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When I first became acquainted with the thought of the American philoso pher Josiah Royce, two factors particularly intrigued me. The first was Royce's claim that the notion of community was his main metaphysical tenet; the second was his close association with the two American pragmatists, Charles Sanders Peirce and William James. Regarding the first factor, I was struck by the fact that a philosopher who died in 1916 should emphasize a topic of such contemporary significance not only in philosophy but in so many other vital fields as well (sociology, psychology, politics, theology - to name only a few). Regarding the second, I was curious as to whether the pragmatism of Peirce and James might have influenced Royce during the course of their professional and personal contacts. Similarly, I wondered whether the idealism of Royce might have affected the thought of Peirce and James. To have appeased my curiosity in regard to all three thinkers, however, would have required (at least) three books. As a start I have now appeased it in regard to one. In researching the writings of Royce I found my way to the Houghton Library and to the Archives of Harvard University at Cambridge, Massa chusetts, where the unpublished manuscripts of Royce are preserved. (No editing job has yet been done on this bulk of material, though such would certainly be a welcome contribution to American philosophy.
List of contents
I: Propaedeutic to a Study of Royce.- II: Possibilities for a Roycean Pragmatism.- One The Early Royce (c. 1875-90).- III: His Theory of Knowledge.- IV: His notion of the Absolute.- V: His Conception of the Individual.- Two The Middle Period (c. 1890-1906).- VI: Theory of Knowledge Pragmatically allied with Doctrine of Interpretation.- VII: Notion of the Absolute More Pragmatically Orientated.- VIII: Conception of the Individual Pragmatically Leads to Consideration of Community.- Three The Mature Royce (c. 1906-16).- IX: Knowledge by Interpretation, a Mediating principle.- X: God as Pragmatic Postulate.- XI: Community as Perfective of the Individual.- Conclusion.- XII: The Roycean Pragmatic.
