Methodist minister from England

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"Father of American psychology”

"Father of American psychology,” and one of the most significant American philosophers; William James established the philosophical school called pragmatism, functional psychology, and radical empiricism. His wealthy father wanted William and his brother Henry to be educated in a way free from dogma and goal-oriented career study. This led William into the fields of chemistry, physiology, anatomy, a medical degree, and a Harvard professorship where he set up the first American experimental psychology laboratory and became the first to offer a U. S. psychology course. Suffering through severe mental depression and serious health issues, he turned to philosophy and an evolved understanding of the self as a spiritual essence, a continual stream of consciousness much deeper and more meaningful than our material and social identifications.

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One of the English languages best art and literature critics of all time

The most influential art critic of his age, considered the best essayist in the English language, and one of the English language’s greatest critics; Hazlitt befriended and helped Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, Jeremy Bentham, Stendhal and many of the 19th century’s most important writers. The keen psychological insight that makes him still relevant today however, didn’t go over very well in his own time. Both Wordsworth and Coleridge retaliated to his criticism by spreading negative rumors. Also a poet, journalist, and philosopher; he was devoted to his work but seldom popular enough to earn sufficient income, he had to depend on his wife’s independent wealth. When she left him, he continued his writing but sunk into poverty, illness, depression, and was “excommunicated from all decent society.”

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Historian

Historian, author, and proponent of the theory that cultural exchanges has been and continues to be the main driving force of human history. His book, The Rise of the West was listed as one of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the 20th century

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Provocative and influential social, political, and literary critic

Mary Shelley’s father, married to pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, journalist, philosopher, publisher, translator, and author; Godwin became the first to promote utilitarianism and modern anarchism. He attacked aristocratic privilege, advocated the abolition of marriage, wrote numerous novels, and became a major influence on British literature and culture. His views on progress, life extension, and human perfectibility gave inspiration for his daughter’s novel, Frankenstein. He opposed Malthus, became a literary influence on Dickens and Poe, a political influence on Peter Kropotkin, libertarianism, and communism.

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Prolific biographer

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Life-long physician, pediatrician, friend to Ezra Pound; Williams worked as a doctor by day, as a writer by night, merged poetry with painting, imagery with modernism. His literary experimentalism working to create a new art form was so radical it was even criticized by radical experimentalists. Overshadowed by the timing and work of T.S. Eliot, Williams abandoned and criticized this intellectual style favoring instead American colloquial English writing an epic poem of place about Paterson, NJ. Mentor to the Beat Poets and in particular Allen Ginsberg, he won the first National Book Award for Poetry, the Gold Medal for Poetry, and posthumously the Pulitzer Prize.

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A poet, painter, and songwriter mainly unrecognized during his life and at the time considered mad, Blake is now called “far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced” and “a seminal figure in the history of poetry.” Not fully appreciated until more than 200 years after he died, he’s now considered one of the most powerful impacts on twentieth century culture with an enormous influence on Carl Jung, Aldous Huxley, poets like William Butler Yeats and Allen Ginsberg, songwriters like Bob Dylan and Van Morrison. The origin of graphic novels and fantasy art trace back to Blake.

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Modern day Lao Tzu

Wonderful novelist with a flare for evoking a deep appreciation for nature and the natural world, Willa Cather championed the values of self-sufficiency, independence, and harmony with nature. Nostalgic for the time when most people lived on farms, she used “the rising and setting of the sun” as a major theme and honored the struggle of exiled immigrants. Infusing meaningfulness and sacred outlook into simple, daily tasks she unknowingly continued the Zen spirit and understanding Lao Tzu wrote about so much longer before.

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One of the most famous and popular, internationally recognized Native American personalities, "Oklahoma's Favorite Son,” humorist, radio and movie star, columnist, and penetrating social commentator; Will Rogers made 71 movies, traveled around the world 3 times, and wrote more than 4000 national newspaper articles. The highest paid movie star of his time and most respected political commentator, he came from a small farm in Cherokee Nation Indian Territory and set an example for Native Americans integrating into White culture and becoming successful without selling out and abandoning their heritage. Wise, kind, and humorous; he teased politicians, gangsters, and ordinary people’s confused convictions influencing them all into better ways.

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Philosophy apostle and popularizer of history's lessons

Apostle for philosophy, Catholic priest vocation drop-out, socialist reporter, librarian, professor who quit so he could marry his much younger 15 year-old student who became his 68-year married wife; Durant became not just an ivory-tower intellectual and academic but someone who put the lessons of history into practical lessons useful for average people. He worked for women’s right to vote, equal wages, better working conditions for American labor, and wrote a "Declaration of Interdependence,” that was read into the Congressional Record and started a movement against racial intolerance 10 years before the Civil Rights Movement. Writing “the most successful historiographical series in history,” and awarded a Pulitzer Prize for literature as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he critiqued the West’s “fatal error of perspective:” Eurocentrism, intolerance and provincialism.

