Dr. William Sweet

Biography:

Born in Alberta, Will Sweet completed his elementary and secondary schooling in Ottawa. He did undergraduate studies at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, followed by graduate studies at Carleton, the University of Ottawa, the University of Manitoba, Saint Paul University, and the Sorbonne (at the University of Paris). His doctorates are in political theory and philosophical theology. Dr. Sweet studied as well at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Universität Wien (Austria), and the Centre Sèvres (Facultés jesuites, Paris).

Dr Sweet has taught at St Francis Xavier University since 1990. He has also taught at St Thomas University in Fredericton (where he was Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Religious Studies and served as Vice-President, Academic), St Thomas More College (University of Saskatchewan), the Collège Heritage (Québec), the University of Ottawa, and Carleton University. He has also taught graduate courses at the Catholic University of Lublin (Poland), at Fu Jen Catholic University and at Soochow University (Taiwan), as well as at the Pontifical Athenaeum of Philosophy, Theology and Canon Law (Dharmaram College) in India.

He has held a variety of administrative responsibilities at the University as well as serving the community on Ethics Committees of Provincial District Health Boards and on the Mission Assurance Committee of St Martha’s Hospital. Chair of Graduate Studies, of the Senate, of the Faculty of Arts, and of the Department of Philosophy, Dr Sweet also served as President of the StFX Faculty Association.

Chosen Research Professor of the Year at St FX in 2001, Dr Sweet is the author or editor of some 30 books and over 100 scholarly articles. Among his most recent books are Religion and the Challenges of Science (Ashgate, 2007, with Richard Feist), Bernard Bosanquet and the Legacy of British Idealism (University of Toronto Press, 2007), and The Dialogue of Cultural Traditions (2008).His core teaching areas are ethics, political theory, philosophical theology, and modern philosophy.

Dr. Sweet is Past-President of the Canadian Philosophical Association, a member of the Steering Committee of FISP (the Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies), Vice President of the Istituto Internazionale Jacques Maritain (Rome), President of the World Union of Catholic Philosophical Societies, and editor of the journals Philosophy, Culture and Traditions and Collingwood and British Idealism Studies.