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,
#3601
Jean‐claude Reubi
#95402
Overall Influence
#3602
Giuseppe Giaccone
#95412
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
#3603
Robert Klitzman
#63939
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Robert Klitzman is an American psychiatrist and bioethicist. Biography Early life Robert Klitzman was born on July 1, 1958. He attended Princeton University, where he studied with Clifford Geertz. He then worked for Dr. Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, who had received the Nobel Prize for work on Kuru, a prion disease. Klitzman then conducted field research on Kuru in Papua New Guinea.
Go to Profile#3604
Colin McLarty
#32709
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Colin McLarty is an American logician whose publications have ranged widely in philosophy and the foundations of mathematics, as well as in the history of science and of mathematics. Research Category theory He has written papers about Saunders Mac Lane, one of the founders of category theory.
Go to Profile#3605
Lucien Jerphagnon
#61279
Overall Influence
1921 - 2011 (90 years)
Lucien Jerphagnon was a French scholar, historian and philosopher specialized in Greek and Roman philosophy. Biography Lucien Jerphagnon is the son of Émile Jerphagnon, a regional engineer of French Ministry of National Education and Madame Jerphagnon, born Jeanne Lallemand.
Go to Profile#3606
Thomas de Zengotita
#60308
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Thomas de Zengotita is an author and contributing editor at Harper's Magazine. He holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University and teaches at the Dalton School and New York University. His book Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live in It won the Marshall McLuhan award in 2006 and, in 2010. He co-wrote the narration for a film directed by Adrian Grenier entitled Teenage Paparazzo.
Go to Profile#3607
Ervin László
#30563
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
Ervin László is a Hungarian philosopher of science, systems theorist, integral theorist, originally a classical pianist. He is an advocate of the theory of quantum consciousness. Early life and education László was born in Budapest, Hungary, the son of a shoe manufacturer and a mother who played the piano; László himself started playing the piano when he was five years old, and gave his first piano concert with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra at the age of nine. After World War II, he moved to the United States.
Go to Profile#3608
Xavier Antich
#66762
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Xavier Antich i Valero is a Spanish philosopher, writer and university professor from Catalonia. He is a professor of aesthetics at the University of Girona. He chaired the board of the Tàpies Foundation between 2011 and 2022. Since Feb 2022 he is the President of Catalan Civil Association Òmnium Cultural.
Go to Profile#3609
Gregory Wheeler
#60771
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Gregory Wheeler is an American logician, philosopher, and computer scientist, who specializes in formal epistemology. Much of his work has focused on imprecise probability. He is currently Professor of Philosophy and Computer Science at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, and has held positions at LMU Munich, Carnegie Mellon University, the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, and the New University of Lisbon. He is a member of the PROGIC steering committee, the editorial boards of Synthese, and Minds and Machines, and was the editor-in-chief of Minds and Machines from 2011 to 2016.
Go to Profile#3610
Pierre Comon
#95509
Overall Influence
#3611
Daniel Little
#25160
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Daniel E. Little is professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and professor of sociology and public policy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He previously served as the Chancellor for the University of Michigan-Dearborn .
Go to Profile#3612
Nathan Lopes Cardozo
#49540
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Nathan Lopes Cardozo is a Dutch-born Israeli rabbi and Jewish philosopher, founder of the David Cardozo Academy in Jerusalem. Childhood and education Nathan Lopes Cardozo was born in Amsterdam and named after his father's youngest brother who was killed in the Holocaust. His father was a secular Jew who was proud of his Portuguese Jewish origin. His mother was an orphan. When her Christian parents died, she was raised by Jewish family members and became part of the community and spoke their language. During the Holocaust, she saved her husband and his family by hiding them in her apartment in the center of Amsterdam while it was under Nazi occupation.
Go to Profile#3613
Sigmund Kvaløy Setreng
#48821
Overall Influence
1934 - 2014 (80 years)
Sigmund Kvaløy Setreng was a Norwegian philosopher, illustrator, mountain climber, environmental activist and politician. He was born in Trondheim. Among his publications are Musikk-kritikk og kommunikasjon from 1966, Økokrise, natur og menneske from 1976, and Mangfold og tid. Pyramide-mennesket ved skillevegen: System, frihet eller kaos? from 2001.
