William James

William James is perhaps best known for teaching the first psychology course in the United States. Born into wealth, he visited Europe several times as a child, along with his brother, the writer Henry James. As a young man he attended Harvard, earning his M.D. in 1869 after several breaks due to ill-health and a trip to the Amazon. By the 1870’s he had recovered most of his health and taken a position as an instructor in physiology at Harvard. Although his degree was in medicine, his focus was the human mind, leading him to introduce the first psychology course in 1875. He moved between psychology and philosophy for the rest of his career, finally retiring in 1907. He died in 1910 of complications due to heart disease.