5354. Josiah Royce, 1855–1916

With William James and Peirce (qq.v.) Royce is usually considered one of America’s "classic’’ philosophers. He early developed a close friendship with James, who encouraged the younger man in his work; after a time the influence worked both ways. While James was a pragmatist in method, Royce called himself an "absolute pragmatist"; this touches on one of the main points of disagreement between the two; for while Royce accepted pragmatism in some measure, he was primarily an idealist who believed in the existence of absolute truth. This idealism was in some measure a development of his early religious training. This is reflected in his first important book, originally published in 1885, The Religious Aspect ofPhilosophy; a Critique of the Bases of Conduct and Faith (New York, Harper, 1958. 484 p.). This was followed by California from the Conquest in 1846 to the Second Vigilance Committee in San Francisco; a Study of American Character (New York, Knopf, 1948. xxxvii, 394 p.), first published in 1886, which in its history of a decade was "meant to help the reader toward an understanding of two things: namely, the modern American state of California, and our national character as displayed in that land." This work revealed the basic tenets of his philosophy as well as his interest in his native State. This interest was further pursued in his one novel, The Feud of Oakfield Creek (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1887. 483 p.). Royce’s next book was The Spirit of Modern Philosophy (New York, Braziller, 1955. 519 p.), first published in 1892, and based on lectures meant to give "some account of the more significant spiritual possessions of a few prominent modern thinkers." Written before Royce became a predominantly "technical" philosopher with his own fully developed system, the book is stylistically one of his most successful. A more technical and abstract presentation of the basic themes of this book may be found in Lectures on Modern Idealism (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1919. 266 p.), first delivered at Johns Hopkins University in 1906. Royce’s continued interest in ethics was evinced in Studies of Good and Evil; a Series of Essays upon Problems of Philosophy and of Life (New York, Appleton, 1898. 384 p.). His maturing philosophical view and his continuing concern with the state of American society (which he hoped to assist to an idealist outlook) is expressed in Race Questions, Provincialism, and Other American Problems (New York, Macmillan, 1908. 287 p.). There followed WilliamJames, and Other Essays (New York, Macmillan, 1911. 301 p.), a collection meant further to illustrate the philosophy of The World and the Individual (vide infra). His more specifically religious interests again came to the fore in his lectures published as The Sourcesof Religious Insight (New York, Scribner, 1912. 297 p.), which concludes with a restatement of the basic idea of The Philosophy of Loyalty (vide infra). A selection of miscellaneous, mostly early, essays was posthumously published as Fugitive Essays (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1920. 429 p.), a work of some importance, since the ideas of Royce’s major works were often amplified and most clearly illustrated in lectures and essays. A considerable number of these miscellaneous writings have unfortunately remained unpublished.

5355. The World and the individual; Gifford lectures delivered before the University of Aberdeen. 1st series: The four historical conceptions of being. New York, Macmillan, 1900. xvi, 588 p. 0–402 B945.R63W7, 1st ser.

5356. The World and the individual; Gifford lectures delivered before the University of Aberdeen. 2d series: Nature, man, and the moral order. New York, Macmillan, 1901 xx, 480 p. 1–27347 B945.R63W7, 2d ser.

These two series of lectures, revised and considerably extended for publication, are usually regarded as Royce’s most important work in metaphysics. He characterized them, in relation to his earlierwork, as "a deliberate effort to bring into synthesis, more fully than I have ever done before, the relations of Knowledge and of Will in our conception of God," and as necessarily centering upon "the true meaning and place of the concept of Individuality." The four conceptions of being considered in the 1st series are mysticism, realism, and critical rationalism, which are in turn criticized and rejected, and absolute idealism, which of course survives scrutiny. "You are in God," the reader is assured, "but you are not lost in God." The 2d series is concerned with developing the implications of this view for cosmology, ethics, and religion.

