
1842 - 1914 (72 years)
Otto Flügel was a German philosopher and theologian. Biography He studied at Schulpforta and Halle, and took up pastoral work. He was made editor of the Zeitschrift für exacte Philosophie im Sinne des Neueren Philosophischen Realismus , and in 1894 was one of the founders of Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Pädagogik. He was a supporter of Herbartian realism, as opposed to New-Kantian speculations, yet he believed in the necessity of a revelation.
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Léon Ollé-Laprune
1839 - 1898 (59 years)
Léon Ollé-Laprune was a French Catholic philosopher. Life Under the influence of the philosopher Elme Marie Caro and of Père Gratry's book Les Sources, Ollé-Laprune, after exceptionally brilliant studies at the Ecole Normale Supérieure , devoted himself to philosophy. His life was spent in teaching, first in the lycées and then in the Ecole Normale Supérieure from 1875.
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Francisco José Ribas
1764 - 1828 (64 years)
Francisco José Ribas was a Venezuelan Roman Catholic priest and philosopher.
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Bartholomäus Keckermann
1571 - 1609 (38 years)
Bartholomäus Keckermann was a German writer, Calvinist theologian and philosopher. He is known for his Analytic Method. As a writer on rhetoric, he is compared to Gerhard Johann Vossius, and considered influential in Northern Europe and England.
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Eero Järnefelt
1863 - 1937 (74 years)
Erik "Eero" Nikolai Järnefelt was a Finnish painter and art professor. He is best known for his portraits and landscapes of the area around Koli National Park. He was a medal winner at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889 and 1900, and he taught art at the University of Helsinki and was chairman of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts.
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Mirza Mahdi Elahi Qomshehei
1901 - 1973 (72 years)
Mirza Mahdi Elahi Qomshehei was an Iranian mystic, poet, translator of the Quran, and one of the grand Masters of the philosophical school of Tehran. Family His family were originally from Bahrain. Most of them were sophisticated men of knowledge. They resided in Ghomshe or Sah-Reza near the south Isfahan City. He was born in 1319 lunar Islamic year in Isfahan. He was known as the reviver of religion . He selected the title of Elahi in his poems.
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Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 2nd Baronet
1817 - 1880 (63 years)
Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 2nd Baronet FRS was an English chemist. Biography Brodie was the son of Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 1st Baronet, and his wife Anne , and was educated at Harrow School and Balliol College, Oxford. He obtained a second-class honours degree in mathematics in 1838. Because he was an agnostic and would not assent to the Thirty-nine articles, he was refused a MA until 1860. He studied chemistry with Justus von Liebig in Giessen along with Alexander Williamson. At Giessen, he did an original analysis of beeswax for which he was given the Fellowship of the Royal Society ...
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Francis Line
1595 - 1675 (80 years)
Francis Line, SJ , also known as Linus of Liège, was a Jesuit priest and scientist. He is known for inventing a magnetic clock. He is noted as a contemporary critic of the theories and work of Isaac Newton. He also challenged Robert Boyle and his law of gases.
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Ludwig Rhesa
1776 - 1840 (64 years)
Martin Ludwig Jedemin Rhesa was a Lutheran pastor and a professor at the University of Königsberg in East Prussia. He is best remembered as publisher of Lithuanian texts. He was the last prominent prominent advocate of the Lithuanian language in Lithuania Minor.
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Chamaeleon
400 BC - 300 BC (100 years)
Chamaeleon , was a Peripatetic philosopher of Heraclea Pontica. He was one of the immediate disciples of Aristotle. He wrote works on several of the ancient Greek poets, namely:περὶ Ἀνακρέοντος - On Anacreonπερὶ Σαπφοῦς - On Sapphoπερὶ Σιμωνίδου - On Simonidesπερὶ Θεσπίδος - On Thespisπερὶ Αἰσχύλου - On Aeschylusπερὶ Λάσου - On Lasusπερὶ Πινδάρου - On Pindarπερὶ Στησιχόρου - On StesichorusHe also wrote on the Iliad, and on Comedy . In this last work he treated, among other subjects, of the dances of comedy. This work is quoted by Athenaeus by the title περὶ τῆς ἀρχαίας κωμῳδίας, which is also the title of a work by the Peripatetic philosopher Eumelus.
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Edward Daniel Clarke
1769 - 1822 (53 years)
Edward Daniel Clarke was an English clergyman, naturalist, mineralogist, and traveller. Life Edward Daniel Clarke was born at Willingdon, Sussex, and educated first at Uckfield School and then at Tonbridge.
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Ifor Williams
1881 - 1965 (84 years)
Sir Ifor Williams, was a Welsh scholar who laid the foundations for the academic study of Old Welsh, particularly early Welsh poetry. Early life and education Ifor Williams was born at Pendinas, Tregarth near Bangor, Wales, the son of John Williams, a quarryman, and his wife Jane. His maternal grandfather, Hugh Derfel Hughes, was a noted local historian who wrote a well-regarded book on the history of the area. He went to Friars School, Bangor, in 1894 but had only been there for just over a year when he suffered a serious accident. This left him with back injuries that made him bedridden fo...
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