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.
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) was a Danish philosopher, theologian, and writer who is widely regarded as the father of existentialism. His work explores themes …
Stanley Milgram
Stanley Milgram (1933–1984) was an American social psychologist renowned for his groundbreaking and controversial experiments on obedience to authority. His mos…
Steven Arthur Pinker
Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, and popular science author who is a leading advoca…
Susan Strange
British scholar who almost single-handedly created international political economy (IPE) as a field of study. Her 1970 article 'International Economics and Inte…
Theda Skocpol
Theda Skocpol (b. 1947) revolutionized comparative politics by insisting on the autonomy of the state as an independent actor in social revolutions. In her land…
Theodore J. Lowi
Theodore Lowi fundamentally altered the study of public policy by arguing that 'policies determine politics'—that the content of policy shapes the political con…
Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) was a leading German philosopher, sociologist, musicologist, and a pivotal figure of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. His …
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274) was an Italian Dominican friar, theologian, and philosopher who stands as the foremost figure of medieval Scholasticism[reference:…
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher whose political theory laid the foundation for modern social contract thought. His magnum opus, Leviathan, argued that …
Thomas More
Thomas More was an English lawyer, humanist, statesman, and Catholic martyr, who served as Lord Chancellor of England under King Henry VIII. As a leading Renais…
Thomas Nagel
Thomas Nagel (born 1937) is an American philosopher, currently University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University. He is best known for …
Thomas Piketty
French economist who transformed the study of inequality by assembling two centuries of tax and inheritance data across more than twenty countries, producing th…
Thomas Samuel Kuhn
Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996) was an American historian and philosopher of science whose work fundamentally transformed the understanding of scientific progress. He i…
Tony Judt
British-American historian who wrote Postwar (2005), the definitive single-volume history of Europe from 1945 to 2005, covering both East and West in one integr…
Ulric Neisser
Ulric Neisser (1928–2012) was a German-American psychologist widely regarded as the 'father of cognitive psychology.' He coined the term 'cognitive psychology' …