Digital Graphic Designing

The advent of internet has given new meaning to e-commerce and has made it more accessible

for people all around the world, which is one of the biggest advantages for business nowadays.

With the growing competition in the business world, it has become very important for companies

to maintain their presence online in order to interact with their customers, which is an effective

way of running a business. To serve this purpose, companies hire professionals to design an

effective web page for them so that they can communicate their message to their customers and

can receive their feedback. This is where graphic designing companies step in.

A graphic designing company can turn your web portal into a vibrant, attention grabbing point of

attraction and increase the revenue of your business and help you achieve your goals and ensures

your presence in the market of competitive businesses.

Having online presence means to have an effective, informative, attention grabbing, and eye-
catching website that attracts a wide range of people towards you. A major role in attracting

customers is played by social media. Companies interact with their prospect buyers on social

media which helps them in boosting their business. But, only social media present is not enough

if you do not have an appealing website too. The website you have designed must be functional

and visually appealing; otherwise it will not attract customers towards your products.

A graphic designing company first deigns a general layout of your website. According to many

people, graphic designing is about creating stylish logos and pictures. This is a part of part but

the whole story in entirely different.

A graphic designer can take ideas of how you would want your website to look like and then

design a layout according to it that serves the needs of your company, i.e. providing information

about your firm to the people and the services you offer them, and as the same time attracts the

Role of Graphic Design Companies

The key role of any graphic design companies in Singapore is to design an appealing website in

order to drive the traffic to you website and get business from your prospect buyers.

It is no doubt a long and time-consuming process but the outcome is worth the time consumed

for designing it. Designing an attractive website is the role of professionals. They have hat keen

sight that looks into all the details and then transform it into something productive.

The main responsibility of graphic design companies is to create a website that serves the

business objectives of a company and convinces the customers into buying the products.

Understanding the needs of the clients, meeting the business goals and fulfilling the requirements

of what customer expect and then transforming the whole look into an appealing webpage is

http://www.saltbranding.com.sg/ is one of the best graphic designing companies in Singapore

who have been serving different companies with all the graphic designing needs. You can log

on to the web page and contact the representative through the contact details mentioned on their

page or you can also search the internet for more graphic designing companies.

Services offered in Gyms

What is a better place other than gym to work out? People when realize that they have gained some pounds by eating junk food head towards gyms to avail different facilities in order to come back to shape. It is important for everyone to take care of their body. Excessive eating and excessive working out, both scenarios can be harmful for you. Exercising an hour or half throughout the day helps your body to be in proper shape and also keeps you fit and healthy.

A gym-which is also referred to as a fitness center, fitness club, health spa or health club is a place where you can easily work out with the help of exercise equipment housed there.

Gyms or health spas are dedicated to improve and provide the best health club facility, personal trainers, exercise equipment, group exercise classes, and professional staff to help you in meeting your personal fitness goals. Gyms provide excellent level of services that be availed anytime throughput the day. They help in providing a healthy, fun, non-intimidating, and friendly family environment for all levels of fitness.

Some of the services that are offered in gyms are:

Main workout area

Most of the gyms and health spas have a main work out area which consists of free weight including barbells, dumbbells and exercise machines. The area also consists of mirrors so that you can monitor and maintain your posture while exercising.

Cardio area/Theatre

Then there is a cardio area or cardio theatre consists of many types of cardiovascular training-related equipment including stationary exercise bikes, rowing machines, treadmills and elliptical trainers. They also have various audio-visual displays to entertain their exercisers during their work out sessions.

Group exercise classes

Many new health clubs are offering exercise classes that are conducted by certified fitness instructors. There are many types of group exercises but these classes generally include cycling (spin cycle), aerobics, boxing or martial arts, regular and hot (Bikram) yoga, pilates, high intensity training, muscle training and much more. Health spas with swimming pools also offer aqua aerobics classes. The instructors who assist the participants are properly trained and certified to ensure proper safety of the participants.

Sports facilities

Some gyms also offer sports facilities which include squash courts, swimming pools or boxing areas. Some health clubs charge additional fee to provide people with these facilities.

