Position:Home>History> Whose were the most amazing minds in history?

My nominations for a top ten (in chronological order) -

Pythagoras
Socrates
Saul of Tarsus
Roger Bacon
Leonardo da Vinci
Isaac Newton
Rene Descartes
Charles Darwin
Albert Einstein
Alan TuringWww@QuestionHome@Com

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It depends on the context!.

If you're talking about sheer intelligence the answers would go one way, if you're talking about in their own fields, it would go another!.

Sheer scientific knowledge: Edison!. He invented TONS of things that we still use today!.

Military genius: Alexander (The Great) of Macedon!. He beat the world empire of the time (Persia) while outnumbered by 100 to 1!.

Artistry and creativity: Leonardo Da Vinci!. Not only was he a great artist he was making plans for devices not made for another couple hundred years!.

Social and national knowledge: Nebuchadnezzar!. Conqueror and ruler of one of the first great empires!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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military: gaius julius caesar (remember Alesia battle!? ha won 300!.000 galls with only 30!.000 romans)
creative: leonardo da vinci (he invented the plane, submarine, helicopter, cicle!.!.!.etc)
politics: cicerone, who has maked yhe world history for over 30 years!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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It depends from what perspective you're coming from!. It could mean anybody, really!. To name some from the top of my head would be Shakespeare, Aristotle, Plato, Srinivasa Ramanujan!.

Hope that helps :)Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Leonardo da Vinci and Chinese philosopher/scientist
Zhang Heng!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Baruch Spinoza
Walter Benjamin
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
John Steward Mill
Sun TzuWww@QuestionHome@Com

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Leonardo Da Vinci
Steven SpielbergWww@QuestionHome@Com

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Yogi Berra and George BushWww@QuestionHome@Com

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I would say the the polymaths and renaissance people,

Some Renaissance Men
****Ibn Rushd (Averroes) (1126–1198), an Andalusian Arab philosopher, doctor, physician, jurist, lawyer, astronomer, mathematician, and theologan; "Ibn-Rushd, a polymath also known as Averroes";[23] "Doctor, Philosopher, Renaissance Man!."[24]
****Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (973–1048), a Persian scientist, physicist, anthropologist, astronomer, astrologer, encyclopedist, geodesist, geographer, geologist, historian, mathematician, natural historian, pharmacist, physician, philosopher, scholar, teacher, Ash'ari theologian, and traveller; "al-Biruni was a polymath and traveler (to India), making contributions in mathematics, geography and geology, natural history, calendars and astronomy";[25] "al-Biruni, a scholar in many disciplines - from linguistics to mineralogy - and perhaps medieval Uzbekistan's most universal genius!."[26]
*****Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543); among the great polymaths of the Renaissance, Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, classical scholar, translator, Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist!. Amid his extensive responsibilities, astronomy figured as little more than an avocation — yet it was in that field that he made his mark upon the world!.
*****Al-Farabi (Alfarabi) (870–950/951), a Turkic[27] or Persian[28] Muslim who was known as The second teacher because he had great influence on science and philosophy for several centuries, and was widely regarded to be second only to Aristotle in knowledge in his time!. Farabi made notable contributions to the fields of mathematics, philosophy, medicine and music!. As a philosopher and Neo-Platonist, he wrote rich commentary on Aristotle's work!. He is also credited for categorizing logic into two separate groups, the first being "idea" and the second being "proof!." Farabi wrote books on sociology and a notable book on music titled Kitab al-Musiqa (The Book of Music)!. He played and invented a varied number of musical instruments and his pure Arabian tone system is still used in Arabic music!.[29]
****Abbas Ibn Firnas (Armen Firman) (810–887), an Andalusian Berber aviator, inventor, technologist, chemist, humanitarian, musician, physician and poet; "Ibn Firnas was a polymath: a physician, a rather bad poet, the first to make glass from stones (quartz!?), a student of music, and inventor of some sort of metronome";[30] "had he lived in the Florence of the Medici, [Abbas ibn Firnas] would have been a “Renaissance man”!."[31]
****Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), "Italian scientist, physicist, and philosopher!. Galileo was a true Renaissance man, excelling at many different endeavors, including lute playing and painting!."[32]
****Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) "Germany's greatest man of letters—poet, critic, playwright, and novelist—and the last true polymath to walk the earth"[33] "Goethe comes as close to deserving the title of a universal genius as any man who has ever lived"!.[34] "He was essentially the last great European Renaissance man!."[35] His gifts included incalculable contributions to the areas of German literature and the natural sciences!. He is credited with discovery of a bone in the human jaw, and proposed a theory of colors!. He has a mineral named in his honor, goethite!. He molded the aesthetic properties of the Alps to poetry, thus, changing the local belief from "perfectly hideous" and an "unavoidable misery," to grandeur of the finest most brilliant creation!.

****Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen) (965–1039), an Iraqi Arab scientist, physicist, anatomist, physician, psychologist, astronomer, engineer, mathematician, ophthalmologist, philosopher, and Ash'ari theologian; "a devout, brilliant polymath";[36] "a great man and a universal genius, long neglected even by his own people";[37] "Ibn al-Haytham provides us with the historical personage of a versatile universal genius!."[38]
*****Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)!. Jefferson, the third President of the United States, was "the walking, talking embodiment of the Enlightenment, a polymath whose list of achievements is as long as it is incredibly varied!."[39]!. At a dinner honoring Nobel laureates, John F!. Kennedy famously said "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together in the White House—with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone!."[40]
****Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406), an Arab social scientist, sociologist, historian, historiographer, philosopher of history, demographer, economist, linguist, philosopher, political theorist, military theorist, Islamic scholar, Ash'ari theologian, diplomat and statesman; "a still-influential polymath";[41] "in any epoch ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) would deserve the accolade Renaissance man, a person of many talents and diverse interests!."[42]
****Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716); "Leibniz was a polymath who made significant contributions in many areas of physics, logic, history, librarianship, and of course philosophy and theology, while also working on ideal languages, mechanical clocks, mining machinery!.!.!."[43] "A universal genius if ever there was one, and an inexhaustible source of original and fertile ideas, Leibniz was all the more interested in logic because it !.!.!."[44] "Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was maybe the last Universal Genius incessantly active in the fields of theology, philosophy, mathematics, physics, !.!.!.!."[45] "Leibniz was perhaps the last great Renaissance man who in Bacon's words took all knowledge to be his province!."[46]
****Isaac Newton (1643–1727) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, theologian, natural philosopher and alchemist!. His treatise Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, laying the groundwork for classical mechanics, which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries and is the basis for modern engineering!. In a 2005 poll of the Royal Society of who had the greatest effect on the history of science, Newton was deemed more influential than Albert Einstein!.[47] "When we see Newton as a late Renaissance man, his particular addiction to classical geometry as ancient wisdom and the most reliable way of unveiling the secrets of nature, seems natural!."[48]
****Abū Alī ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) (980–1037), a Persian physician, pharmacologist, philosopher, metaphysician, aromatherapist, astronomer, chemist, Hanafi jurist and theologian, physicist, scientist, and universalist; "The Persian polymath-physician Avicenna";[49] "Avicenna (973–1037) was a sort of universal genius, known first as a physician!. To his works on medicine he afterward added religious tracts, poems, works on philosophy, on logic, as physics, on mathematics, and on astronomy!. He was also a statesman and a soldier!."[50]
****Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī (Tusi) (1201–1274), a Persian Muslim, was one of the greatest scientists, philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers, theologians and physicians of the thirteenth century;[51][52] "the ensemble of Tusi’s writings amounts to approximately 165 titles on a wide variety of subjects (astronomy, ethics, history, jurisprudence, logic, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, theology, poetry and the popular sciences)!."[53]
****Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)[54][55] "In Leonardo Da Vinci, of course, he had as his subject not just an ordinary Italian painter, but the prototype of the universal genius, the 'Renaissance man,' !.!.!."; "prodigious polymath!.!.!.!. Painter, sculptor, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, biologist, geologist, physicist, architect, philosopher, actor, singer, musician, humanist!."[56]


List of recognized polymaths
****Imhotep (fl!. 2650–2611 BC); Egyptian chancellor, physician, and architect; "Imhotep, circa 2650 BCE (who was revered as being at least semi-divine until the Late Period, although some of this reverence may be due to his status as physician and all-round polymath)!."[60]
****Aristotle (384–322 BC); [61] "Aristotle was an extraordinary polymath!.!.!."[62]
****Geber (Jabir ibn Hayyan) (721–815), an Arab Muslim chemist, alchemist, astrologer, astronomer, engineer, pharmacist, physician, philosopher, and physicist; "Jābir was a polymath who wrote 300 books on philosophy, 1,300 books on mechanical devices and military machinery, and hundreds of books on alchemy!."[63]
****Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (Algoritmi) (780-850), a Persian mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, Earth scientist, Islamic scholar, and geographer!.[52]
****Al-Jahiz (781-869), an East African Arab scholar and Arabic prose writer of works on Arabic literature, history, biology, zoology, Mu'tazili philosophy and theology, and politico-religious polemics!.[64]
****Al-Kindi (Alkindus) (801–873), an Arab astronomer, geographer, mathematician, meteorologist, musician, philosopher, physician, physicist, scientist, and politician; "he ****(Al-Kind?) was an omnivorous polymath, studying everything, writing 265 treatises about everything—arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, meteorology, geography, physics, politics, music, medicine, philosophy!."[65]
****Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes) (865-925), a Persian physician, alchemist, chemist, philosopher and scholar!.[64]
****Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī (896-956), an Arab historian, Earth scientist, Islamic scholar, geographer, geologist, and traveller!.[52]
****Abu al-QasWww@QuestionHome@Com

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