Thinkers!!!
Aristarchos (310 BC – 230 BC)
Aristarchos was the first thinker to propose the heliocentric theory of astronomy, suggesting that the earth, rather than the sun, was the centre of the solar system. He was also responsible for placing the planets in their correct order. Aristarchos’s ideas were generally rejected in favour of those of Aristotle and Ptolemy, who both favoured the geocentric theory. It took over 1800 years for his ideas to be confirmed, (largely because of the resistance of secular and religious authorities, who were reluctant to see the earth demoted in importance in the universe) first by the observations of Copernicus, then by the work of Kepler and Newton.
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato’s teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy. Aristotle’s writings were the first to create a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality and aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics.
Bentham, Jeremy (1748-1832)
Bentham was a British philosopher and reformer who tried to develop a scientific formula for the happiness created by any action we take. This became known as utilitarianism, and is the most well-known form of consequentialist moral philosophy.
Bernini, Gian Lorenzo (1598-1680)
Bernini is regarded as one of the most talented sculptors who ever lived, surpassing even Michelangelo in his ability to make marble and stone come alive. His Ecstasy of St Agnes, is of particular interest, in the way it makes an impact on its viewers.
Brown, Derren (1971- )
Brown is an illusionist, writer, and artist. Although he performs seemingly inexplicable mind-reading tricks, he is quick to explain his methods in order to reveal those who claim to have supernatural powers as frauds. He has a particularly interesting insight into the Barnum effect and cold reading.
Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da (1571-1610)
Caravaggio was an Italian painter with a taste for the underbelly of Rome’s society, unlike many other painters of the time. His David with the head of Goliath must rank as the most shocking and original self-portraits in history (his is the head).
Chomsky
Carr, EH (1892-1982)
Carr was a British historian, journalist, and left-wing thinker, whose 14 volume history of Russia was still unfinished at the time of his death. We will consider Carr’s book What is History? which said that historians put a great deal of themselves into their books as a result of selective use of evidence. The book has been continually reinterpreted, though, and Carr’s original meaning is a little elusive.
Chomsky, Noam (1928- )
Chomsky is a linguist, philosopher, and, in his role as political activist, one of the most virulent critics of interventionist US foreign policy. Chomsky’s theories on the extent to which language is innate to humans, and his ‘universal grammar’ theory, are of particular interest to TOK students.
Copernicus, Nicolaus (1473-1543)
Copernicus was the first person to present a complete version of the heliocentric theory of the universe, removing the earth from the centre of the cosmos. This idea is often cited as the best example of a paradigm shift in scientific thinking.
Damasio, Antonio (1944- )
Damasio is a Portuguese neuroscientist who works at the University of Southern California. His book Descartes’ Error posited the idea that our emotions are vital for our ability to reason properly, which he illustrated by drawing on the strange case of Phineas Gage.
Dawkins, Richard (1941- )
Dawkins is probably the most famous biologist in the world, best known for his book The Selfish Gene. He has staunch opinions on superstition and religion, which he believes are actively harmful to society. He argues that one’s approach to life should be based on the scientific method.
Descartes, Rene (1596-1650)
Descartes was a French physicist and mathematician, and has been dubbed the father of modern philosophy. His philosophical approach was built up from the fundamental idea that we can doubt everything other than the fact that we are doubting, which led him to state in 1637, ‘Je pense, donc je suis’ (I think therefore I am).
Einstein
Durkheim, Emile (1858-1917)
Durkheim typified the naturalist approach to human science, and sought to understand questions using purely objective evidence. His ‘scientific’ approach resulted in sociology gaining a great deal of respectability during his lifetime. Along with Weber, he is considered one of the founding fathers of the subject.
Einstein, Albert (1879-1955)
Probably the best known scientist of the last 300 years, Einstein’s name has become synonymous with genius and creativity. His personal advice to the US government in 1939 led them to become the only country during the war to possess nuclear weapons. He believed in the power of imagination in helping to acquire knowledge.
Gaddis, John Lewis (1941- )
Gaddis is an American ‘Cold War’ historian whose developing views on what caused the conflict typify how historical opinion changes as a result of new evidence being discovered.
Galilei, Galileo (1564-1642)
Along with Descartes and Newton, Galileo helped to get the scientific revolution underway, in particular with his emphasis on empirical observation of experiments as a way of ascertaining their results. He also developed Copernicus’s heliocentric theory.
