- Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky, Ph.D (born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, political activist, and a prolific author and lecturer. He is the Institute Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chomsky is credited with the creation of the theory of generative grammar, considered to be one of the most significant contributions to the field of linguistics made in the 20th century.
- Sanal Edamaruku
Sanal Edamaruku is the founder-president of Rationalist International and the president of the Indian Rational Association. He is the editor of the internet publication "Rationalist International". He was born in 1955 in Thodupuzha, in Kerala, India to Joseph and Solly Edamaruku. In 1977, he obtained a Master's Degree in Political Science from the University of Kerala.
- René Descartes
René Descartes (March 31, 1596 - February 11, 1650), also known as "Renatus Cartesius" (latinized form), was a highly influential French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer. Dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy", and the "Father of Modern Mathematics", much of subsequent western philosophy is a reaction to his writings, which have been closely studied from his time down to the present day.
- Baruch Spinoza
Baruch de Spinoza (lived November 24, 1632 – February 21, 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death. Today, he is considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy, laying the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism.
- Isaac Asimov
Dr. Isaac Asimov (c. January 2, 1920- April 6, 1992, was a Russian-born American Jewish author and biochemist, a highly successful and exceptionally prolific writer best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov's most famous work is the Foundation Series, which was part of one of his two major series, the Galactic Empire Series, later merged with his other famous story arc, the Robot series.
- Younus Shaikh
Dr. Younus Shaikh is a Pakistani medical doctor, human rights activist, rationalist and free-thinker. In August 2001 he was imprisoned in Pakistan under sentence of death for blasphemy. Dr Shaikh was held in the Central Gaol in Rawalpindi pending the appeals to the High Court but there was no agreement for the appeal. In July 2002 the case was referred to a referee judge.
- Joseph McCabe
Joseph Martin McCabe was an English writer and speaker on freethought, after having been a priest earlier in his life.
- Lewis Wolpert
Lewis Wolpert CBE FRS FRSL (born October 19, 1929) is a developmental biologist, author, and broadcaster. Having trained as a civil engineer in South Africa, he moved to King's College London to research cell biology, particularly the development of the embryo. He is currently professor of biology as applied to medicine in the department of anatomy and developmental biology at University College London.
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (also "Leibnitz" or "von Leibniz" (July 1 (June 21 Old Style) 1646 – November 14 1716) was a German polymath who wrote mostly in Latin and French. Educated in law and philosophy, and serving as factotum to two major German noble houses (one becoming the British royal family while he served it), Leibniz played a major role in the European politics and diplomacy of his day.
- Barbara Smoker
Barbara Smoker (born 1923) is a British Humanist activist and freethought advocate. She is also former President of the National Secular Society (1971-1996), former Chair of the British Voluntary Euthanasia Society (now known as Dignity in Dying) (1981-1985) and current Honorary Vice President of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association in the United Kingdom.
- Helena Cronin
Dr Helena Cronin is a noted Darwinian philosopher and rationalist. Co-director of Darwin Centre (Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Sciences, Philosophy, Logic & Scientific Method Department, Darwin@LSE) at the LSE. She achieved prominence with her book, "The Ant and the Peacock: Altruism and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today" but has published and broadcast widely since. She is married to another critical and questioning academic, …
- Joseph de Maistre
Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre (April 1, 1753- February 26, 1821) was a Savoyard lawyer, diplomat, writer, and philosopher. He was one of the most influential spokesmen for a counter-revolutionary and authoritarian conservatism in the period immediately following the French Revolution of 1789. De Maistre argued for the restoration of hereditary monarchy, which he regarded as a divinely sanctioned institution, and for the indirect authority of the Pope over temporal matters.
- Prabir Ghosh
Prabir Ghosh is the head of the Science and Rationalists’ Association of India, based in Kolkata. He was once referred to in the media as being from the "Rationalist Association of India". A "vociferous debunker", he has "crusad[ed] against soothsayers and godmen in eastern India" and survived "at least 20 attempts" on his life since the mid-1980s. He is the author of a number of Bengali language books disputing supernatural claims.
- Narendra Nayak
Narendra Nayak is a well known rationalist from Mangalore, Karnataka, India. A postgraduate in Medical biochemistry, Narendra Nayak was an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the Centre for Basic Sciences, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore until the 25th November 2006 when he quit the job to continue full time his work in the field of the rationalist movement. He is the founder of Dakshina Kannada Rationalist Association and has been its Secretary since 1976.