Personal training

Most health spas hire personal trainers who are accessible to participants for training/nutrition/fitness /health advice and consultation. They help them plan a fitness routine according to their schedule which includes nutrition plans, diet plans, to help them achieve their goals. They also monitor, train and assist with members. Sometimes they also charge additional fee per hour if members wish to have a personal trainer.

These facilities and many more are offered to people who enroll themselves in health clubs. http://orientalspa.ae/gym/ is one of the finest spas that offer workout services along with spa services and even beauty services. You can contact the representatives for any query. They are 24/7on service.

Top 10 Most Popular YouTube Channels

Smosh

Smosh, a web-based comedy duo, created by Ian Andrew Hecox-who was born in November 30, 1987 and Anthony Padilla who was born on September 16, 1987. It all started when Padilla began posting videos flash movies on Newground in beginning of 2013 under the title of Smosh. Padilla was later joined by his friend Ian Hecox. They then started posting videos on YouTube in 2005 autumn and became one of the most popular YouTube channels. In October 2014, the smosh channel had more than 18 million subscribers and 3.6 billion viewers. The team expanded to include others to handle animated, Spanish language and video gaming content videos. The channel has experience three different spans when they had huge number of subscribers. The first period span lasted from May-June 2006, the second spanned from April 2007- September 2008, and the third spanned from January to August 2013.

Judson Laipply

Judson Laipply was born on March 22, 1976 and is an American dancer and motivational speaker from Bucyrus, Ohio. He has worked as the state president of The Ohio Association of Student Councils from 1993 to 1994. Laipply has worked as a public speaker since 2000 and is famous for his performance in the Evolution of Dance viral video clip.

Brooke Allison Brodack

Brooke Allison Brodack usually known as Brookers, was born on April 7, 1986 in Putnam, Connecticut. She is an American comedian whose videos spread viral on YouTube. She has received 49 million views which led to a contract from the mainstream media. She mostly posted short videos on the site. She is titled as "the first real YouTube star" by the New Yorkers. She has been making videos since she was 9 years old. She graduated from Wachusett Regional High School, then attended college at Quinsigamond Community College, Worcester State College, and Mount Wachusett Community College, then eventually she dropped all three. She worked as a receptionist and hostess at the 99 Restaurant from 2003 to 2006.

Peter Oakley

Peter Oakley, born on August 20, 1927 was a retiree from Bakewell, Derbyshire, England. He was known by his pseudonym geriatric1927 on YouTube-one of the best video sharing website.  Oakley gained popularity with his debut video in August 2006 with Telling it all-which was a series of five- to ten-minute autobiographical videos. By mid of 2006, he was one of the most subscribed YouTube user on the website. He took the 1^st position on the top ten chart within a week and displayed users who had been around him since the website was launched. In November 2006 he had 30,000 subscribers. By June 2012, he had recorded over 350 videos.  He died on 23 March 2014.

Lonelygirl15

lonelygirl15, an interactive web-based video series began in June 2006 and went viral. It was one of the famous series which was enjoyed till August 1, 2008. It was developed under the title of The Children of Anchor Cove by the makers of what later became EQAL. The show gained much popularity and media attention when it was outed as fictional in September 2006.

Nigahiga

Ryan Higa is mostly known his YouTube username- Nigahiga. He is an American YouTube celebrity, comedian, actor, and producer of Japanese descent. Nigahiga is famous for his comedy YouTube videos which have been viewed by millions of internet users and had over 13 million subscribers by the end of October 2014. Higa and Sean Fujiyoshi began posting videos in mid-2006, where they were lip-syncing to songs while attending Waiakea High School. These videos went viral on internet and this is where their fame and popularity started from. They quickly expanded from songs and posted videos with a variety of other comic pieces. Tim Enos, Kyle Chun, Ryan Villaruel, and Tarynn Nago made occasional guest appearance in the videos.

Fred Figglehorn

Fred Figglehorn, commonly known as FЯED on webpages, is a fictional character created and portrayed by Lucas Cruikshank, an American actor. Fred is a 6 year old boy with a high voice and dysfunctional home life and anger management issues. Cruikshank, a teenager from Columbus, Nebraska, started the Fred video series for his channel on YouTube- the video-sharing website, to focus on the character Fred. Even though Cruikshank voices Fred, the audio is digitally edited to sound higher-pitched than Cruikshank's actual voice.