Grayling, AC (1949 – )
Grayling is a British philosopher and journalist who will help us to remain objective about applying the rules of ethics, especially when it comes to making judgements about criminal acts. He also has a lot to say on how we acquire knowledge.
Greene, Graham (1904-1991)
Apart from being one of the most interesting writers of the 20th century on the psychological motivations of human behaviour, Greene is interesting to us for what he says on the therapeutic value o f writing. For this reason, he is an excellent thinker to consider when it comes to the TOK journal.
Harris, Judith (1938- )
Author of the ‘The Nurture Assumption’, Harris questions the importance of parents in the forming of a person’s character. She says that environment does play an important part in determining someone’s personality, but the effect of a child’s peers is much stronger than the effect of his or her parents. This is important as a source for the nature versus nurture debate in the human sciences.
Henderson’s church
Hawking, Stephen (1942- )
Hawking is a Cambridge cosmologist and theoretical physicist. His book A Brief History of Time has sold more copies than any other science book ever written. One key question associated with his ideas is whether they provide us with the complete picture when considering the origins of the universe.
Henderson, Bobby (1980- )
Henderson is the founder of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which he started up to parody the decision by the Kansas State Education Board to allow the teaching of creationism in science lessons alongside the theories of Darwin. He has much to say on causation and correlation – and pirates.
Herodotus (c.484 BC -c.425 BC)
Herodotus is regarded as one of the fathers of history because he was, along with Thucydides, the first writer to collect evidence systematically, and use it to support his narrative accounts of what happened in the past.
Hume, David (1711-1776)
Hume was an Edinburgh philosopher and historian, and is regarded as the most important of the British empiricists (along with Locke and Berkeley). Unlike Descartes, he thought that the only knowledge that we should trust is that which we experience directly through our senses. He also emphasised the importance of emotions in allowing us access to truth, by saying ‘Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.’
James, William (1842-1910)
James was an American psychologist and philosopher, and one of the founding figures of the pragmatic school of thinking. He believed that truth was ‘mutable’ or changeable, rather than something concrete and absolute. James believed that it often takes a long time to figure out whether something is true or not, based on whether it works successfully. This help us in formulating an understanding on the nature of ‘truth’.
Kuhn: science is violence
Kant, Immanuel (1724-1804)
Kant is arguably the most important philosopher since classical Greece, and totally modified our understanding of how we view the world. His deontological ideas argue that moral actions should only be assessed in terms of their intentions – in contrast to the consequentialists such as Bentham and Mill.
Kuhn, Thomas (1922-1996)
Kuhn was an American physicist who wrote extensively on the philosophy of science. According to him, scientific knowledge progresses in a violent and revolutionary way, rather than in a linear and passively accumulative fashion. He coined the term ‘paradigm shifts’ for the way in which our knowledge advances.
Locke, John (1632-1704)
Locke was the first of the British empiricists who borrowed Aristotle’s idea of a blank slate, which he termed the tabula rasa. This meant that we are born with no innate ideas, and instead, build up knowledge as we experience things through our senses. He represents the counterpoint to Descartes when it comes to thinking about how we acquire knowledge about the world.
Lotto, Beau (1964 – )
Lotto is a neuroscientist and founder of ‘Lotto Lab’ who investigates how we perceive the world with our senses and brains. His optical illusions are literally staggering, and force their audience to question things they have always taken for granted.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 121- AD 180)
Roman emperor from 161 to 180, Marcus Aurelius presided over the empire whilst it was still in its heyday – after him, it went into a steady decline. He was one of the most famous Stoic philosophers, which held that the negative effects of your emotions can be overcome simply by perceiving of them in a different way.
Maher, Bill (1956- )
Maher is an Americna stand-up comedian and host of the award-winning current affairs show, Real Time with Bill Maher. Maher’s controversial thoughts on religion, and his opinions of faith as a way of knowing, are perfect for debate.
Marwick, Arthur (1936-2006)
Marwick was an Edinburgh and Oxford-educated social and cultural historian. He is particularly interesting when talking about things that get in the way of historians doing their job properly, such as political or social agendas, seeing elements of popular culture as secondary rather than primary sources, and simplifying past events or discerning patterns where there are none.
Milgram
Mill, John Stuart (1806-1873)
Mill was a philosopher and liberal thinker, and one of the most important figures in the campaign against slavery. He developed the utilitarian principles of Jeremy Bentham, attaching to it the term ‘greatest-happiness principle’ in order to test if utilitarianism was being employed successfully.
