William Caldwell was born in Edinburgh and educated at Edinburgh University, where he won the Shaw Fellowship. After post-graduate work in Germany, France and Cambridge, he came to the United States in 1891, and taught philosophy at Cornell, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University. In 1903 he became Macdonald Professor of Moral Philosophy at McGill, a position he held until his retirement in 1929. Caldwell's travels and lectures in Europe took a new turn after the First World War when he developed a special interest in the new nations of Eastern Europe, particularly Poland under its philosopher-president, Masaryk. He was decorated by the governments of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia for his promotion of their interests in the English-speaking world. Caldwell also wrote two major philosophical studies on Schopenhauer and on Pragmatism and Idealism. He passed away in 1942.