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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School

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Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Philosophy,

#3001

Edward J. Goetzl

#84168

Overall Influence

#3002

Jan Westerhoff

#57497

Overall Influence

1976 - Present (48 years)

Jan Christoph Westerhoff is a German philosopher and orientalist with specific interests in metaphysics and the philosophy of language. He is currently Professor of Buddhist Philosophy in the Faculty of Theology and Religion of the University of Oxford.

#3003

Scott Aikin

#72663

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (53 years)

Scott F. Aikin is an American philosopher and assistant professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he also holds a joint appointment in Classics. He earned an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Montana in 1999 and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Vanderbilt University in 2006. His principal areas of research are epistemology, argumentation theory, ancient philosophy, and pragmatism.

#3004

William C. Knowler

#84242

Overall Influence

#3005

Rachana Kamtekar

#83283

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Rachana Kamtekar is an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University. She is known for her works on ancient philosophy. She is the current editor of the Journal Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy.

#3006

Takashi Kadowaki

#84249

Overall Influence

#3007

Jordan S Pober

#84272

Overall Influence

#3008

Adriana Cavarero

#42479

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Adriana Cavarero is an Italian philosopher and feminist thinker. She holds the title of Professor of Political Philosophy at the Università degli studi di Verona. She has also held visiting appointments at the University of California, Berkeley and Santa Barbara, at the New York University and Harvard. Cavarero is widely recognized in Italy, Europe and the English-speaking world for her writings on feminism and theories of sexual difference, on Plato, on Hannah Arendt, on theories of narration and on a wide range of issues in political philosophy and literature.

#3009

Alan Trounson

#16888

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Alan Osborne Trounson is an Australian embryologist with expertise in stem cell research. Trounson was the President of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine between 2007 and 2014, a former Professor of Stem Cell Sciences and the Director of the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories at Monash University, and retains the title of emeritus professor.

#3010

Bernard Ramm

#11592

Overall Influence

1916 - 1992 (76 years)

Bernard L. Ramm was a Baptist theologian and apologist within the broad evangelical tradition. He wrote prolifically on topics concerned with biblical hermeneutics, religion and science, Christology, and apologetics. The hermeneutical principles presented in his 1956 book Protestant Biblical Interpretation influenced a wide spectrum of Baptist theologians. During the 1970s he was widely regarded as a leading evangelical theologian as well known as Carl F.H. Henry. His equally celebrated and criticized 1954 book The Christian View of Science and Scripture was the theme of a 1979 issue of th...

#3011

Erwin w. Gelfand

#84486

Overall Influence

#3012

Pasicles of Thebes

#79138

Overall Influence

Pasicles of Thebes was a Greek philosopher and brother of the Cynic philosopher Crates of Thebes. He attended the lectures of his brother Crates, but he is otherwise connected with the Megarian school of philosophy, because Diogenes Laërtius calls him a pupil of Euclid of Megara, and the Suda calls him a pupil of an unknown "Dioclides the Megarian." Pasicles is said to have been the teacher of Stilpo, who became leader of the Megarian school. Thus we have the implausible situation of Pasicles teaching Stilpo, Stilpo teaching Crates, and Crates teaching Pasicles. Crates named his son Pasicles...

#3013

Karl E. Rickels

#84518

Overall Influence

#3014

Colin Ward

#48849

Overall Influence

1924 - 2010 (86 years)

Colin Ward was a British anarchist writer and editor. He has been called "one of the greatest anarchist thinkers of the past half century, and a pioneering social historian." Life Ward was born in Wanstead, Essex, to Arnold and Ruby Ward . Arnold was a teacher and Ruby a clerical worker. His parents were active Labour Party supporters. Ward attended Ilford County High School, leaving school aged 15. After leaving school he worked as an assistant to a builder, then for West Ham Council, before working as a draughtsman at Sidney Caulfield's architectural practice.

#3015

A. Bernard Ackerman

#24766

Overall Influence

1936 - 2008 (72 years)

Albert Bernard Ackerman, M.D. was an American dermatologist and pathologist who was "a founding figure in the field of dermatopathology." Early life and education Ackerman was born on November 22, 1936, one of three children of an orthodontist in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. After earning an undergraduate degree in philosophy and theology from Princeton University, he received his medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He had his residency training in dermatology at Columbia University, the University o...