Milgram, Stanley (1933-1984)
Milgram was an American psychologist, who designed the (in)famous Milgram experiment to investigate the extent to which we respond to authority. His conclusions on the human capacity to go along with immoral acts are deeply disturbing.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de (1533-1592)
One of the greatest ever essayists and writers, Montaigne’s ideas foreshadowed many of the ones found in Shakespeare’s plays. He believed we are trapped in our own natures, and are unable to escape our instincts and personalities.
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1844-1900)
Nietzsche permeates all modern thinking, and he is credited as being one of the key figures in the challenge to a religious-based approach to morality. Being such a defining personality, it’s hard to narrow down his ideas, but one particular example is his ‘perspectivist’ ideas on truth and morality.
Newton, Isaac (1643-1727)
Newton was so many things – a physicist, a mathematician, an astronomer, a theologian, and even a alchemist. He is considered to be one of the most influential people in history, alongside figures such as Plato, Kant, Descartes, and Darwin. In the early part of his career, at least, he was known for his modesty, saying ‘if I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
Orwell: the ‘patron saint’ of TOK?
Orwell, George (1903-1950)
Orwell was the author of (among many other things) Animal Farm and 1984. In many ways, he is the ‘patron saint of TOK’, because of his huge range of ideas on so many different topics. Amongst these, were his ideas on language, and the extent to which is governs the way we think. But he also wrote on the power of the state when it comes to representing history.
Owen, Wilfred (1893-1918)
Owen was a First World War poet who wrote bitterly about his experiences as a soldier, attacking the ruling classes and the generals who in his opinion had no idea of what they were doing. This amounted to a revolutionary view of the world, and helped to change society utterly after the conflict ended.
Pasteur, Louis (1822-1895)
Pasteur was a French chemist and micro-biologist. For the purposes of TOK, he is of interest for what he said about the role of serendipity in scientific discoveries. According to him, it is only the prepared mind that benefits from it.
Pigliucci, Massimo (1964- )
Italian philosopher and biological scientist, Pigliucci belives that genes work with the environment to help shape our personalities. In his essay ‘Beyond Nature versus Nurture’ he points out that ‘if one changeseither the genes or the environment, the resulting behaviour can be dramatically different.’
Pinker, Steven(1954- )
Pinker, a Harvard professor, is one of the best known popular science writers in the world, and his books on psychology have sold millions of copies. He has much to say on the way we use language, and also history.
Planck, Max (1858-1947)
Planck, a German physicist, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918. His views on the progression of ideas in the natural sciences can be seen as a forerunner to the paradigm shift idea, and are summed up by his statement: ‘A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it’.
Plato (428/427-348/347 BC)
Plato, a pupil of Socrates, was one of the most influential philosophers in history, helping to lay down the framework for the way we think. He was influenced almost as much by Socrates’ ideas as he was by his apparently unfair execution. His metaphor of the cave is of particular interest on the nature of existence.
Plutchik, Robert (1928 – 2006)
Plutchik, an American psychologist, tried to categorize emotions by referring to them as ‘basic’ and ‘advanced’. Whether or not we can divide up such a nebulous phenomenon as our emotional state in such a way is one question that is worth considering.
Popper, Karl (1902-1994)
Popper, an Austro-British academic, wrote on just about every subject there is. His philosophy of science is particularly relevant, and one of his central ideas is that our knowledge of reality is severely limited, and for a theory to be truly scientific, it should be possible to empirically falsify it.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques (1712-1782)
Rousseau was a writer and philosopher whose thoughts on politics are amongst the most influential that have ever been developed. His idea that there should be a social contract between government and governed outlined in the publication of the same title helped to inspire the American (and later, French) revolution.
Russell, Bertrand (1872-1970)
Russell is one of the towering figures of 20th century thought, and wrote on subjects as diverse as mathematics and the morality of nuclear weapons. His thoughts scatter the TOK course, beginning with the nature of knowledge, and the definition of truth.
Sagan, Carl (1934-1996)
Sagan was an American astronomer and astrophysicist who was one of the most prolific science writers of the last 50 years. His thoughts on the nature of science help provide a definition for what the natural sciences are.
