Famous Intellectuals & Academics - List of Famous Intellectuals & Academics - page 28

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
Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget was a psychologist and philosopher known for his theory of cognitive development

SwissAugust 9, 1896425 views

Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall is an English Animal Rights activist, famously dubbed as “The Woman who redefined man”

BritishApril 3, 1934455 views

James Meade

James Edward Meade was a British economist who was one of the co-recipients of the 1977 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

BritishJune 23, 1907198 views

Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer was a noted English philosopher, sociologist, biologist, anthropologist and a political theorist

BritishApril 27, 1820105 views

Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman was a famous American economist who propagated the virtues of free market

AmericanJuly 31, 1912118 views

Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle was a famous philosopher of the Victorian era

Herodotus

Herodotus was a Greek historian widely referred to as 'The Father of History'

Greek483 BC249 views

Heraclitus

Heraclitus was a Greek philosopher known as the ‘Weeping Philosopher’ because of his general contempt for mankind

Greek535 BC180 views

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was an American writer, poet and a transcendentalist thinker, most famous for his classic book ‘Walden’.

AmericanJuly 12, 1817116 views

Alan Watts

Alan Watts was a famous British philosopher known for his Zen teachings and interpretations of Eastern philosophy

BritishJanuary 6, 1915794 views