Thinkers who shaped our world
Great Minds
Architects of thought · Masters of the inner world
Explore the lives, works, and ideas of philosophers, writers, scientists, and political thinkers who shaped human civilization.
Mencius
Mencius was a Chinese philosopher and a key figure in the development of Confucian thought. Often regarded as the 'Second Sage' after Confucius, he expanded upo…
Michael Burgess
British political scientist who made the distinction between 'federalism' as a political theory and ideology and 'federation' as a specific kind of state the or…
Michael Ignatieff
Canadian scholar and former politician who pioneered the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine as a member of the International Commission on Intervention an…
Michael Oakeshott
Michael Oakeshott is the British philosopher who uniquely redefined conservatism as a disposition to enjoy the familiar and the present, rather than a doctrine …
Michael S. Gazzaniga
Michael S. Gazzaniga (born 1939) is an American cognitive neuroscientist and a pioneering figure in neuropsychology[reference:0][reference:1]. He is widely rega…
Michael Walzer
Michael Walzer (b. 1935) reoriented just war theory around the supreme emergency doctrine—the morally fraught permission to violate non-combatant immunity when …
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne was a French Renaissance philosopher, writer, and statesman, best known for pioneering the essay as a literary genre. His monumental work, t…
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault was a French philosopher and social theorist whose work profoundly reshaped political philosophy, critical theory, and the humanities. He analyz…
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) was a Hungarian-American psychologist who pioneered the scientific study of happiness and creativity, and is widely regarded…
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman is the leading proponent of monetarism, a school of thought that uniquely asserts that changes in the money supply are the primary driver of eco…
Mozi
Mozi, also known as Mo Tzu, was an ancient Chinese philosopher who founded the school of Mohism during the Warring States period. He developed a comprehensive p…
Muzafer Sherif
Muzafer Sherif (1906–1988) was a Turkish-American social psychologist who pioneered the study of social norms, intergroup conflict, and social influence. He is …
Nagarjuna
Nagarjuna was an Indian Buddhist philosopher who is widely regarded as one of the most important thinkers in Mahayana Buddhism and the founder of the Madhyamaka…
Niall Ferguson
Scottish historian who applied financial and economic analysis to explain the rise and fall of empires, arguing that the West's global dominance rested on six '…
Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò Machiavelli was an Italian diplomat, political philosopher, historian, and writer of the Renaissance period. He is best known for his influential politi…