Ten Greatest Thinkers of All Time

One of the great 20th century historians Will Durant, made in some of his assays rankings of what from his perspective were The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time. The essays are summed up in the book with the same name.



The book is a fun read, and is recommended as a reference for further study. Here I list his "Ten Greatest Thinkers of all Time". I think he is pretty close to a perfect list, but some of them might be more controversial than others - depending on your favorites:

1. Confucius
2. Plato
3. Aristotle
4. St. Thomas Aquinas
5. Copernicus
6. Sir Francis Bacon
7. Sir Isaac Newton
8. Voltaire
9. Immanuel Kant
10. Charles Darwin

The whole essay can be read under chapters published in a blog with entries for each person on the list here and here.

I'll come back with his list of The Greatest Ideas of all time.