At first, I thought this was a dumb question wrapped up in purple prose. I realize it's a good question I can't answer sufficiently, at least not without some help.
Do it inductively. Start with a list of people who you think were visionaries, then look for commonalities. Also, there’s going to be bias because most visionaries don’t succeed. So that means we never hear about them. So that means the question really is what is a successful visionary? Or, what is a visionary who has achieved at least some of his vision in a way that the rest of the world can see? Also, you need a society which is wealthy and dynamic and expanding the permits visionaries to actually have a realistic possibility of making their vision actual. That means in practice you are limited to western civilization in the last few centuries. Also, implicitly, we’re going to want to rule out visionaries whose aims were evil, even though some of the most effective visionaries have been malicious in their intentions. You may want to come up with your own list, keep it to 10 or a dozen people, then look for common threads.
All of these are really interesting, and I'm happy to learn about Brunel. My only quibble is with Hamilton, and that's primarily because I just don't like him and think he is responsible in great part for the decline of the American Republic.
Hamilton founded the American Republic, probably more than any other single individual. So its rise and decline are both rooted in him. He was a kid from nowhere who clawed his way to the top by effort, will power, intelligence, political cleverness and ability to lead and inspire others. He saw the potential for thirteen small colonies to become a single country, then a world power equalling then exceeding the scale of the Kingdoms of the Old World, to capture and ransack the continent, to command the trade and manufacturing and finance of the world, to build fleets that would dominate the oceans. He actually envisioned all that, and it happened. Love him or hate him, he HAD a vision and he materially advanced that vision. I purposely left out evil visionaries (Robespierre, Lenin, Marx) but they were also visionaries who saw a possible future and materially changed the world to try to make that envisioned world happen. You may put Hamilton in the category of evil visionaries. I do not, but the moral characterization of the man is a matter for debate. That he was a spectacularly effective visionary is not really open to dispute.
Do it inductively. Start with a list of people who you think were visionaries, then look for commonalities. Also, there’s going to be bias because most visionaries don’t succeed. So that means we never hear about them. So that means the question really is what is a successful visionary? Or, what is a visionary who has achieved at least some of his vision in a way that the rest of the world can see? Also, you need a society which is wealthy and dynamic and expanding the permits visionaries to actually have a realistic possibility of making their vision actual. That means in practice you are limited to western civilization in the last few centuries. Also, implicitly, we’re going to want to rule out visionaries whose aims were evil, even though some of the most effective visionaries have been malicious in their intentions. You may want to come up with your own list, keep it to 10 or a dozen people, then look for common threads.
Brilliant idea. Might just inspire a series.
Here is an off-the-cuff list of ten visionaries, in various fields, to prime the pump:
Leonardo da Vinci
Ignatius of Loyola
Isaac Newton
Benjamin Franklin
Alexander Hamilton
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Richard Wagner
Henry Ford
John von Neumann
Steve Jobs
All of these are really interesting, and I'm happy to learn about Brunel. My only quibble is with Hamilton, and that's primarily because I just don't like him and think he is responsible in great part for the decline of the American Republic.
Brunel was quite a guy. Well known in his day. A personal favorite. Worth reading about.
Hamilton founded the American Republic, probably more than any other single individual. So its rise and decline are both rooted in him. He was a kid from nowhere who clawed his way to the top by effort, will power, intelligence, political cleverness and ability to lead and inspire others. He saw the potential for thirteen small colonies to become a single country, then a world power equalling then exceeding the scale of the Kingdoms of the Old World, to capture and ransack the continent, to command the trade and manufacturing and finance of the world, to build fleets that would dominate the oceans. He actually envisioned all that, and it happened. Love him or hate him, he HAD a vision and he materially advanced that vision. I purposely left out evil visionaries (Robespierre, Lenin, Marx) but they were also visionaries who saw a possible future and materially changed the world to try to make that envisioned world happen. You may put Hamilton in the category of evil visionaries. I do not, but the moral characterization of the man is a matter for debate. That he was a spectacularly effective visionary is not really open to dispute.
That's a completely fair assessment of Hamilton, despite my feelings about him.