William James was a noted Human philosopher and author. During a shuttlecraft trip to Starbase 515 in 2365, Jean-Luc Picard gave Wesley Crusher a book to read authored by James, prior to his Starfleet Academy entrance exams. In the script , Picard asked Wesley to consider James' wisdom with this quote, "Philosophy...is not a technical matter...it is a sense of what life honestly means...our individual way of feeling the total push and pressure of the cosmos." Then, Picard expressed to Wesley that this was what he wanted for the young man.