Adam Smith was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment.

William James Durant was an American historian and philosopher, best known for his eleven-volume work, The Story of Civilization, which contains and details the history of Eastern and Western civilizations.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher and writer who started his career as a classical philologist and turned to philosophy early in his academic career.

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant.

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish author, poet and playwright.

The 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought." He is the third philosopher to become a recipient of the prize after the German philosopher Rudolf Christoph Eucken in 1908 and the French analytic-continental philosopher Henri Bergson in 1927, and the fifth British author to be awarded..