Thomas Upham (January 20, 1799 – April 2, 1872)[1] was an American philosopher, psychologist, pacifist, poet, author, and educator.

[2] He became influential within psychology literature and served as the Bowdoin College professor of mental and moral philosophy from 1825-1868.

Additionally, he produced a volume of 16 other books and the first treatise on abnormal psychology, as well as several other works on religious themes and figures.

This positing of a will free to choose between desires and obligations reflected the author's own spiritual journey from a Calvinistic background to the Wesleyan holiness perspective.

Upham was a member of the Colonization Society, and while sympathetic to the anti-slavery cause, he believed that maintaining peace and obeying the law were more important.