Go to Profile#3614
J. D. Trout
#62854
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
J. D. Trout is an American philosopher of science, cognitive scientist, lecturer and nonfiction author who holds the Calamos Endowed Chair in Philosophy at Illinois Institute of Technology. His research centers on the nature of scientific progress, and its influence on human understanding and well-being.
Go to Profile#3615
Sathanur R. Srinivasan
#95596
Overall Influence
#3616
Samuel Gershon
#95610
Overall Influence
#3617
Demetrios Spandidos
#45311
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Demetrios A. Spandidos is a Greek virologist and cancer researcher. He is an emeritus professor at the University of Crete where he was professor of virology from 1989 till 2015. He is also the founder of Spandidos Publications and the editor-in-chief of all eight of its journals.
Go to Profile#3618
Marika Tiggemann
#95668
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
#3619
Tarcísio Padilha
#43464
Overall Influence
1928 - 2021 (93 years)
Tarcísio Meirelles Padilha was a Brazilian philosopher and chairman of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 17 April 1928, the son of Raymundo Delmiriano Padilha and D. Mayard Meirelles Padilha. In 1951, he married Ruth Maria Fortuna Padilha, and the couple has six children.
Go to Profile#3620
Robert N. Hoover
#95681
Overall Influence
#3621
Robert Roy Recker
#95756
Overall Influence
#3622
John Buse
#40265
Overall Influence
John B. Buse is the Verne S. Caviness Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine . He is also the director of UNC's Diabetes Care Center and the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute. In 2008, he held the position of President, Medicine & Science on the board of the American Diabetes Association .
Go to Profile#3623
Ned Kock
#11712
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Nereu Florencio "Ned" Kock is a Brazilian-American philosopher. He is a Texas A&M Regents Professor of Information Systems at Texas A&M International University. Background Kock holds a B.E.E. in Electrical Engineering from the Federal Technological University of Parana at Curitiba, Brazil, a M.Sc. in computer science from the Institute of Aeronautical Technology, Brazil, and a Ph.D. in management with a concentration in information systems from the School of Management Studies, University of Waikato, New Zealand.
Go to Profile#3624
Giorgio Walter Canonica
#93586
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Giorgio Walter Canonica is an Italian allergist, pulmonologist and professor of Respiratory Medicine at Humanitas University, Milan, Italy and Director Personalized Medicine Asthma & Allergy Center at Humanitas Research Hospital IRCCS-Milano Italy since December 2016. He is known for his research work related to innovative treatment strategies for allergic diseases which includes biological response modifier in form of targeted immunotherapy with primary emphasis on sublingual immunotherapy . He has served as Secretary General and President elect of World Allergy Organisation for six consecutive years and has served as president of the same organization during 2007–09.
Go to Profile#3625
Elena Oznobkina
#65196
Overall Influence
1959 - 2010 (51 years)
Elena Oznobkina was a philosopher, theorist, historian of philosophy, lecturer, translator, editor, journalist, researcher of penitentiary systems, and Russian human rights activist. She is best known as a researcher of modern Western philosophy, a translator and editor of translations of Nietzsche and Husserl into Russian, a critic of the Russian penitentiary system, and the editor of the Russian edition of Index on Censorship magazine.
Go to Profile#3626
Steven E. Wilson
#87814
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Steven Eugene Wilson is an American ophthalmologist and professor at Cleveland Clinic, where he is a surgeon and directs corneal research. He has also received honors for several published historical fiction novels.
Go to Profile#3627
Hugo Mujica
#53736
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Hugo Mujica is an Argentine Catholic priest, poet, writer, and former Trappist monk. Biography Mujica was born in Avellaneda, a neighborhood near the city of Buenos Aires, to an anarchist syndicalist father. As his father became blind after a work accident when Mujica was only thirteen years of age, he began to work in a glass factory, continuing with high school at night school. At the same time he pursued studies in Fine Arts. Amidst the fervour of the sixties he settled in Greenwich Village, New York. There he began to study philosophy at the experimental Free University of New York, and resumed painting at School of Visual Arts.
Go to Profile#3628
Fred Feldman
#85011
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Fred Feldman is an American philosopher who specializes in ethical theory. He is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he taught from 1969 until his retirement in 2013. His research primarily focuses on normative ethics, metaethics, the nature of happiness, and justice. He has long been fascinated by philosophical problems about the nature and value of death. He received a NEH research fellowship for the academic year of 2008/09; he received a Conti Faculty research fellowship for the academic year of 2013/14.