Sassoon, Siegfried (1886-1967)
Sassoon was a poet who wrote scathingly of the First World War, and helped to shape the style and ability of Wilfred Owen, who eventually eclipsed his own fame. Sassoon was particularly critical of the ruling classes, and this revolutionary view helped to change people’s perspectives of human society after the war had ended.
Schama, Simon (1945- )
Schama is many things: a historian, art critic, and cultural commentator. His thoughts on the ‘power’ of art are inspiring and enlightening.
Skinner, BF (1904-1990)
Skinner was many things, among them, a philosopher, psychologist, author, and inventor. His experiment on pigeons, in which he observed them behaving ‘superstitiously’, suggest that such a tendency is not limited to human beings.
Socrates (469-399 BC)
Arguably, the philosopher who started it all, at least in terms of the way we think. Socrates never wrote anything down, so this makes it hard to figure out his ideas exactly. He is best known, perhaps, for his method, which stressed the fact that we should be aware of our ignorance, and never cease asking questions. He said (we think): ‘I know you won’t believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others.’
Taylor, AJP (1906-1990)
Taylor was an Oxford historian who wrote extensively on aspects of 19th century and 20th century European political history. From an early age, Taylor was brilliant and rebellious, and both of these traits are apparent in his revisionist ideas on the causes of the Second World War, which shattered the historical paradigm of the time.
Thucydides (c. 460BC-c.395BC)
Herodotus is regarded as one of the fathers of history because he was, along with Herodotus, the first writer to collect evidence systematically, and use it to support his narrative accounts of what happened in the past. He is worth comparing and contrasting to his Greek peer.
Trevor-Roper, Hugh (1914-2003)
Trevor-Roper was an aristocratic Oxford historian who specialised in modern history. His view of the causes of the Second World War were a complete contrast to his peer AJP Taylor’s – illustrating how historians from the same time can come to completely different conclusions. His name was forever tarnished by his role in the Hitler diary episode.
Weber, Max (1864-1920)
Along with Durkheim, one of the fathers of sociology. But unlike Durkheim, Weber believed that to understand society, one had to study its individual members and develop an empathy with the people you were studying, and understand the meaning that they themselves placed on their actions.
Source:-http://www.theoryofknowledge.net/thoughts-and-thinkers/56-thinkers-you-should-meet
Aristarchos was the first thinker to propose the heliocentric theory of astronomy, suggesting that the earth, rather than the sun, was the centre of the solar system. He was also responsible for placing the planets in their correct order. Aristarchos’s ideas were generally rejected in favour of those of Aristotle and Ptolemy, who both favoured the geocentric theory. It took over 1800 years for his ideas to be confirmed, (largely because of the resistance of secular and religious authorities, who were reluctant to see the earth demoted in importance in the universe) first by the observations of Copernicus, then by the work of Kepler and Newton.
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato’s teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy. Aristotle’s writings were the first to create a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality and aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics.
Bentham, Jeremy (1748-1832)
Bentham was a British philosopher and reformer who tried to develop a scientific formula for the happiness created by any action we take. This became known as utilitarianism, and is the most well-known form of consequentialist moral philosophy.
Bernini, Gian Lorenzo (1598-1680)
Bernini is regarded as one of the most talented sculptors who ever lived, surpassing even Michelangelo in his ability to make marble and stone come alive. His Ecstasy of St Agnes, is of particular interest, in the way it makes an impact on its viewers.
Brown, Derren (1971- )
Brown is an illusionist, writer, and artist. Although he performs seemingly inexplicable mind-reading tricks, he is quick to explain his methods in order to reveal those who claim to have supernatural powers as frauds. He has a particularly interesting insight into the Barnum effect and cold reading.
Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da (1571-1610)
Caravaggio was an Italian painter with a taste for the underbelly of Rome’s society, unlike many other painters of the time. His David with the head of Goliath must rank as the most shocking and original self-portraits in history (his is the head).
Chomsky
Carr, EH (1892-1982)
Carr was a British historian, journalist, and left-wing thinker, whose 14 volume history of Russia was still unfinished at the time of his death. We will consider Carr’s book What is History? which said that historians put a great deal of themselves into their books as a result of selective use of evidence. The book has been continually reinterpreted, though, and Carr’s original meaning is a little elusive.
Chomsky, Noam (1928- )
Chomsky is a linguist, philosopher, and, in his role as political activist, one of the most virulent critics of interventionist US foreign policy. Chomsky’s theories on the extent to which language is innate to humans, and his ‘universal grammar’ theory, are of particular interest to TOK students.