#3016

Lars Gule

#21161

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Lars Gule is a Norwegian philosopher. He has graduated with a doctorate in philosophy, and is an associate professor . From 2000 to 2005 he was secretary general of the Norwegian Humanist Association. Gule became known to the general public in 1977 when after having joined the DFLP group, Gule was arrested in Beirut, Lebanon with Semtex in his luggage intended for Israeli targets leading to a six-month conviction and subsequent deportation. He remains active as a anti-Israel activist. Gule is often used by Norwegian media as an authority on questions regarding the Middle East, Islam and extre...

#3017

Robert Arp

#48716

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (54 years)

Robert Arp is an American philosopher known for his work in ethics, modern philosophy, ontology, philosophy of biology, cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, religious studies, and philosophy and popular culture. He currently works as an adjunct professor teaching philosophy courses in the classroom and online at numerous schools in the Kansas City, Missouri area and other areas of the United States.

#3018

Anne Manne

#52667

Overall Influence

1901 - Present (123 years)

Anne Manne is an Australian journalist and social philosopher. Her 2005 book Motherhood: How should we care for our children? was short-listed in 2006 for Australian journalism's Walkley Award. Anne Manne has been married to Australian political science professor Robert Manne since 1983. They have two children, including Cornell University philosophy professor Kate Manne.

#3019

Gaetano Thiene

#75071

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Gaetano Thiene is an Italian Emeritus Professor of Cardiovascular Pathology at the University of Padua. His professional interests include cardiology and pathology. Education and career Thiene received a degree in medicine in 1972, and performed specialized post-graduate work in cardiology and pathology from 1975 to 1978. His subsequent professional positions included Professor of Pathology, director of Cardiovascular Sciences and the Institute of Pathological Anatomy, vice-dean of the Department of Medico-Diagnostic Sciences and Special Therapies , and in 2002 was an Honorary Fellow of the R...

#3020

Hans-Martin Sass

#64169

Overall Influence

1935 - 2023 (88 years)

Hans-Martin Sass , is a bioethicist. He is a Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany, and a Senior Research Scholar Emeritus at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, Washington DC.

#3021

Greg Restall

#82419

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Greg Restall is an Australian philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Restall is known for his research on logic and theories of meaning. After working at the University of Melbourne for years he was appointed the Shelby Cullom David Professor of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews.

#3022

Jeremy Weate

#54923

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Jeremy Weate studied philosophy at the University of Hull, the University of Liège and the University of Warwick, graduating with a PhD in European philosophy from Warwick in 1998. His PhD thesis was and Difference: the Body, Architecture and Race

#3023

Viktor Žmegač

#30720

Overall Influence

1929 - 2022 (93 years)

Viktor Žmegač was a Croatian musicologist and scholar. He authored a number of books, articles and essays in the areas of cultural history, literary theory, musicology, art history, and German studies.

#3024

Bill Brewer

#77112

Overall Influence

Bill Brewer is a British philosopher and Susan Stebbing Professor of Philosophy at King's College London. He was previously the Head of the Department of Philosophy. He was a scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, reading Maths and Philosophy and graduating B. Phil. and D. Phil in Philosophy, supervised by P. F. Strawson, David Pears, Jennifer Hornsby, and John Campbell. He was then a research fellow at King's College, Cambridge, a tutorial fellow and university lecturer at St Catherine's College, Oxford, and next a professor in the philosophy department at the University of Warwick. He has also be...

#3025

Barry L. Gan

#37005

Overall Influence

Barry L. Gan is an American academic. He is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at St. Bonaventure University. From 1986 until 2020 he directed the Center for Nonviolence, formerly the Peace Studies program at St. Bonaventure University. For twenty-six years, from 1990 to 2016, he was editor of The Acorn: Journal of the Gandhi-King Society, now called The Acorn: Philosophical Studies in Pacifism and Nonviolence. For two years in the 1990s he served as program committee chair of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the oldest and largest interfaith peace group in the United States, and also serv...