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Much more than ivory-tower, intellectual academics, Will and Ariel Durant worked to put the lessons of history into practical lessons useful for average people. He worked for women’s right to vote, equal wages, better working conditions for American labor, and wrote a “Declaration of Interdependence,” that was read into the Congressional Record and started a movement against racial intolerance 10 years before the Civil Rights Movement. Writing “the most successful historiographical series in history,” and awarded a Pulitzer Prize for literature as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he critiqued the West’s “fatal error of perspective:” Eurocentrism, intolerance and provincialism.

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"Music-drama" composer, revolutionary of opera, prolific writer, and forefather of psychoanalysis; Wagner blended with his music a flare for the poetic, philosophical, visual, and dramatic arts. Although famous and greatly respected, most his personal life filled with poverty, political exile, and dramatically painful love affairs. His research and insight into psychoanalytical themes like dream interpretation, the Oedipus myth, and the relationship between anxiety and sex predated Freud's birth. He became a major influence on luminaries like W. H. Auden, Thomas Mann, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, and T. S. Eliot.

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"Authentic Presence of Pervading Mystery.”

Close disciple of Lao Tzu, nobleman from the Jin state, astronomer, teacher of the Yueh state prime minister, inspiration for the famous commentary of the same name written by his disciples; Wenzi’s life is clouded in myth, magic, and superstition. The text itself - regarded the 4th main Taoist scripture after the Tao Te Ching itself, the Zhuang Zi (Chuang Tzu), and Lie Zi (Lieh Tzu) - was considered a forgery written much later until an archeological team discovered a copy written on bamboo strips in a a tomb buried in 55 BCE. In 742 CE, Tang emperor Xuanzong gave this book the name, "Authentic Presence of Pervading Mystery.”

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Defender of small-farm values and sustainable agriculture, champion of appropriate technology and environmental causes, cultural conscience and effective critic of industrial farming, environmental degradation, and materialistic lifestyle; Berry’s prolific writing beginning with articles in the early 70’s for Rodale Press, Organic Gardening, and The New Farm and continuing through more than 50 books has inspired new generations willing to put place over ambition, sustainability over wealth, family and friends over fame, making the world a better place over power and prestige.

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Skillful translator from Taoist insight into modern, English language

Wei Wu Wei's cousin founded the UK Royal Ballet while he created the Cambridge Festival Theater, produced more than 100 plays, wrote books on ancient Egyptian history and culture, raised his family's racehorses, won 11 major races, and married a Georgian princess and a Russian noblewoman. His wealth, success, and fame, however, left him empty and without meaning. He took on the pseudonym, Wei Wei Wei, and wrote 8 books and numerous articles that brought insight and ancient wisdom into modern language. Befriending Lama Anagarika Govinda, Dr. Hubert Benoit, John Blofeld, and Dr. D. T. Suzuki; he helped translate and bring the insights of Taoist and Buddhist understanding into modern, cultural influence.

Authentic Leadership pioneering thought leader

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Not only a great scholar and spiritual leader, Wangchuk Dorje became an important political influence. While helping the king of Sikkim settle a dispute, he founded three monasteries including Rumtek—still today the most important Kagyu monastery. As the 9th Karmapa and head of the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism he travelled throughout Tibet, Mongolia, Bhutan, and Sikkim. He wrote many classic texts still studied and taught today.

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Wang Zhen (FL. 809)
Tang Dynasty general in the tradition of Ashoka, Wang Zhen saw his military prowess and success from the higher perspective of how much unnecessary suffering it caused the population. Sickened by the consequences of his victories, he turned to the Tao Te Ching for answers and alternatives to conflict and war. This led to deep realizations, practical solutions for avoiding violence, and his commentary on Lao Tzu called The Tao of War that extended Wang Zhen’s insights on political and military struggle into the personal, competitive realms of daily life. His pacifist sympathies had greater impact because of his martial respect.

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Son of the famous Wang Anshi, Wang Pang became embroiled in political intrigues and in a heated exchange with his father’s rival admitted charges that forced his father to resign. Because of this he was said to have “died from rage.” A scholar of both Taoist and Buddhist texts, he wrote several commentaries; but, if stories about his political life and death are true, he doesn’t seem to have understood them very well. Lao-tzu-chu, Red Pine

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