William R. Schroeder

William R. (Bill) Schroeder, longtime professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, passed away peacefully on July 26, 2021, at his home in Urbana, Illinois, after an extended illness. He was an exceptionally dedicated teacher, fiercely demanding both of himself and his students, but also deeply loyal. He maintained close friendships with a number of his former students throughout his life. A founding member of the U of I’s Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, he participated for decades in its interdisciplinary seminar. He discussed and debated ideas with intensity and joy. Followers of the U of I’s Women’s Volleyball team will also remember him as a devoted fan who attended all of their games and recruited other friends to join him.

Bill came to Illinois in 1979 after completing his PhD in philosophy at the University of Michigan, studying under Frithjof Bergmann. They too remained lifelong friends and colleagues. He taught at Bennington College in Vermont and at UCLA before coming to Illinois. Bill Schroeder was an accomplished scholar of continental philosophy, despite the Anglo-American tradition that dominates most US philosophy departments. He wrote and published two major scholarly books in continental philosophy, Sartre and His Predecessors: The Self and the Other (1984) and Continental Philosophy: A Critical Approach (2005). The second of these books is an ambitious project that summarizes and evaluates all the major movements and figures in the continental tradition, from Descartes, Kant, and Hegel through Marx to Baudrillard. He also coedited a major collection, A Companion to Continental Philosophy (1998).

He was born on April 9, 1947, in Detroit and grew up there. He attended Detroit’s Cass Technical High School, then earned a BA and MA at the University of Michigan. As a young man, he loved playing basketball and touch football with enthusiasm and intensity. He loved movies and television and brought rigorous critique and an intense capacity for enjoyment to his watching.  For several years, he oversaw his local Hearts of Space radio show, and will be remembered for his love of ambient and electronic music, of the color purple, and of long, lively conversations. He was preceded in death by his younger brother Richard and by his parents, Ralph and Adele. Bill did not wish to have a funeral, but friends are planning a memorial at which people can share memories.

Condolences may be offered at www.renner-wikoffchapel.com

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