Abraham H. Maslow --(1908-1970), American psychologist and a founder of humanistic psychology who developed a hierarchical model of human motivation, in which a higher need, ultimately that for self-actualization, is expressed only after lower needs are fulfilled.
Friedrich Nietzsche --(1844-1900), German philosopher who reasoned that Christianity's emphasis on the afterlife makes its believers less able to cope with earthly life. He argued that the ideal human being, the Ubermensch, would be able to channel passions creatively instead of suppressing them. His written works include Beyond Good and Evil and Thus Spake Zarathustra.
Blaise Pascal --(1623-1662), French philosopher and mathematician. Among his achievements are the invention of an adding machine and the development of the modern theory of probability.
Jean Paul Sartre --(1905-1980), French writer and philosopher. A leading existentialist, he wrote literary works, such as the autobiographical novel Nausea and the play No Exit , and philosophical volumes that include Being and Nothingness. Sartre declined the 1964 Nobel Prize for literature.
Percy Bysshe Shelley --(1792-1822), English Romantic poet and philosopher whose passionate search for personal love and social justice was gradually channeled from overt actions into poems that rank with the greatest in the English language.
Henry David Thoreau --(1817-1862), American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, renowned for having lived the doctrines of Transcendentalism as recorded in his masterwork, Walden, and for having been a vigorous advocate of civil liberties, as evidenced in the essay Civil Disobedience.
Paul Tillich --(1886-1965), German-born American theologian and philosopher whose works, including Systematic Theology, bind Christianity to an understanding of modern culture.
Eliezer Wiesel --Born 1928, Romanian-born writer and lecturer. A survivor of Nazi concentration camps, he is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust. He won the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize.
