The e-mail gods recently delivered this interesting query from a reader named Derek Wilhelm:
I go to the University of Richmond, which requires [us] to take a class called Core, where we read famous historical books. (Gandhi, Marx, Plato, Augustine, just to name a few). Anyway, my question for you is: Who do you think is the greatest modern-day thinker?
I love this question. It first requires you to define what a “thinker” is, and also raises the question of what incentives exist in the modern world to be a thinker. Also, is someone a great thinker if they’re never able to communicate their thoughts to a broad audience?
On a related note: The Times recently ran a piece about a rise in college philosophy majors; interestingly, the Wall Street Journal published a piece shortly thereafter (sorry, can’t find a link, but here’s a reprint of the pertinent info) ranking the first-year salaries for 16 selected college majors: engineers were first (at $48,707) and philosophers were dead last (at $28,234).
Once you’ve thought about what it means to be a thinker, then comes the hard part of thinking about who best fits the description.
So who are your nominees, and why?
and 
. You can also watch it on 
Richard Fenyman. Like Dirac with a sense of humor (not an original comment).
Alan Turing. No one person has had a more tremendous affect on us in a long time. Other honorable mentions would be Einstein and Milton Friedman.
A thinker is anyone who puts forth ideas, regardless of profession. My top thinker is Ron Paul, for his ability to think outside the current box of politics and be fairly successful at it in portraying those ideas to the public. I would have said Milton Friedman if the list extended back 20 years or so.
Richard Feynman; like Paul Dirac with a sense of humor (I cannot take credit for this comment, I have forgotten to whom to attribute the quote).
Dr. Steven Hawking
Thomas Sowell. He’s the epitomy of economist/philosopher/historian because of his knowledge and ability to blend fact with experience to debunk many myths.
Edward Witten because of his work in string theory and mathematics, not too mention he has been mentioned on Futurama.
The question also requires you to define what “modern-day” means. My vote would be 20th or 21st century.
My vote is for Einstein. General and Special Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, etc. All using his mind and a piece of paper (doesn’t get much more thinker than that!) Yes, he spent a lot of time chasing the unified theory but my definition of “thinker” doesn’t include “successful at all fields of endeavor.” Not to mention, Time magazine’s “Person of the Century.”