George John Blewett (9 December 1873 – 9 August 1912) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

philosopher and

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

Biography

Born on 9 December 1873, in

Yarmouth Township Central Elgin is a township located in Southwestern Ontario, Canada in Elgin County on Lake Erie. It is part of the London census metropolitan area. History Central Elgin was formed in 1998 through the amalgamation of the Township of Yarmouth w ...

Elgin County Elgin County is a county of the Canadian province of Ontario with a 2016 population of 50,069. Its population centres are St. Thomas, Aylmer, Port Stanley, Belmont, Dutton and West Lorne. The county seat is St. Thomas, which is separated from t ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, the son of William Blewett, a farmer, and Mary Baker, he was raised on a farm near St. Thomas, Ontario. In 1897, he graduated from

Victoria University in the University of Toronto Victoria University is a federated university forming part of the wider University of Toronto, and was founded in 1836. The undergraduate section of the university is Victoria College, informally ''Vic'', after the original name of the univers ...

. He studied at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one of ...

in 1899 and received a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

degree in philosophy in 1900 from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. He also did postgraduate work at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

and

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

. In 1901, he became a lecturer in philosophy at Wesley College, Winnipeg. In 1906, he became the Ryerson Professor of moral philosophy at Victoria University. In 1907, he wrote ''The Study of Nature and the Vision of God: With Other Essays in Philosophy''. His second book ''The Christian View of the World'' was published in 1912. He drowned while swimming, apparently the result of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

, in Go Home Bay, Ontario, on 15 August 1912. He was buried in the Necropolis Cemetery.

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* * * * * 1873 births 1912 deaths 20th-century Canadian philosophers 20th-century Protestant theologians Canadian ethicists Canadian Methodist ministers Canadian Methodist theologians Christian ethicists Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Hegelian philosophers Idealists Methodist philosophers People from Elgin County Philosophers of religion University of Toronto alumni University of Toronto faculty Burials at Toronto Necropolis University of Würzburg alumni {{Methodist-stub