#3026

Silvio Funtowicz

Silvio Funtowicz

#23850

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Silvio O. Funtowicz is a philosopher of science active in the field of science and technology studies. He created the NUSAP, a notational system for characterising uncertainty and quality in quantitative expressions, and together with Jerome R. Ravetz he introduced the concept of post-normal science. He is currently a guest researcher at the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities , University of Bergen .

#3027

Howard Stein

#61976

Overall Influence

1929 - Present (95 years)

Howard Stein is an American philosopher and historian of science. He is an emeritus professor at the University of Chicago. Biography Stein was born on January 21, 1929, in New York City. He received a BA from Columbia University in 1947, where he studied under John Herman Randall Jr., Irwin Edman, and Ernest Nagel, before obtaining a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1958, and an MS from the University of Michigan in 1959. He joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in 1951 before teaching at Brandeis University, Case Western Reserve University and Columbia University. He also worked for Honeywell as a mathematician and engineer in between his teaching career.

#3028

Bernard Mayo

#64421

Overall Influence

1921 - 2000 (79 years)

Bernard Mayo was an English philosopher. He worked at University of Birmingham until 1968, when he joined University of St. Andrews as professor of moral philosophy, from which he retired in 1983. He was editor of Analysis and The Philosophical Quarterly .

#3029

Alessandro Ferrara

Alessandro Ferrara

#34152

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

Alessandro Ferrara is an Italian philosopher, professor of political philosophy at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and former president of the Italian Association for Political Philosophy. He also teaches legal theory at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome.

#3030

Brian Orend

#46003

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (53 years)

Brian Orend is the Director of International Studies and a professor of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario. Orend's works focus on just war theory and human rights. He is best known for his discussions of jus post bellum , which deals with the termination phase of war.

#3031

Eelco F. M. Wijdicks

#84901

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

#3032

Tasos Zembylas

#51095

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

Tasos Zembylas is a philosopher and social scientist with focus in aesthetics and cultural institution studies. Life From 1991 to 1997, Zembylas studied philosophy, history of art and sociology at the University of Vienna. In 1995 he held a research grant at the "Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften" in Vienna. From 1997 to 1999 he was commissioned to carry out various studies in the field of education and vocational training. He also lectured on aesthetics and sociology of art at the University of Vienna and at the University of Applied Art in Vienna. In 1999, he was appoin...

#3033

Raimond Gaita

#43484

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Raimond Gaita is a German-born Australian philosopher and award-winning writer. He was, until 2011, foundation professor of philosophy at the Australian Catholic University and professor of moral philosophy at King's College London. He is currently professorial fellow in the Melbourne Law School and the Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne and emeritus professor of moral philosophy at King's College London. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

#3034

Jason Barker

#51300

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (53 years)

Jason Barker is a British theorist of contemporary French philosophy, film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is a professor of cultural studies at Kyung Hee University in the Graduate School of British and American Language and Culture, and visiting professor at the European Graduate School, where he teaches in the Faculty of Media and Communication alongside Alain Badiou, Judith Butler, Jacques Rancière, Avital Ronell, Slavoj Žižek, and others.

#3035

Ingolf U. Dalferth

#70765

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Ingolf Ulrich Dalferth is a philosopher of religion and theologian. His work is regarded as being on the methodological borderlines between analytic philosophy, hermeneutics and phenomenology, and he is a recognized expert in issues of contemporary philosophy, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of orientation.

#3036

Max Charlesworth

Max Charlesworth

#56680

Overall Influence

1925 - 2014 (89 years)

Maxwell John Charlesworth AO FAHA was an Australian philosopher and public intellectual. He taught and wrote on a wide range of areas including the philosophy of religion and the role of the Church in a liberal democratic society; Australian Aboriginal culture and religions; European philosophy from medieval to continental; bioethics and modern science’s role in society; and the philosophy of education. In 1990, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his contributions to Australian society in the fields of education and bioethics.

#3037

Artur Juncosa Carbonell

#25132

Overall Influence

1925 - 2010 (85 years)

Artur Juncosa Carbonell ; 5 October 1925 – 13 December 2010 Early years Juncosa was born in Les Borges del Camp , into a traditionalist family. He studied engineering in Madrid and graduated in philosophy and in Theology from the Faculty of San Francisco de Borja and from the University of Barcelona , where he received his PhD in 1979.

