David Schweickart: A Brief Biography

David Schweickart was born February 11, 1942 in Cleveland, Ohio, the first of his parents' seven children. He grew up mostly in Columbus, Ohio, having spent four formative years (second through fifth grades) in rural Ohio near Ragersville (population 50). He attended Bishop Watterson High School in Columbus, and was class valedictorian.

He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Dayton in 1964 with a major in mathematics. He went on to earn two Ph.D.'s, one in mathematics (from the University of Virginia) and one in philosophy (from Ohio State University). He began teaching in the Philosophy Department at Loyola in 1975. In 1999 he was named Faculty Member of the Year.

Professor Schweickart is a leading theorist of what has come to be called "Economic Democracy," an alternative to capitalism, a form of market socialism featuring workplace democracy and social control of investment. His books on this subject include Against Capitalism (Cambridge University Press, 1993), which has been translated into Spanish and into Chinaese, and After Capitalism (Rowman and Littlefield, 2002), a Chinese translation of which appeared in 2005.

Professor Schweickart's other writings have been translated into Spanish, Catalan, French, Farsi and Chinese. He has lectured in the United States, Canada, France, Italy, the Czech Republic and China. He has given seminars on his work at the Instituto de Filosofia in Havana, Cuba, at the Universidad de Centroamerica in El Salvador, and at the Instituto Tecnologico Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Mexico City.

Professor Schweickart's primary research interests are Marxism and various questions at the intersection of philosophy and economics. He also has major interests in feminist theory, existentialism, critical theory and philosophical issues regarding race.

Professor Schweickart was featured, along with Loyola Professor Lauren Langman, on Chicago Public Radio's "Odyssey," on a program devoted to the 150th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto. He was the subject of an hour-long television interview for the cable series "Hot Talk" in 1998. He appeared on the sydicated cable show, "No Dogs or Philosophers Allowed" in 2004. He has given radio interviews in Chicago, Boston, Portland (Oregon), New York City and Los Angeles. A lengthy print interview has appeared in the November/December 2005 issue of Dollars and Sense. Print interviews have also been published in Chinese and Farsi.

Over the years Professor Schweickart has been very much involved in the life of the University. He has served as faculty adcisor to the Amnesty International Chapter, and to the Loyola Organization with the People of El Salvador. He co-chaired the Committee on Race Relations at Loyola. He has served as Graduate Program Director and as Vice-Chairman in his department; he has served on Academic Council. He is currently a Humanities Representative to Faculty Council, having served since 2000. He has taught at Loyola's Rome Center on four occasions.

His Wife, Patrocionio Schweickart, is Professor of English and Women's Studies at Purdue University. They have two daughters, one now a doctor and one a lawyer (so all bases are covered), three granddaughters, and a grandson.