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).
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …
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List of the most influential people in Philosophy,
#3851
Constantin Floros
#28349
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (96 years)
Constantin Floros is a Greek-German musicologist. He studied law at the University of Thessaloniki and then composition and conducting at the Vienna Music Academy. At the same time he studied musicology with Erich Schenk at the Vienna University as well as art history , philosophy and psychology. In 1955 he obtained the doctorate in Vienna with a dissertation on Campioni. He continued his musicological studies with Husmann at Hamburg University , where in 1961 he completed his Habilitation in musicology with a work on the Byzantine kontakion. In 1967 he became supernumerary professor, in 1972 professor of musicology and in 1995 professor emeritus at the University of Hamburg.
Go to Profile#3852
Robert K. C. Forman
#64011
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Robert K. C. Forman, is a former professor of religion at the City University of New York, author of several studies on religious experience, and co-editor of the Journal of Consciousness Studies. Forman has worked as professor of religion at City University of New York, both Hunter College and City College, and is Founding Executive Director of The Forge Institute for Spirituality and Social Change. His books include The Problems of Pure Consciousness, The Innate Capacity and "Enlightenment Ain't What It's Cracked Up to Be".
Go to Profile#3853
Liam Kofi Bright
#71618
Overall Influence
Liam Kofi Bright is a British philosopher of science and assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy, Logic, and Scientific Methods at the London School of Economics. He works primarily on science and truth, as well as formal social epistemology. Some of his other work has been on Africana philosophy and formal modelling of social phenomena like intersectionality. Bright won the Philip Leverhulme Prize in the category of philosophy and theology in 2020.
Go to Profile#3854
Nicholas Cook
#22704
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Nicholas Cook, is a British musicologist and writer born in Athens, Greece. From 2009 to 2017, he was the 1684 Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge, where he is a Fellow of Darwin College. Previously, he was professorial research fellow at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he directed the Arts and Humanities Research Council Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music . He has also taught at the University of Hong Kong, University of Sydney, and University of Southampton, where he served as dean of arts.
Go to Profile#3855
John Kjekshus
#97506
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
John Karsten Kjekshus is a Norwegian professor of medicine. He grew up at Solli. He took the Cand.med. degree in 1969 and the Dr.med. degree in 1972, both at the University of Oslo. He also studied at the University of California, San Diego from 1969 to 1970. He was a chief physician at Bærum Hospital from 1984 to 1992, then a professor at the University of Oslo and Rikshospitalet from 1992 to 2006. He chaired the Norwegian Cardiological Society from 1992 to 1994 and has chaired the National Association for Public Health from 2005. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letter...
Go to Profile#3856
Greg Dyke
#2136
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Gregory Dyke is a British media executive, football administrator, journalist, and broadcaster. Since the 1960s, Dyke has had a long career in the UK in print and then broadcast journalism. He is credited with introducing 'tabloid' television to British broadcasting, and reviving the ratings of TV-am. In the 1990s, he held chief executive positions at LWT Group, Pearson Television, and Channel 5.
Go to Profile#3857
Gordon M. L. Cragg
#99703
Overall Influence
#3858
James F. McGrath
#22391
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
James Frank McGrath is the Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University and is known for his work on Early Christianity, Mandaeism, criticism of the Christ myth theory, and the analysis of religion in science fiction. He received his Ph.D. from Durham University in 1998.
Go to Profile#3859
Frederick Andermann
#62562
Overall Influence
1930 - 2019 (89 years)
Frederick Andermann was a Canadian neurologist and epileptologist. Biography He was born and initially raised in Chernivtsi, belonging at that time to Romania, today Ukraine. When this area was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, his family first moved to Bucharest, then to Switzerland and France , before they immigrated to Canada in 1950, where he trained in medicine at the Université de Montréal and then neurology at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital.
