author
William Caldwell
1863–1942
A Scottish-born philosopher and teacher, he spent decades bringing big philosophical debates to students and general readers on both sides of the Atlantic. His best-known writing explores idealism, pragmatism, and the thinkers who shaped modern philosophy.
1 Audiobook
Pragmatism and idealism
by William Caldwell
About the author
Born in Edinburgh in 1863, he studied at the University of Edinburgh, earning an MA and later a DSc. After further study in Germany, France, and Cambridge, he moved to the United States in 1891 and taught philosophy at Cornell, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern before beginning a long tenure at McGill University.
In 1903, he became Macdonald Professor of Moral Philosophy at McGill, a post he held until retiring in 1929. He was known not only as a scholar of philosophy but also as a widely traveled lecturer, and after the First World War he took a strong interest in the emerging nations of Eastern Europe.
Caldwell is best remembered for writing on philosophical subjects, including major studies of Schopenhauer and of pragmatism and idealism. He died in 1942, leaving behind work that helped make demanding philosophical questions more accessible to a broader reading public.