5357. The Philosophy of loyalty. New York, Macmillan, 1936. 409 p. 38–33154 BJ1533.L8R6 1936

This best known of Royce’s books, first published in 1908, presents a doctrine of the need of a basic ethical motivation in man’s life. The loyalty propounded is to this general idealism, rather than to the narrow loyalties of particular causes, persons, etc., although it finds expression through these. It is summed up in the conception of "loyalty to loyalty’’ as the highest virtue. This takes care of the individual, but the world must sort out and harmonize discrepant or conflicting loyalties.

5358. The Problem of Christianity. Lectures delivered at the Lowell Institute in Boston, and at Manchester College, Oxford. New York, Macmillan, 1913. 2 v. 13–10606 BR121.R67

CONTENTS.—1. The Christian doctrine of life.—2. The real world and the Christian ideas.

This is Royce’s final statement of his general position, the outcome of his "philosophical study of certain problems belonging to ethics, to religious experience, and to general philosophy." In it he develops his idea of loyalty as "the practically devoted love of an individual for a community," and presents Christianity as being "in its essence, the most typical, and, so far in human history, the most highly developed religion of loyalty." Royce sidesteps the entanglements of dogmas, controversies, and institutions found in historical Christianity, since he is concerned with the "essence of Christianity" rather than with such particulars.

5359. Logical essays. Edited by Daniel S. Robinson. Dubuque, Iowa, W. C. Brown, 1951. 447 p. 51–8059 B945.R63L6

5360. The Social philosophy of Josiah Royce. Edited, with an introductory essay, by Stuart Gerry Brown. [Syracuse, N. Y.] Syracuse University Press, 1950. 220 p. 50–10512 H35.R87

5361. The Religious philosophy of Josiah Royce. Edited, with an introductory essay, by Stuart Gerry Brown. [Syracuse, N.Y.] Syracuse University Press, 1952. 239 p. 52–41521 B945.R61B7

In the first title Dr. Robinson, director of the School of Philosophy of the University of Southern California, has made a valuable collection of practically all of Royce’s writings on logic. Royce took up the subject quite late in his career, largely through the stimulation of C. S. Peirce, but subsequent logicians have abundantly recognized the quality and the importance of his contributions. Save for one book review of the nineties, all these papers were published between 1901 and 1914, and only one of them has appeared in other collections of Royce’s essays. This is an unusual piece of bookmaking: the first 12 pieces are reproduced from typewritten copy, while the remaining 5 are photographically reproduced from the original publications. Mr. Brown, who is professor of citizenship and American culture in the Maxwell School of Citizenship of Syracuse University, aims in the last two titles "to make the core of [Royce’s] social and religious thought once more available for all students of American philosophy and culture." He contributes a substantial introduction, "From Provincialism to the Great Community," to the earlier one.

5362. Cotton, James Harry. Royce on the human self. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1954. xiv, 347 p. 54–8622 B945.R64C6. Bibliography: p. [303]–311.

Because of Royce’s conceptions of the human self as intricately related, and because of this idea’s centrality to his philosophy, this book deals with nearly all of Royce’s work. Considerable reliance has been placed on unpublished material, though only as a source of illustrations, not of new ideas. As an extension of the central theme, one chapter is devoted to the relations between William James, C. S. Peirce, and Royce.

5363. Marcel, Gabriel. Royce’s metaphysics. Translated by Virginia and Gordon Ringer. Chicago, Regnery, 1956. 180 p. 56–11854 B945.R64M33

Originally written in French (La Métaphysique de Royce. [Paris] Aubier, 1945. 224 p.), this is one of the most distinguished and thorough studies of Royce’s philosophy, although it limits itself to studying Royce’s solution of the problem of metaphysics. A Norwegian dissertation on Royce appeared in 1934: Sverre Norborg’s Josiah Royce, Puritaner og Idealist (Oslo, Lutherstiftelsens Forlag. 441 p.).

5364. Smith, John Edwin. Royce’s social infinite: the community of interpretation. New York, Liberal Arts Press, 1950. 176 p. 50–6708 B945.R64S5. Bibliography: p. 171–173.

This Columbia University dissertation studies Royce’s fusion of Christianity and his own idealism, as expressed in his idea of a community, created by individual minds linked together by the special kind of knowing he named interpretation, and sustained by that loyalty which was the supreme good of life.