Ray William Johnson

Ray William Johnson was born on August 14, 1981. He is an American video blogger, producer and an actor famous for his YouTube series Equals Three, in which he is commenting on viral channels. Many of his videos, posted on YouTube, featured on Equals Three have received an additional boost of fame. In February 2011, one industry publication noticed that Johnson had six of the top 20 most watched videos of that month. In the beginning of September 2012, he had accumulated nearly two billion video views. In December 2013, he has more than 10.6 million subscribers and more than two billion video views. He also announced that the last episode of Equals Three would air on March 12, 2014. The show later started on July 16, 2014 hosted by Robby Motz.

PewDiePie

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg commonly known as PewDiePie, which is his username, was born on October 24, 1989. He is a Swedish video game commentator on YouTube. He specializes in Let's Play videos of the action and horror video game genres. PewDiePie channel is one of the fastest growing YouTube channels. They have grown from 3.5 million subscribers to 19 million in 2013. PewDiePie's channel has been the most subscribed channel on YouTube since 15 August 2013, which was briefly outdone by YouTube's Spotlight channel in November and December 2013. Holding the top most position since December 23, 2013 the channel has reached over 31 million subscribers.

Vsauce

Vsauce, created by Internet personality Michael Stevens, includes a number of YouTube channels. These channels are famous for producing videos relating to various scientific topics, along with gaming, culture, technology, and other topics of general interest.

Top Ten YouTube Gamers

First of all, let us take a moment to truly admire the hard work people on YouTube do. We have hundreds of people just making videos, either for their enjoyment or others, and most of them aren’t even getting paid for it. Then we have the famous Tubers, who get subscriptions from fans and donations and actually get paid for posting videos other people can enjoy. Let’s take an example. Many of you would have heard of Nigahiga, or Smosh.  What do they do? They post comedy videos, and whether it’s laughing at the supreme ADHD ranting of Nigahiga or the idiotic situations Anthony and Ian get themselves into, there's something for everybody.

However, while I could rant and tell you about some of Nigahiga’s more hilarious videos, the truth is that even though Nigahiga was the first to hit the one million subscriber mark, they aren’t the most watched people on YouTube. They come close, but not there. So, you ask, what could people possibly like better than comedy? The answer is gaming. When most people think about gaming, they maybe remember the days they had a Game Boy Color with and old copy of Pokémon Red or Super Mario (both of which are superb games; by the way), most gamers these days prefer consoles to handhelds. And apparently the new generation of gamers doesn’t have the patience or with we needed to get through Saffron tower in Pokémon Red, so they use YouTube to get walkthroughs. And this is where the gamers come in.

On YouTube, you will be surprised by the sheer number of gamers. These people record themselves playing video games, and upload the videos to YouTube for that one class of gamers who can't get past level 4. So let us discuss who these people are and why the public is so obsessed with them. Without further ado, let us see the Top Ten YouTube Gamers!

This list is made by what YOU, the public have watched. The YouTubers listed here have been taken from the top ten most viewed YouTube Gamers list in 2014.

10. Smosh Games

For those of you who didn’t know, yes, the hilarious Smosh crew which I talked about earlier has their own Gaming channel. While the Smosh Games channel doesn’t feature Anthony and Ian as much as the regular Smosh, it does have some great gamers in Mari Takahashi, David "Lasercorn" Moss, Matt Sohinki, Joshua "Jovenshire" Ovenshire, and Amra "Flitz" Ricketts. This channel is easily so popular because it mixes the hilarity of one of the most watched YouTube channels with Gaming, so while they may not be the best gamers, they do manage to pull their own weight, mainly due to how popular the main Smosh Channel is.

9. speedyw03

How do you take a game about robberies, guns and vices like GTA and make it humorous? Well, I have no idea but it seems like speedyw03 does, for he is famous for his gaming videos of GTA and COD in which he makes the famous shooter games seem more like laughter fuel and less like serious games. Most people do not consider Speedy to be someone to take seriously, due to the fact that his videos are filled with jokes and humor, but the fact remains that speedy is one of the top gamers in our list, whether that is due to his skill or humor is for you to decide.