Go to Profile#3629
John A. Jane
#15981
Overall Influence
1931 - 2015 (84 years)
John A. Jane, Sr. was an American neurosurgeon, and Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia. He was Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia from 1969 to 2006.
Go to Profile#3630
James Stuart Forrester
#95944
Overall Influence
#3631
Elisabetta Dejana
#85474
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Elisabetta Dejana is an Italian cell biologist and an expert on regulation of vascular system development. She has published widely and is frequently cited for her work. She has received several important awards. Dejana is a full professor at the University of Milan and has also been appointed full professor at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University in Sweden.
Go to Profile#3632
Anthony C. Yu
#30779
Overall Influence
1938 - 2015 (77 years)
Anthony Christopher Yu was an American literary theorist, sinologist, and theologian. He was a scholar of literature and religion, both East Asian and Western; and was the Carl Darling Buck Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Humanities and Professor Emeritus of Religion and Literature in the Chicago Divinity School; as well as a member of the Departments of Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and English Language and Literature, and the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Yu has published widely in the fields of religion and compa...
Go to Profile#3633
Dalmacio Negro Pavón
#30981
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Dalmacio Negro Pavón is a Spanish university professor and author, member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Moral and Social Sciences. He is an attorney at law and holds an MA in philosophy and a PhD in political science. Former positions include: associate professor of "Foundations in Philosophy", associate professor of "Philosophy in History" and professor of "History of ideas and Political Forms" at Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain.
Go to Profile#3634
Jerrold Levy
#89859
Overall Influence
Jerrold H. Levy is an American critical care physician and cardiac anesthesiologist at Duke University Medical Center who currently serves as the co-director of Duke's Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit. He is most noted for his research in surgical hemostasis, coagulopathy in the critically ill, shock, anaphylaxis, and developing purified and recombinant therapeutic approaches to treat bleeding. He has authored over 400 publications, including scientific manuscripts, review articles, editorials, books, and book chapters. Additionally, he has authored a number of websites aimed at providing ...
Go to Profile#3635
Christopher Nolan
#6674
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Christopher Edward Nolan is a British and American filmmaker. Known for his Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed more than $6 billion worldwide. The recipient of many accolades, he has been nominated for five Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards and six Golden Globe Awards. In 2015, he was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time, and in 2019, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to film.
Go to Profile#3636
Boris A. Novak
#36808
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Boris A. Novak is a Slovene poet, dramaturge and editor. Novak was born in 1953 in Belgrade where he also spent his early childhood. He completed secondary schooling in Ljubljana and studied Comparative literature and Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana and worked as a dramaturge at the Slovene National Theatre and as a lecturer at the University. He has also been involved in humanitarian work and was in 2002 elected vice-president of International PEN.
Go to Profile#3637
Randall T. Moon
#96040
Overall Influence
#3638
Joaquim Clotet
#70598
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Joaquim Clotet Martí holds a doctorate in Philosophy and Letters, with outstanding work in the area of Ethics and Bioethics. Since 2004, he has been the President of the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul , Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Go to Profile#3639
Christopher. G. Goetz
#96051
Overall Influence
#3640
Luigi Naldini
#60712
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Luigi Naldini is an Italian gene therapist, professor of cell and tissue biology and of gene and cell therapy at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, and the director of San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan, Italy. Often considered as "the father of the lentivirus gene therapy", he is globally known as the pioneer of "the development and applications of lentiviral vectors for gene transfer" that allowed the gene therapy treatment of several genetic diseases. He is also a scientific co-founder of three biotech start-up companies, Genenta in Milan and New York, Chroma Medicine in Milan and Boston, Genespire in Milan.
Go to Profile#3641
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.
Go to Profile#3642
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.
Go to Profile#3643
Henri Bismuth
#96099
Overall Influence
#3644
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.
Go to Profile#3645
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.
Go to Profile#3646
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.
Go to Profile#3647
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.
Go to Profile#3648
Arnold Munnich
#96152
Overall Influence
#3649
Joachim Sieper
#96154
Overall Influence
#3650
John Michael Gaziano
#96156
Overall Influence