Copernicus, Nicolaus (1473-1543)
Copernicus was the first person to present a complete version of the heliocentric theory of the universe, removing the earth from the centre of the cosmos. This idea is often cited as the best example of a paradigm shift in scientific thinking.
Damasio, Antonio (1944- )
Damasio is a Portuguese neuroscientist who works at the University of Southern California. His book Descartes’ Error posited the idea that our emotions are vital for our ability to reason properly, which he illustrated by drawing on the strange case of Phineas Gage.
Dawkins, Richard (1941- )
Dawkins is probably the most famous biologist in the world, best known for his book The Selfish Gene. He has staunch opinions on superstition and religion, which he believes are actively harmful to society. He argues that one’s approach to life should be based on the scientific method.
Descartes, Rene (1596-1650)
Descartes was a French physicist and mathematician, and has been dubbed the father of modern philosophy. His philosophical approach was built up from the fundamental idea that we can doubt everything other than the fact that we are doubting, which led him to state in 1637, ‘Je pense, donc je suis’ (I think therefore I am).
Einstein
Durkheim, Emile (1858-1917)
Durkheim typified the naturalist approach to human science, and sought to understand questions using purely objective evidence. His ‘scientific’ approach resulted in sociology gaining a great deal of respectability during his lifetime. Along with Weber, he is considered one of the founding fathers of the subject.
Einstein, Albert (1879-1955)
Probably the best known scientist of the last 300 years, Einstein’s name has become synonymous with genius and creativity. His personal advice to the US government in 1939 led them to become the only country during the war to possess nuclear weapons. He believed in the power of imagination in helping to acquire knowledge.
Gaddis, John Lewis (1941- )
Gaddis is an American ‘Cold War’ historian whose developing views on what caused the conflict typify how historical opinion changes as a result of new evidence being discovered.
Galilei, Galileo (1564-1642)
Along with Descartes and Newton, Galileo helped to get the scientific revolution underway, in particular with his emphasis on empirical observation of experiments as a way of ascertaining their results. He also developed Copernicus’s heliocentric theory.
Grayling, AC (1949 – )
Grayling is a British philosopher and journalist who will help us to remain objective about applying the rules of ethics, especially when it comes to making judgements about criminal acts. He also has a lot to say on how we acquire knowledge.
Greene, Graham (1904-1991)
Apart from being one of the most interesting writers of the 20th century on the psychological motivations of human behaviour, Greene is interesting to us for what he says on the therapeutic value o f writing. For this reason, he is an excellent thinker to consider when it comes to the TOK journal.
Harris, Judith (1938- )
Author of the ‘The Nurture Assumption’, Harris questions the importance of parents in the forming of a person’s character. She says that environment does play an important part in determining someone’s personality, but the effect of a child’s peers is much stronger than the effect of his or her parents. This is important as a source for the nature versus nurture debate in the human sciences.
Henderson’s church
Hawking, Stephen (1942- )
Hawking is a Cambridge cosmologist and theoretical physicist. His book A Brief History of Time has sold more copies than any other science book ever written. One key question associated with his ideas is whether they provide us with the complete picture when considering the origins of the universe.
Henderson, Bobby (1980- )
Henderson is the founder of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which he started up to parody the decision by the Kansas State Education Board to allow the teaching of creationism in science lessons alongside the theories of Darwin. He has much to say on causation and correlation – and pirates.
Herodotus (c.484 BC -c.425 BC)
Herodotus is regarded as one of the fathers of history because he was, along with Thucydides, the first writer to collect evidence systematically, and use it to support his narrative accounts of what happened in the past.
Hume, David (1711-1776)
Hume was an Edinburgh philosopher and historian, and is regarded as the most important of the British empiricists (along with Locke and Berkeley). Unlike Descartes, he thought that the only knowledge that we should trust is that which we experience directly through our senses. He also emphasised the importance of emotions in allowing us access to truth, by saying ‘Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.’
James, William (1842-1910)
James was an American psychologist and philosopher, and one of the founding figures of the pragmatic school of thinking. He believed that truth was ‘mutable’ or changeable, rather than something concrete and absolute. James believed that it often takes a long time to figure out whether something is true or not, based on whether it works successfully. This help us in formulating an understanding on the nature of ‘truth’.