8. TobyGames

TobyGames is one of the less hardcore gamers on this list, preferring games like Happy Wheels and Minecraft to those like Left4dead or GTA or the ones that most people play. His videos are mostly humorous, and he also branches out and makes mock trailers of movies. He is mostly viewed, as is the case with the above two, for the humor in his videos.

7. KSI

We have just had the latest Fifa world cup, so it should only make sense that people start playing the games as well. KSIOlajidebt’s (or KSI for short) videos are mostly for the Fifa video games that get released every year, although he also occasionally does horror titles with his brother. Like the other people so far on this list, KSI mixes humor in his videos.

6. VEGETTA777

First of all, I am disappointed in that name. Not because it’s in all caps or because it seems like something a seven year old might choose, but because there was so much potential to include the ‘over 9000!’ joke that has become a famous line of DBZ. Just imagine how epic VEGETTA9001 would be. That done with, VEGETTA777 uploads gaming videos which he tries to make like movies. His narrative style is unique and he has a huge fan base. But seriously, that name.

5. CaptainSparklez

Now this is a good name. This is the name of a guy who went, Screw this, I'm going to name myself after glitter. That aside, CaptainSparklez is on this list because he does do videos of Left4Dead and Portal, but he is most famous for his Minecraft video parodies. He is also the third most subscribed YouTube gamer.

4. TheSyndicateProject

While this YouTuber began with Halo and Modern Warfare2, he is most recognized for his videos of Call of Duty: Zombies and he later started a Minecraft series. He is recognized for his strategy guide of Call of Duty: Zombies due to getting to Round 60 while playing Solo, a great feat at the time.

3. VanossGaming

This guy almost surpassed the number one Gamer on this list. If that’s not an accomplishment, I don’t know what is. He is known for his comedic commentary. He joined YouTube and gaming considerably later than other gamers, but he is growing fast and many consider him to be a gaming genius.

2. SkyPlaysMinecraft

There. Anyone who knows gaming knew that there was going to be someone dedicated entirely to Minecraft in this list. This YouTuber is mostly famous for calling gold ‘butter’ and hating squids in Minecraft, and his account started as a ‘Let’s Play’ before going on to be dedicated to Minecraft.

Number 1:

PewDiePie

Come on, you knew this was coming. This guy is remembered for freaking out but still playing horror games. Most people could write a novel on this guy, but I am going to make it short.  He has gotten the Most Subscribed YouTuber title 3 times, and has not lost it since the third time. He is recognized all over the world and while he has many haters, he has an even larger fan base, and this is what makes him the number one YouTube gamer of all time.

Top 10 Most Popular Zoo Animals

Zoos have always been a place of attraction and entertainment for children as well as adults. There are many animals that live in zoos but there are a few animals that are popular because of their characteristics and features. Some of the animals are discussed below.

Tigers

Tigers are among the five species of big cars reaching a total length of 3.38 m over curves and weigh up to 388.7 kg in the wild. Tigers are mostly recognized because of their pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with a lighter underside. They are classified in the class Panthera with leopards, lions, jaguar and snow leopards. Tigers are predators, preying on ungulates such as bovid and deer. Tigers are territorial and social animals that often require large contiguous area of habitat that can support their prey needs.

Monkeys

Monkeys are primates of the Haplorrhini suborder and simian infraorder. They are considered to be intelligent like apes and gorillas. They are liked by children because of their acts. They jump around trees and call their family member through sharp and squeaky sounds. They are popular zoo animals and are also kept as pets.

Zebras

There are several species of zebras but the only distinctive feature that unites all these species is the unique black and white striped coats. Every zebra has a different stripe pattern that is unique and does not match the other in any way. They are considered as social animals who like living in small harems to large herds. Their closest relatives are donkeys and horses. Like horses and donkeys, zebras have never been domesticated. Their unique stripe pattern make them among animals that are familiar to people. They live mostly in savannas, grasslands, woodlands, mountains, thorny scrublands, and coastal hills.