Go to Profile#3860
Stuart H. Yuspa
#99727
Overall Influence
#3861
Geoffrey Scarre
#95056
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Geoffrey Scarre is a moral philosopher and professor of philosophy at the University of Durham. His research focuses on a cluster of topics in applied ethics and moral philosophy broadly construed, including evil, the Holocaust, death, forgiveness, courage, the ethics of archaeology, and utilitarianism, with a special interest in the philosophy of John Stuart Mill.
Go to Profile#3862
Lynn Pasquerella
#34876
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Lynn C. Pasquerella is an American academic and the 14th president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities. Before she assumed this position, she was the 17th president of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, serving from 2010 to 2016. She was a professor of philosophy at the University of Rhode Island for 19 years before becoming URI's Associate Dean of the Graduate School. From 2006 to 2008 she was vice provost for research and dean of the graduate school at the University of Rhode Island. She was the Provost of the University of Hartford from 2008-10. She a...
Go to Profile#3863
Anirban Maitra
#99806
Overall Influence
#3864
Stanley H. Appel
#99810
Overall Influence
#3865
Mark M. A. Mintun
#99846
Overall Influence
#3866
Robert Zollinger
#71192
Overall Influence
1903 - 1992 (89 years)
Robert Milton Zollinger was an American general surgeon and professor of surgery at Ohio State University. He described Zollinger–Ellison syndrome. In 1947, he became a professor of surgery and chair of the department of surgery at Ohio State University.
Go to Profile#3867
Stephen L. Hauser
#54243
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Stephen L. Hauser is a professor of the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco specializing in immune mechanisms and multiple sclerosis . He has contributed to the establishment of consortia that have identified more than 50 gene variants that contribute to MS risk.
Go to Profile#3868
Elisabeth Bik
#27939
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Elisabeth Margaretha Harbers-Bik is a Dutch microbiologist and scientific integrity consultant. Bik is known for her work detecting photo manipulation in scientific publications, and identifying over 4,000 potential cases of improper research conduct, including 400 research papers published by authors in China from a research paper mill company. Bik is the founder of Microbiome Digest, a blog with daily updates on microbiome research, and the Science Integrity Digest blog.
Go to Profile#3869
Walter Peñaloza
#52469
Overall Influence
1920 - 2005 (85 years)
Walter Peñaloza was a Peruvian philosopher and educator recognised for his contribution to the professional training of Peruvian teachers. He studied at the former Anglo-Peruvian College in Lima, today the Colegio San Andrés . Later, while working as a teacher on the same campus, he won the First "Gonzales Prada" Prize in 1944, granted by the Directorate of Artistic Education Cultural Extension to the best philosophy work.
Go to Profile#3870
Pierre Musso
#51880
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Pierre Musso is a French philosopher and historian of technology. Life Musso studied philosophy at the École nationale supérieure des postes, télégraphes et téléphones , before gaining a Ph.D. in political science at University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Supervised by Lucien Sfez, his thesis dealt with the ideal of the telecommunications network in the thought of Henri Saint-Simon and his followers.
Go to Profile#3871
Ira Byock
#23374
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Ira Robert Byock is an American physician, author, and advocate for palliative care. He is founder and chief medical officer of the Providence St. Joseph Health Institute for Human Caring in Torrance, California, and holds appointments as active emeritus professor of medicine and professor of community health and family medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. He was director of palliative medicine at Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center, from 2003–14, and associate director for patient and family-centered care at the affiliated Norris-Cotton Cancer Center.
Go to Profile#3872
Antonio M. Jr. Gotto
#99946
Overall Influence
#3873
Juan Manuel Burgos
#67732
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Juan Manuel Burgos Velasco is a Spanish Personalist philosopher. He holds a PhD in physics, and a PhD in philosophy . He is professor at the University San Pablo CEU, Madrid and at the John Paul II Institute, Madrid, a member of the Jacques Maritain International Institute, and distinguished guest professor at Galileo University . In 2007, he became an honorary professor at the Institute of Family Sciences for his contribution to family sciences through his anthropology studies.
