Most intellectually impressive person in history

Who is the most seemingly "academically" brilliant human in history?

I used "intellectually impressive" because the smartest person might be some random nobody we've never heard of.

Random candidates off the top of my head:

- Newton
- Von Neuman
- Einstein
- Euler
- Gauss
- Ramanujan
- Saul Kripke
- John Stuart Mill
- Da Vinci

Isn’t this more subjective than anything else?

I always felt Tesla was one of most brilliant minds of his times. Same with Alexander the Great and Hannibal when it came to warfare.

No Stephen Hawking?

Originally posted by Rockydonovang
No Stephen Hawking?

Hawking is obviously extremely sharp, but he's not on the level of someone like Newton.

🙁

What about philosophers like Plato?

Off your list, I'd go with Newton, his works is what others on your list learned from themselves and expanded.

Da Vinci was an everything man, but I don't think his influence is the same as Newton, even if he lived and died 100+ years before Newton was born.

Originally posted by Robtard

Da Vinci was an everything man, but I don't think his influence is the same as Newton, even if he lived and died 100+ years before Newton was born.

Originally posted by Rockydonovang
What about philosophers like Plato?

I could certainly see that. I haven't read Plato's works but from what I can tell it doesn't seem as profound to me as a lot of more modern philosophers, but I am speaking from a bit of ignorance here.

Originally posted by Robtard
Da Vinci was an everything man, but I don't think his influence is the same as Newton, even if he lived and died 100+ years before Newton was born.

Da Vinci certainly wasn't as influential as Newton, but as kbro says I don't think it was a lack of brilliance that held him back from doing more.

Oh, I'm not doubting Da Vinci's intelligence, he seems to be an upper-end genius in the upper-end genius pool. Just not sure he would have accomplished the same as Newton had he been born half-way into the 17th century. But certainly possible/debatable.

William James Sidis may actually be the most intelligent person ever recorded, but he wouldn't crack the top 10,000 most academically prolific.

da Vinci is actually one of the top minds in human history. If we review this, academically, it is da Vinci by a very large margin.

Sidis' exploits are suspect with many believing it to be exaggerated.

Also, considering the S&B4 and 5 do not go above 170, many of these "IQs" are suspect. (I know, not all IQ tests are the S&B)

Originally posted by dadudemon
da Vinci is actually one of the top minds in human history. If we review this, academically, it is da Vinci by a very large margin.

Expand on that please.

He's definitely the most interesting genius to me in the list of geniuses posted.

Galileo.

Galileo Figaro, magnifico o o o.

Couldn't resist.

In all seriousness though, probably Tesla. He'd be my pick.

Goethe.

You expect us to rank people we know nothing about aside from their historical achievements? Not a very good way of scoping IQ

Originally posted by DarthSkywalker0
Goethe.

It's interesting how literary greats of older eras were often also into the sciences, as opposed to a greater split today.

I guess those that had the privilege of pursuing higher education back then went for the full course.

Originally posted by NewGuy01
I guess those that had the privilege of pursuing higher education back then went for the full course.

Yeah, subjects are way more complicated and specialized nowadays.