Hippos

Hippos are large and mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa. The name comes from the ancient Greek for ‘river horse’. After rhinoceros and elephants, hippos are the third largest type of land mammal and the heaviest also. In spite of their resemblance to pigs and other terrestrial even-toed ungulates, their closest relatives are porpoises and whales. Hippos are mostly recognized by their barrel-shaped torsos, enormous teeth and mouth, hairless body, great size and stubby legs. They weigh at an average weight of 1500 kg for males and 1300 kg for females.

Giraffes

Giraffes are African even-toed ungulate mammal. They are the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant. Their species name refers to camel-like appearance and the patches of color on their fur. The main distinguishing characteristics of giraffes are its long necks and legs, horn-like ossicones and distinctive coat patterns. They usually live in grasslands, savannas, and open woodlands. Their main source of food is acacia leaves. They are mostly preyed on by lions. Their calves are also preyed on by spotted hyenas, leopards and wild dogs.

Elephants

Elephants are large mammals. There are two species of elephants that are mostly recognized, the Asian Elephant and African Elephant. Elephants are scattered throughout South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. They have several distinctive features out of which the most noticeable are their long trunks that are used for breathing, grasping objects and lifting water. Their incisors grow into strong, white tusks which serve as weapons and tools for moving objects and even digging. Elephants also have large ear flaps that help to control their body temperature. Their strong legs can carry great weight. Asian elephants have smaller ears as compared to African elephants. Elephants are herbivorous mammals and live in forests, savannahs, deserts and marshes. They like living near water. Many other animals such as tigers, lions, wild dogs and hyenas tend to keep their distance from elephants.

Lions

Lions are one of the five big cats. Wild lions exist in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa whereas the other types of lions have disappeared from Southwest Asia and North Africa in historic times. Lions live for 10 to 14 years in forests but they live for more than 20 years in captivity. Groups of female lions hunt together and mostly prey on large ungulates. The male lions are highly distinctive because of their mane.

Deer

Deer are most famous zoo animals. Their species include white-tailed deer, mule deer such as elk, black-tailed deer, moose, and reindeer, red deer, roe deer, chital, pudu and fallow deer. Male deer of all species except Chinese water deer and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers every year. The musk deer of Asia and water chevrotain of tropical Asian and Asian forests are regarded as true deer and form their own families: Tragulidae and Moschidae, respectively.

Leopards

Leopards are also among the five big cats. They belong to the members of Felidae family with a range in some parts of West Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Siberia. The species have hunting behavior similar to their relatives like tigers, and lions. Their ability to run at speeds approaching 58 kilometers per hour is one of the distinctive features. They can also climb trees even when are carrying carcass with them. It is their strength and their speed that help them survive in this environment. They can hunt down and catch animals like deer and bovid easily just like lions and tigers.

Orangutan

Orangutans are two exclusively Asian species of extant great apes. They are mostly found in Malaysia and Indonesia but are currently found in rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. They spend most of their time in trees, jumping from one to the other. They have reddish brown hair instead of black or brown like of chimpanzees and gorillas. They are considered as intelligent primates. Male and female orangutans differ in appearance and size. Dominant adult males have unique cheek pads and produce long calls to attract their females and intimidate rivals whereas younger males do not possess these characteristics and resemble adult females more. Orangutans mostly eat fruits; that is an important component of their diet however, the apes eat bark, vegetation, insects, honey, and even bird eggs.

10 Greatest American Philosophers

10 Greatest American Philosophers

John Dewey

John Dewey, an important scholar of America contributed his works to psychology and philosophy, but his greatest influence was like an educational reformer. According to Dewey, it is important to focus on classroom activities as they play an important role in learning abilities of a child as compared to rote learning. During America’s early days of education, the major focus was on memorization that is why he focused more on practical learning that rote learning. Because of his influence other people started to focus on teaching children ways of thinking critically.

John Rawls

John Rawls, an important political thinker of the 20th century came back after contributing in World War 2 and earned a PhD degree from Princeton, in moral philosophy. He is known for his emphasis on protection of democratic liberalism in his book A Theory of Justice. In his book, he tries to find balance between the two apparently conflicting ideas of equality and liberty. He eventually concludes that it is necessary to describe justice as fairness. According to his point of view, government and society should give equal opportunities to everyone. He views both laissez-faire capitalism and strict communism as unfair and attempts to create a balance between equality and liberty.

Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards is greatest inspirations on American protestant theology. He was born in Connecticut in 1703. He was among the frontrunners of the Puritan movement. According to Puritans, Bible should be considered final words on what people must do, and shunned the Catholic traditions because they did not come directly from the Bible. Edwards attended Yale University when he was 13 years old, and wrote widely on religious topics varying from ethics to metaphysics. His most effective idea was defense of theological determinism, in which he talked over the final reason of everything that occurs-which is God. He had positive as well as negative effects in his theory. It was for both good and evil.

Cornel West

Cornel West, a famous African American thinker, has served at Princeton, Harvard and Yale. West is an active political activist and social commentator. He had most of beliefs rooted from his Christian background. West’s most prominent works, Race Matters-a book in which he had a number of essays written right after the Rodney King beating. His book focuses on the poverty problems faced by African American, and debated against the advices given from black leaders who did not feel the responsibility of solving the matter.

Michael Sandel

Michael Sandel, is the most famous political thinkers who worked as a professor at Harvard. He is famous for his books and lectures. Sandel class on justice at Harvard had over 1000 students. He believed that of we wanted to be good citizens we had to deal with ethical choices. During his lectures, he engaged his students into discussions and gave them confidence to question the reason behind their beliefs. He reasoned that nobody can actually be neutral, and everyone will have significant judgments of every matter. This is why he focused on such topics to make people realize the importance of confrontation with our beliefs that further involve people in discussion leading to deep reflection over something that turns out to be good.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an important philosopher of American Transcendentalism. He had inspired many later thinkers. Nature one of his greatest writings, he talks about nature being an intercessor between the divine and man. He was a true believer in the authority of an individual over a group of people. Emerson also believed that individuals get corrupted by groups and thus it is important to choose what is essential for us. His emphasis on the individuals had a great impact on people as well as American intellectuals.

Charles Sanders Peirce

Charles Sanders Peirce, a chemist, mathematician, and geodist focused on scientific philosophy. His major area of focus was mainly the study of logic. Peirce had a wide range of interests, and wrote on different subjects such as astronomy and economics. In many of his famous writings, Peirce reasoned that to determine truth, the only reliable method that can be used is the scientific method. He is recognized as the founder of pragmatism. He debated against determinism and said different degrees of habit are displayed by the universe, but even the same input has different results.

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson is known for being among the founders of the United States. He served the country as the third President. Jefferson was the president and a member of the American Philosophical Association. He defended democracy, and debated for equality of people. Unluckily, his idea that “all men are created equal” did not result the way he had wished for because he himself was a slave owner. Due to his influence, he is among the most prominent political philosophers in American history.

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau worked as teacher, surveyor, lecturer, naturalist, but he considered himself as a writer. His important writings are his nonfiction essays and philosophical. He argued in an essay written on civil disobedience that individuals have the ability to determine things that are right or wrong for them. This relates to laws and unwritten mainstream beliefs. He thought it is important for individuals to think for themselves. He asked people not to follow him, but to discover things that are vital for them. His teachings made him a modern philosopher of America.

William James

William James contributed to both physiology and psychology. The Principles of Psychology, a 1,200 page book was greatly influenced by both Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. His book not only focused on psychology, but also personal reflection and philosophy that inspired many philosophers, including Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell. He wrote about religion from a relativist position. He is considered as an inspiration for many thinkers in American history. He has written about many subjects and mixed the concepts together. His writings have influences many philosophers all over the world.

10 Greatest American Philosophers

10 Greatest American Philosophers

John Dewey

John Dewey, a leading scholar in the American philosophical school of pragmatism. Though he made contributions to philosophy and psychology, but his greatest impact was as an educational reformer. According to Dewey, it is important to focus on classroom activities as they play an important role in learning abilities of a child as compared to rote learning. In the early days of American education, the major focus was on memorization that is why he focused more on practical learning that rote learning. The influence of Dewey and others started to move education towards focusing on teaching children how to think critically.