- Abraham Kovoor
Abraham Thomas Kovoor (April 10 1898 - September 18 1978) was a Sri Lankan professor and Rationalist who gained prominence after retirement for his campaign to expose as frauds various Indian and Srilankan "god-men" and so-called paranormal phenomena. His direct, trenchant criticism of spiritual frauds and organized religions were enthusiastically received by audiences, initiating a new dynamism in the Rationalist movement, especially in India.
- Nicolas Malebranche
Nicolas Malebranche (August 6, 1638 - October 13, 1715) was a rationalist French Philosopher. In his works, he sought to synthesize the thought of St. Augustine and Descartes in order to demonstrate the active role of God in every aspect of the world. Malebranche is most famous for his doctrines of vision in God and occasionalism.
- Joseph Edamaruku
Joseph Edamaruku (popularly identified by his surname "Edamaruku") (7 September 1934 - 29 June 2006) was a well known journalist and a militant rationalist from Kerala. He was the Delhi Bureau chief of the Malayalam magazine "Keralasabdam" for more than twenty years, and the founder-editor of "Therali", a rationalist periodical in Malayalam. He was president of the Indian Rationalist Association from 1995-2005.
- H. Narasimhaiah
Hosur Narasimhaiah was a physicist, educator, freedom fighter and rationalist from Karnataka, India. He was popularly known as HN. He was conferred Padma Bhushan by Government of India in 1985.
- Felix Adler
Felix Adler (August 13, 1851-April 24, 1933) was a Jewish rationalist intellectual who founded the Society for Ethical Culture in New York City.
- Roderick Chisholm
Roderick M Chisholm (Seekonk, Massachusetts, 1916 -- Providence, Rhode Island, 1999) was an American philosopher, known for his work on epistemology, metaphysics, free will, and the philosophy of perception. He received his Ph.D. at Harvard University under Clarence Irving Lewis and Donald C. Williams, and taught at Brown University. Chisholm's first major work was "Perceiving" (1957). His epistemological views were summed up in a popular text, …
- Hasdai Crescas
Hasdai ben Abraham Crescas (Hebrew: חסדאי קרשקש was a Jewish philosopher and a renowned halakhist (teacher of Jewish law). Along with Rambam, Ralbag, and Albo, he is known as one of the major practitioners of the rationalist approach to Jewish philosophy, and his positions on issues of natural law and free will in "Or Hashem" can be seen as precursors to those of Spinoza.
- Wang Yangming
Wang Yangming (1472-1529) was a Ming Chinese idealist Neo-Confucian philosopher, official, educationist, calligraphist and general. After Zhu Xi, he is commonly regarded as the most important Neo-Confucian thinker, with interpretations of Confucianism that denied the rationalist dualism of the orthodox philosophy of Zhu Xi. He was known as Yangming Xiansheng (Brilliant Master Yangming) in literary circles.
- Ali Dashti
Ali Dashti (born 1894 - died January 16, 1982) was an Iranian rationalist of the twentieth century, who was greatly influenced by Omar Khayyám. Dashti was also an Iranian senator.
- Sreeni Pattathanam
Sreeni Pattathanam is a rationalist and atheist activist, writer from Kerala, India. Pattathanam was born in Kollam, Kerala in India. He began his career as a police constable, but later took up the job of a primary school teacher. Pattathanam was the Editor of "Ranarekha", a monthly in Malayalam, which ceased publication in 1980s. He was also the secretary of the Kerala state branch of Indian Rationalist Association.
- Dieter Rams
Dieter Rams (born May 20 1932 in Wiesbaden) is a German industrial designer closely associated with the consumer products company Braun. Rams was a key figure in the German Functionalist design renaissance of the late 1950s and 1960s. Eventually becoming head of Braun's design staff, Rams' influence in the advent of clean and simple Rationalist design was soon evidenced in many products. Rams once explained his design approach in the phrase "Weniger, …
- Bharathidasan
Bharathidasan (April 29, 1891 - April 1, 1964; also spelt Bharatidasan) was a twentieth century Tamil poet and rationalist whose literary works handled mostly socio-political issues. His writings served as a catalyst for the growth of the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu. In addition to poetry, his views found expression in other forms such as plays, film scripts, short stories and essays.
- Balthasar Bekker
Balthasar Bekker (1634 - 1698), Dutch divine and author of philosophical and theological works. Opposing superstition, he was a key figure in the end of the witchcraft persecutions in early modern Europe.