Kuhn: science is violence
Kant, Immanuel (1724-1804)
Kant is arguably the most important philosopher since classical Greece, and totally modified our understanding of how we view the world. His deontological ideas argue that moral actions should only be assessed in terms of their intentions – in contrast to the consequentialists such as Bentham and Mill.
Kuhn, Thomas (1922-1996)
Kuhn was an American physicist who wrote extensively on the philosophy of science. According to him, scientific knowledge progresses in a violent and revolutionary way, rather than in a linear and passively accumulative fashion. He coined the term ‘paradigm shifts’ for the way in which our knowledge advances.
Locke, John (1632-1704)
Locke was the first of the British empiricists who borrowed Aristotle’s idea of a blank slate, which he termed the tabula rasa. This meant that we are born with no innate ideas, and instead, build up knowledge as we experience things through our senses. He represents the counterpoint to Descartes when it comes to thinking about how we acquire knowledge about the world.
Lotto, Beau (1964 – )
Lotto is a neuroscientist and founder of ‘Lotto Lab’ who investigates how we perceive the world with our senses and brains. His optical illusions are literally staggering, and force their audience to question things they have always taken for granted.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 121- AD 180)
Roman emperor from 161 to 180, Marcus Aurelius presided over the empire whilst it was still in its heyday – after him, it went into a steady decline. He was one of the most famous Stoic philosophers, which held that the negative effects of your emotions can be overcome simply by perceiving of them in a different way.
Maher, Bill (1956- )
Maher is an Americna stand-up comedian and host of the award-winning current affairs show, Real Time with Bill Maher. Maher’s controversial thoughts on religion, and his opinions of faith as a way of knowing, are perfect for debate.
Marwick, Arthur (1936-2006)
Marwick was an Edinburgh and Oxford-educated social and cultural historian. He is particularly interesting when talking about things that get in the way of historians doing their job properly, such as political or social agendas, seeing elements of popular culture as secondary rather than primary sources, and simplifying past events or discerning patterns where there are none.
Milgram
Mill, John Stuart (1806-1873)
Mill was a philosopher and liberal thinker, and one of the most important figures in the campaign against slavery. He developed the utilitarian principles of Jeremy Bentham, attaching to it the term ‘greatest-happiness principle’ in order to test if utilitarianism was being employed successfully.
Milgram, Stanley (1933-1984)
Milgram was an American psychologist, who designed the (in)famous Milgram experiment to investigate the extent to which we respond to authority. His conclusions on the human capacity to go along with immoral acts are deeply disturbing.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de (1533-1592)
One of the greatest ever essayists and writers, Montaigne’s ideas foreshadowed many of the ones found in Shakespeare’s plays. He believed we are trapped in our own natures, and are unable to escape our instincts and personalities.
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1844-1900)
Nietzsche permeates all modern thinking, and he is credited as being one of the key figures in the challenge to a religious-based approach to morality. Being such a defining personality, it’s hard to narrow down his ideas, but one particular example is his ‘perspectivist’ ideas on truth and morality.
Newton, Isaac (1643-1727)
Newton was so many things – a physicist, a mathematician, an astronomer, a theologian, and even a alchemist. He is considered to be one of the most influential people in history, alongside figures such as Plato, Kant, Descartes, and Darwin. In the early part of his career, at least, he was known for his modesty, saying ‘if I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
Orwell: the ‘patron saint’ of TOK?
Orwell, George (1903-1950)
Orwell was the author of (among many other things) Animal Farm and 1984. In many ways, he is the ‘patron saint of TOK’, because of his huge range of ideas on so many different topics. Amongst these, were his ideas on language, and the extent to which is governs the way we think. But he also wrote on the power of the state when it comes to representing history.
Owen, Wilfred (1893-1918)
Owen was a First World War poet who wrote bitterly about his experiences as a soldier, attacking the ruling classes and the generals who in his opinion had no idea of what they were doing. This amounted to a revolutionary view of the world, and helped to change society utterly after the conflict ended.
Pasteur, Louis (1822-1895)
Pasteur was a French chemist and micro-biologist. For the purposes of TOK, he is of interest for what he said about the role of serendipity in scientific discoveries. According to him, it is only the prepared mind that benefits from it.
Pigliucci, Massimo (1964- )
Italian philosopher and biological scientist, Pigliucci belives that genes work with the environment to help shape our personalities. In his essay ‘Beyond Nature versus Nurture’ he points out that ‘if one changeseither the genes or the environment, the resulting behaviour can be dramatically different.’