Go to Profile#3874
Andreas Radbruch
#99964
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
#3875
Mario Vella
#32382
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Mario Vella is a Maltese philosopher, economist and politician. He was Governor of the Central Bank of Malta from 2016 to 2020. Biography Studies and academic career Vella was born to a Maltese family in Tripoli, Libya, and lived his boyhood within the Italian community there. He started his education at a Catholic school in Tripoli, then returned to Malta with his family and attended De La Salle College at Cottonera.
Go to Profile#3876
Timothy J. Wilt
#100087
Overall Influence
#3877
Cristiano Castelfranchi
#26171
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Cristiano Castelfranchi is an Associate Researcher at the Institute of Psychology of the Italian National Research Council. He teaches Cognitive Psychology and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Siena. In 2003, he was made a fellow at the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence for pioneering work in Artificial Intelligence.
Go to Profile#3878
Michael Fossel
#53796
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Michael B. Fossel is a former professor of clinical medicine at Michigan State University and is the author of several books on aging, who is best known for his views on telomerase therapy as a possible treatment for cellular senescence. Fossel has appeared on many major news programs to discuss aging and has appeared regularly on National Public Radio . He is also a respected lecturer, author, and the founder and former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Anti-Aging Medicine .
Go to Profile#3879
Donald Heath
#100092
Overall Influence
#3880
Jeffrey P. Callen
#100096
Overall Influence
#3881
Graham Oddie
#87393
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Graham Oddie is a New Zealand philosopher who lives and works in the United States. He has been Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado since 1994. Biography Oddie was educated at the University of Otago, where he received a first class honors degree in philosophy, and at the London School of Economics, where he received a PhD in logic and philosophy of science . His teachers at the University of Otago included Pavel Tichý and Alan Musgrave, and at the LSE, John Watkins , and Colin Howson. Before moving to the United States he held positions at the University of Otago Oddie wrote a PhD on his new idea of truthlikeness which transformed into his book, Likeness to Truth.
Go to Profile#3882
Else M. Barth
#92079
Overall Influence
1928 - 2015 (87 years)
Else Margarete Barth was a Norwegian philosopher. She was a professor of analytic philosophy at the University of Groningen. She died here in January 2015. She was a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
Go to Profile#3883
Ann Garry
#79388
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Ann Garry is an American feminist philosopher. She is professor of philosophy, emerita, at California State University, Los Angeles . While at CSULA, Garry was the founding director of the Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities, and also served several terms as the chair of the Department of Philosophy. She has also held several visiting appointments, including serving as the Humphrey Chair of Feminist Philosophy at the University of Waterloo and Fulbright lectureships at the University of Tokyo and Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Although Garry no longer teaches full-time, she ...
Go to Profile#3884
Gunnar Fant
#100156
Overall Influence
#3885
Benedict Robert Lucchesi
#100162
Overall Influence
#3886
John F. Wippel
#79071
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
John Francis Wippel was an American Catholic priest of the Diocese of Steubenville. He was a leading authority on the metaphysical thought of Thomas Aquinas. He won the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1981, two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, and was named a Professor of the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas. At the time of his death, he was serving as the Theodore Basselin Professor of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.
Go to Profile#3887
Jude Patrick Dougherty
#77678
Overall Influence
1930 - 2021 (91 years)
Jude Patrick Dougherty was an American philosopher, Dean Emeritus of the School of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America, and Editor-in-Chief for 44 years of The Review of Metaphysics. Personal life Jude was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Edward Timothy Dougherty and Cecelia Anastasia Loew. His sister was Inez Juanita Bowling. While a student at Catholic University, Jude met Patricia Ann Regan, who was studying nursing. On December 28, 1957, Jude and Patricia were married at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Hoopeston, Illinois, and were married 62 years before Patricia's death on December 8, 2020.
