Famous Intellectuals & Academics - List of Famous Intellectuals & Academics - page 20

Intellectuals are people using their intelligence and thinking as a professional or as an individual. They generally work in such an environment such as academics wherein their mind is the key player involving learning, critical thinking and analysis, researching and reasoning. Their skills are required in many different fields like literature, medicine, law and scientific research. Intellectuals demonstrate the capacity to show the different aspects of human thinking and try to focus on the value of thinking. Historically, the intellectuals or the thinking class were usually the privileged few who could afford an education. It was the likes of upper rich classes like Rousseau or Marx who expressed their views in such a way that they led their ways of thinking to be developed into theories, which resulted in a couple of these schools of thought being named after them. In the present day, anyone can become an intellectual if he or she has the knack for knowledge and learning. Despised by few and idolized by others, intellectuals have always played a critical role in the development of the world. Discover this space for the list of famous Intellectuals of the world with their biographies that include trivia and interesting facts about them and also tracing their timeline and life history.

The Most Famous Intellectuals & Academics

NameBirthdayNationalityBio
Emily Greene BalchJanuary 8, 1867AmericanEmily Greene Balch was an American economist, sociologist and pacifist who won the 1946 Nobel Peace Prize
Carlos CastanedaDecember 25, 1925AmericanCarlos Castaneda was an American author who penned ‘The Teachings of Dan Juan’
Carl JungJuly 26, 1875SwissCarl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist famous for founding the school of analytical psychology
Abraham MaslowApril 1, 1908AmericanAbraham Maslow was a humanistic psychologist best known for his theory of self-actualization
Alan WattsJanuary 6, 1915British, AmericanAlan Watts was a famous British philosopher known for his Zen teachings and interpretations of Eastern philosophy
Abdolkarim SoroushDecember 16, 1945IranianAbdolkarim Soroush is a reformer, thinker, and Rumi scholar belonging to Iran
Lao Tzu (Laozi)601 BCChineseLao Tzu was a legendary Chinese philosopher who wrote the important “Daodejing”
Jabir Ibn Hayyan721IranianJabir Ibn Hayyan was a medieval era polymath
Randy PauschOctober 23, 1960AmericanRandolph Frederick "Randy" Pausch was an American professor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh
Thomas SowellJune 30, 1930AmericanThomas Sowell is an American economist, syndicated columnist, writer and social theorist
Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder was a Roman Philosopher who lived during the 1st century

Ancient Roman23157 views

Hypatia

Hypatia, also known as Hypatia of Alexandria, was a famed inventor, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher from Egypt

Ancient Roman370213 views

Will Durant

Will Durant was an American writer, historian and philosopher, best known for his work ‘The Story of Civilization’

Walter Benjamin

Walter Benjamin was a German philosopher, literary critic, essayist, writer and social critic

GermanJuly 15, 1892123 views

Voltaire

Voltaire is a famous 17th century writer who is known for advocating separation of religious and administrative institutions through his works

FrenchNovember 21, 1694141 views

Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco was an Italian essayist, philosopher, novelist and literary critic, known for his pioneering novel ‘The Name of the Rose’

ItalianJanuary 5, 1932184 views

Ben Bernanke

Ben Bernanke is an American economist, who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States of America, for two terms.

AmericanDecember 13, 1953169 views

Jeremy Bentham

Jeremy Bentham was a noted English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer, best remembered for his theory of utilitarianism

BritishFebruary 15, 1748130 views

Timothy Francis Leary

Timothy Leary was a psychologist and lecturer who advocated the use of LSD

AmericanOctober 22, 1920131 views

William Vickrey

William Vickrey was a Canadian born American economist, who won the Nobel Prize for research into the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information

AmericanJune 21, 1914129 views