Pinker, Steven(1954- )
Pinker, a Harvard professor, is one of the best known popular science writers in the world, and his books on psychology have sold millions of copies. He has much to say on the way we use language, and also history.
Planck, Max (1858-1947)
Planck, a German physicist, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918. His views on the progression of ideas in the natural sciences can be seen as a forerunner to the paradigm shift idea, and are summed up by his statement: ‘A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it’.
Plato (428/427-348/347 BC)
Plato, a pupil of Socrates, was one of the most influential philosophers in history, helping to lay down the framework for the way we think. He was influenced almost as much by Socrates’ ideas as he was by his apparently unfair execution. His metaphor of the cave is of particular interest on the nature of existence.
Plutchik, Robert (1928 – 2006)
Plutchik, an American psychologist, tried to categorize emotions by referring to them as ‘basic’ and ‘advanced’. Whether or not we can divide up such a nebulous phenomenon as our emotional state in such a way is one question that is worth considering.
Popper, Karl (1902-1994)
Popper, an Austro-British academic, wrote on just about every subject there is. His philosophy of science is particularly relevant, and one of his central ideas is that our knowledge of reality is severely limited, and for a theory to be truly scientific, it should be possible to empirically falsify it.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques (1712-1782)
Rousseau was a writer and philosopher whose thoughts on politics are amongst the most influential that have ever been developed. His idea that there should be a social contract between government and governed outlined in the publication of the same title helped to inspire the American (and later, French) revolution.
Russell, Bertrand (1872-1970)
Russell is one of the towering figures of 20th century thought, and wrote on subjects as diverse as mathematics and the morality of nuclear weapons. His thoughts scatter the TOK course, beginning with the nature of knowledge, and the definition of truth.
Sagan, Carl (1934-1996)
Sagan was an American astronomer and astrophysicist who was one of the most prolific science writers of the last 50 years. His thoughts on the nature of science help provide a definition for what the natural sciences are.
Sassoon, Siegfried (1886-1967)
Sassoon was a poet who wrote scathingly of the First World War, and helped to shape the style and ability of Wilfred Owen, who eventually eclipsed his own fame. Sassoon was particularly critical of the ruling classes, and this revolutionary view helped to change people’s perspectives of human society after the war had ended.
Schama, Simon (1945- )
Schama is many things: a historian, art critic, and cultural commentator. His thoughts on the ‘power’ of art are inspiring and enlightening.
Skinner, BF (1904-1990)
Skinner was many things, among them, a philosopher, psychologist, author, and inventor. His experiment on pigeons, in which he observed them behaving ‘superstitiously’, suggest that such a tendency is not limited to human beings.
Socrates (469-399 BC)
Arguably, the philosopher who started it all, at least in terms of the way we think. Socrates never wrote anything down, so this makes it hard to figure out his ideas exactly. He is best known, perhaps, for his method, which stressed the fact that we should be aware of our ignorance, and never cease asking questions. He said (we think): ‘I know you won’t believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others.’
Taylor, AJP (1906-1990)
Taylor was an Oxford historian who wrote extensively on aspects of 19th century and 20th century European political history. From an early age, Taylor was brilliant and rebellious, and both of these traits are apparent in his revisionist ideas on the causes of the Second World War, which shattered the historical paradigm of the time.
Thucydides (c. 460BC-c.395BC)
Herodotus is regarded as one of the fathers of history because he was, along with Herodotus, the first writer to collect evidence systematically, and use it to support his narrative accounts of what happened in the past. He is worth comparing and contrasting to his Greek peer.
Trevor-Roper, Hugh (1914-2003)
Trevor-Roper was an aristocratic Oxford historian who specialised in modern history. His view of the causes of the Second World War were a complete contrast to his peer AJP Taylor’s – illustrating how historians from the same time can come to completely different conclusions. His name was forever tarnished by his role in the Hitler diary episode.
Weber, Max (1864-1920)
Along with Durkheim, one of the fathers of sociology. But unlike Durkheim, Weber believed that to understand society, one had to study its individual members and develop an empathy with the people you were studying, and understand the meaning that they themselves placed on their actions.
Source:-http://www.theoryofknowledge.net/thoughts-and-thinkers/56-thinkers-you-should-meet