Go to Profile#3888
Jean Hani
#48938
Overall Influence
1917 - 2012 (95 years)
Jean Hani was a French philosopher and Traditionalist author, and a professor of Greek civilization and literature at the University of Amiens. Life and Works Very little is known about Jean Hani's personal life other than his year of birth. Jean Borella's mention of the author's modesty and his older age "studious retirement" seem to agree with this scarcity of information.
Go to Profile#3889
Abdul Haq Ansari
#46875
Overall Influence
1931 - 2012 (81 years)
Muhammad Abdul Haq Ansari was an Islamic scholar from India. He was the Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind from 2003 to 2007. He was the member of Central Advisory Council of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. He was also the Chancellor of Al Jamia Al Islamia, Shantapuram, Kerala. His book Sufism and Shariah is a synthesis of Sufi and Shariah thought, especially a Tatbiq of Shaikh Ahmed Sir Hindi and Shah Waliullah's thought. It grew out of his in-depth engagement with kalam, tasawwuf and fiqh in Islamic history. His other major contributions are a book on Mishkawah's philosophy and an English translation of Ibn Taymiyyah's fatwas with an introduction.
Go to Profile#3890
Matthew Stewart
#54342
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Matthew Stewart is an American philosopher and author currently living in the Boston, Massachusetts area. He is the author of The 9.9 Percent, Nature's God, The Management Myth, The Courtier and the Heretic, Monturiol's Dream, and The Truth About Everything. He graduated from Princeton University in 1985 with a concentration in political philosophy and was awarded the Sachs Scholarship from Princeton for study at Oxford University, where he earned a D.Phil. in philosophy in 1988. He worked as a management consultant prior to writing full-time.
Go to Profile#3891
Dimitris Vardoulakis
#84115
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Dimitris Vardoulakis is a Greek philosopher and Associate Professor of philosophy in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University. He works in the tradition of Continental philosophy, and has published on a variety of topics, including the relation between literature and philosophy, power and sovereignty.
Go to Profile#3892
Arvind Sharma
#46064
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Arvind Sharma is the Birks Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University. Sharma's works focus on Hinduism, philosophy of religion. In editing books his works include Our Religions and Women in World Religions, Feminism in World Religions was selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Book .
Go to Profile#3893
Anton E. Becker
#100317
Overall Influence
#3894
Tiziana Terranova
#66614
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Tiziana Terranova is an Italian theorist and activist whose work focuses on the effects of information technology on society through concepts such as digital labor and commons. Terranova has published the monograph Network Culture. Politics for the Information Age, as well as a more extensive number of essays and speeches, and appeared as a keynote speaker in several conferences. She lectures on the digital media cultures and politics in the Department of Human and Social Sciences, at the University of Naples, 'L'Orientale'.
Go to Profile#3895
Valéry Giroux
#86678
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Valéry Giroux is a Canadian philosopher, lawyer and animal rights activist from Quebec. She is an adjunct professor at the Université de Montréal Faculty of Law, associate director for the Centre de recherche en éthique , a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, and an author and speaker on animal ethics issues and veganism, with a notable focus on the topic of antispeciesism through her co-editorship of the antispeciesist journal L'Amorce. Her philosophy argues for the equal moral consideration of all sentient beings, objects to the ethical notion that the utilization of non-human an...
Go to Profile#3896
Norman Myers
#100406
Overall Influence
#3897
Felice Petraglia
#100411
Overall Influence
#3898
Mae Jemison
#1990
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Mae Carol Jemison is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first African-American woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992. Jemison joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1987 and was selected to serve for the STS-47 mission, during which the Endeavour orbited the Earth for nearly eight days on September 12–20, 1992.
Go to Profile#3899
Deborah Modrak
#33373
Overall Influence
Deborah K. W. Modrak is a classicist who focuses on Aristotle and who is professor of philosophy at the University of Rochester. Biography Modrak earned her doctorate at the University of Chicago in 1974.
Go to Profile#3900
Gianni Bonadonna
#100437
Overall Influence