John Rawls

John Rawls, an important political thinker of the 20th century came back after serving in during World War 2 and got a PhD in moral philosophy from Princeton. He is best known for his defense of egalitarian liberalism in his work A Theory of Justice. In the book, he attempts to find common ground between the two seemingly conflicting concepts of liberty and equality. He ultimately concludes that it is important that we define justice as fairness. According to his point of view, society and government should be set up to give equal opportunities to each person. Rawls views both strict communism and laissez-faire capitalism as unjust and tries to find a balance between liberty and equality.

Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest influences on American protestant theology was born in Connecticut in 1703. He was among the leaders of the Puritan movement. According to Puritans Bible itself should be the final word on what they should do, and shunned the Catholic traditions that did not come from the Bible directly. Edwards himself attended Yale University at age 13, and wrote extensively on religious topics ranging from metaphysics to ethics. His most influential idea was his defense of theological determinism, in which he said that God is the final cause of everything that happens. His theory had both positive and negative effects. So, for both good and ill, Edwards had a huge impact on American religion.

Cornel West

Cornel West, a famous African American philosopher, has taught at Princeton, Harvard and Yale. West is also a very active social commentator and political activist. Many of his major beliefs came from his Christian background. West’s most influential book was Race Matters, which was a series of essays that came out soon after the Rodney King beating. In his book, he talk over the problem of African American poverty, and debated against recommendations from black leaders that he felt were unlikely to solve the problem.

Michael Sandel

Michael Sandel, is the most popular political philosopher who worked as a professor at Harvard. He is famous for his lectures and books. Sandel class on justice at Harvard routinely has more than 1000 students. He believes that to be good citizens we must first deal with hard ethical choices. During his lectures, he engaged the audience and encouraged them to question why they believe what they believe. He argues that nobody can really be neutral, and everyone will always make significant judgments of some kind. And this is why it is important that we confront our beliefs and engage in deep reflection over what it means to be good.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the leading figure of American Transcendentalism, had a great influence on later thinkers. In his book Nature, he argues that nature acts as an intermediary between man and the divine. He believed we should look within ourselves to gain “transcendental” knowledge, we derive from our inner mentality. Emerson was a great believer in the supremacy of the individual over the group. Transcendentalists like Emerson believed that groups corrupt the individual, and thus it is crucial to decide for ourselves what is important. His focus on the individual greatly influenced the thought of American intellectuals and the public.

Charles Sanders Peirce

Charles Sanders Peirce, a chemist, mathematician, and geodist considered scientific philosophy, mainly the study of logic, was his major area of focus. Peirce had an extraordinary range of interests, writing on subjects as different as economics and astronomy. In many of his famous writings, he argued that the scientific method was the superior method for determining truth. He is recognized as the founder of pragmatism. He argued against determinism and believed that the universe displays degrees of habit, but there is variation even with the same input.

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson is best known for being one of the founding fathers of the United States. He served as the third President. Jefferson was a member and the president of the American Philosophical Association. He was a defender of democracy, and argued for a will of the people. Unfortunately, his belief that “all men are created equal” did not extend to non-white men, as he was a slave owner all his life. Because of his wide ranging influence, he is certainly one of the most important political philosophers in American history.

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau worked as teacher, surveyor, lecturer, naturalist, head of a pencil company, but Thoreau always thought of himself as a writer. His most influential writings would be his philosophical essays and nonfiction.  In an essay on civil disobedience, he argued that individuals have an obligation to determine what is right and what is wrong for them. This applies both to laws and unwritten mainstream beliefs. Thoreau believed it critically vital for individuals to think for themselves. He told people not to follow him, but to search inside themselves to discover what was important to them. His teachings made him a unique modern philosopher of America.

William James

William James contributed to both physiology and psychology. His 1,200 page book The Principles of Psychology was greatly influenced by both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. His book included not only psychology, but also philosophy and personal reflection that influenced many important later philosophers, including Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell. James also wrote much about religion from a relativist position. Because of the great diversity of subjects that he wrote about, and the ways he mixed them together, he was one of the most influential thinkers in American history.