- Ravipudi Venkatadri
Ravipudi Venkatadri is an Indian rationalist leader. Venkatadri was born in the village of Nagandla in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh. He started his rationalist career by establishing a Kaviraja Ashramam in Nagandla. He joined the Andhra Pradesh Rationalist Association, founded by the famous atheist Lavanam Goparaju, son of Goparaju_Ramachandra_Rao. Ravipudi has been president of the Andhra Pradesh Rationalist Association, …
- Kavignar Inkulab
"Makkal Kavignar" Inkulab (also spelt Inquilab, Inkulab or Ingulab) is a revolutionary Tamil poet/writer, rationalist, activist, and Communist. He retired as a professor of New College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He is a known follower of Periyar. His poems espousing rationality have been critically acclaimed.
- Kalanathan
U. Kalanathan is a well known rationalist from Kerala, India. He is the General Secretary of Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations.
- Narendra Dabholkar
Dr. Narendra Dabholkar is a prominent rationalist in Maharashtra, India. In 1989 he formed Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS) with like-minded individuals.
- Pavanan
Pavanan (October 26, 1925 - June 22, 2006) was a well known rationalist, literary critic and left wing political activist from Kerala, India.
- Merab Mamardashvili
Merab Mamardashvili was a Georgian philosopher, Doctor of Sciences (1968), Professor (1972). He was born in Gori (Eastern Georgia). In 1955 he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of the Moscow State University. In 1968-1987 he was a Deputy Editor of the scientific journal "Voprosi Filosofii" ("Questions of Philosophy"), a Professor of the Moscow State University and a Senior Research Fellow of the Moscow Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Science.
- Ximen Bao
Ximen Bao was an ancient Chinese government minister and court advisor to Marquis Wen of Wei (文侯) (445 BC-396 BC) during the Warring States (481 BC-221 BC) period of China. He was known as an early rationalist, who had the State of Wei abolish by law the inhumane practice of sacrificing people to river deities. Although the earlier statesman Sunshu Ao is credited as China's first hydraulic engineer (damming a river to create a large irrigation reservoir), …
- Thomas Hansen Kingo
Thomas Hansen Kingo (December 15, 1634 - October 14, 1703 Odense) was a Danish bishop, poet and hymn-writer born at Slangerup, near Copenhagen. His work marked the high point of Danish baroque poetry. He belonged to a rather poor family partly of Scottish origin and was educated a clergyman. In his youth, Kingo wrote a series of poems picturing humorous scenes in village life and a pastoral love poem, "Chrysillis". He studied theology at the University of Copenhagen, …
- Peretz Smolenskin
Peretz (Peter) Smolenskin (1842-1885), a Russian Jewish novelist, was born near Mogilev (Russia). His story is the Odyssey of an erring son of the Ghetto. He joined and left the opposite parties of the rationalists and the mystics, and followed a variety of precarious occupations. He settled in Odessa, where he familiarized himself with several European languages, and became an anti-nomian in religion, though he never left the Jewish fold.
- Hanābilites
Hanābilites are adherents to the theology of Ahmad ibn Hanbal (164-241 AH/780-855 BC). One of the fours islamic law schools. ibn Hanbal and Abu 'Abd Allah ash-Shafi'i were both leaders of the traditionalist movement, which fought against the rationalist Mu‘tazilī school. Ibn Hanbal was a leader or imam of the Sunnis. The following theological positions are attributed to Ibn Hanbal in the work "Risalat fi al-radd `ala al-zanadiqah".
- Penmetsa Subbaraju
Penmetsa Subba Raju is a famous rationalist who has worked in the rationalist movement since 1983. He has been the President of the Andhra Pradesh Rationalist Association. He used to work as president of the West Godavari district Rationalist Association. Mr Penmetsa Subba Raju gives good lectures regarding rationalism. People who dare to agree with truths get attracted to his lectures easily. He has also write multiple books against religion.
- Karl Ullmann
Karl (Carl) Christian Ullmann, German Protestant theologian. He studied at Heidelberg and Tübingen, and in 1820 delivered exegetical and historical lectures at Heidelberg. In 1829 he went to Halle as professor to teach church history, dogmatics and symbolics, but in 1836 he accepted a chair at Heidelberg. A lifelong exponent of the mediating theology ("Vermittelungs-Theologie"), in 1828, with the help of Umbreit (1795-1860), …
- Alexander Zelenko
Alexander Ustinovich Zelenko, 1871-1953, was a Russian and Soviet architect and educator, a pioneer in settlement movement and vocational education. Originally a practicioner of "provincial" Art Nouveau in Samara and Moscow, he later joined the camp of rationalists and focused on perfecting school and museum designs.