#3038

Vladimir C.i. Hachinski

#85000

Overall Influence

#3039

Steven D. Wexner

#74875

Overall Influence

Steven D. Wexner is an American surgeon and physician. He is Director of the Ellen Leifer Shulman and Steven Shulman Digestive Disease Center at Cleveland Clinic Florida. Wexner has received numerous regional, national, and international research awards. Through his multiple academic appointments, Wexner personally trains 15-20 surgeons each year, and he educates thousands more around the world through conferences and lectures. He is a resource for his colleagues from around the world for referral of patients with challenging or complex problems. In 2020, he was elected vice-chair of the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons for a one-year term.

#3040

Lynda Barry

#7987

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Linda Jean Barry , known professionally as Lynda Barry, is an American cartoonist. Barry is best known for her weekly comic strip Ernie Pook's Comeek. She garnered attention with her 1988 illustrated novel The Good Times are Killing Me, about an interracial friendship between two young girls, which was adapted into a play. Her second illustrated novel, Cruddy, first appeared in 1999. Three years later she published One! Hundred! Demons!, a graphic novel she terms "autobifictionalography". What It Is is a graphic novel that is part memoir, part collage and part workbook, in which Barry instruc...

#3041

Philip Novak

#42590

Overall Influence

Philip Novak is a Sarlo Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Dominican University in San Rafael, California. He received a bachelor's degree in English at University of Notre Dame , and MA and PhD degrees in Religion at Syracuse University . He joined the faculty of Dominican University in 1980. Novak has been Dean of the School of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences.

#3042

Stephen Hetherington

#57965

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

Stephen Cade Hetherington is an Australian analytic philosopher specialising in epistemology and, to a lesser extent, metaphysics. He is an emeritus professor in the School of Humanities and Languages at the University of New South Wales, a prolific author, and served as editor-in-chief of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy from December 2013 to March 2022.

#3043

Ira Tabas

#72822

Overall Influence

Ira Tabas is an American molecular biologist who currently serves as Richard J. Stock Professor and Vice-Chair of Research in the Department of Medicine, Professor of Anatomy & Cell Biology at Columbia University in the City of New York, and an endocrinologist affiliated with NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital .

#3044

Eric Ravussin

#72151

Overall Influence

Eric Ravussin is a professor of human physiology and the director of the Nutritional Obesity Research Center at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is also the Douglas L. Gordon Chair in Diabetes and Metabolism at the center. Since 2012 he has also been a Boyd Professor at Louisiana State University.

#3045

Rachida Triki

#72134

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Rachida Triki, also known as Rachida Boubaker-Triki is a Tunisian philosopher, art historian, art critic, and art curator. She is a full professor of philosophy at Tunis University, specialized in Aesthetics.

#3046

Maik Hosang

#47305

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Maik Hosang is a German philosopher, future researcher and human ecologist. Life Hosang studied philosophy, psychology and anthropology at the Humboldt-University of Berlin. In connection with the theories of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Nicolai Hartmann, Max Scheler, Manfred Eigen, Erich Jantsch and others he wrote his thesis to the topic "The Human Being in the evolutionary layers of self-organization." He received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1990 at the Humboldt-University of Berlin.

#3047

Jeffrey Flier

#40722

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Jeffrey Flier is an American physician, endocrinologist; widely cited scientist; the Higginson Professor of Medicine and Physiology at Harvard Medical School; and a Distinguished Service Professor at the same institution. He was the 21st Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University from 2007 to 2016.

#3048

Katherine Flegal

#16111

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Katherine Mayhew Flegal is an American epidemiologist and senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. She is one of the most highly cited scientists in the field of the epidemiology of obesity according to Thomson Reuters and has been called "one of the great epidemiologists" by former FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler.

#3049

Paul John Nestel

#85149

Overall Influence

#3050

Inga Bostad

#33933

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Inga Bostad is a Norwegian philosopher, writer and educator. She served as prorector of the University of Oslo from 2009 to 2013 and as director of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights from 2014 to 2017.

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