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American Philosophy
[The Basic Writings of Josiah Royce: Culture, Philosophy, and Religion v. 1: Culture, Philosophy, and Religion] (By: John J. McDermott) [published: March, 2005]
Now back in print, and in paperback, these two classic volumes illustrate the scope and quality of Royce’s thought, providing the most comprehensive selection of his writings currently available. They offer a detailed presentation of the viable relationship Royce forged between the local experience of community and the demands of a philosophical and scientific vision of the human situation. The selections reprinted here are basic to any understanding of Royce’s thought and its pressing relevance to contemporary cultural, moral, and religious issues.
- GenresPhilosophy
Paperback
First published October 1, 1969
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 13, 2022
Josiah Royce In His Own Words -- I
Josiah Royce (1855 -- 1916) was an American philosopher who has become known for his development of the philosophy of absolute idealism. Royce taught at Harvard for most of his life and wrote and lectured extensively. Although regarded (and self-described) as an idealist, Royce is frequently studied with his fellow American philosophers Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey for his interactions with American pragmatism. Both "idealism" and "pragmatism" are, indeed, notoriously slippery terms.
In 1969, the American philosopher John McDermott edited and introduced a comprehensive two-volume selection of Royce's writings, "The Basic Writings of Josiah Royce". In 2005, Fordham University Press republished the set in two paperback volumes, with the book under review, volume 1 subtitled, "Culture, Philosophy, and Religion". The book consists of 635 pages of Royce's writings. With its companion volume, the "Basic Writings" include over 1200 pages and do not include any selections from what has become Royce's most famous work, "The Problem of Christianity" published in 1912 and available separately. Even with this exclusion, these two volumes offer a broad, thorough overview to the thought and concerns of an important American thinker whose work has seen an increased interest since the original 1969 publication of the "Basic Writings'.
The volumes are arranged thematically rather than strictly chronologically with the chapter headings themselves providing an overview of the themes of Royce's thought. Thus, volume 1 opens with Royce's own "Autobiographical Sketch" from 1915. Royce's discussion of his early boyhood in frontier California provides an introduction to his work,
"My native town was a mining town in the Sierra Nevada -- a place five or six years older than myself. My earliest recollections include a very frequent wonder as to what my elders meant when they said that this was a new community. I frequently looked at the vestiges felt by the former diggings of miners, saw that many pine logs were rotten, and that a miner's grave was to be found in a lonely place not far from my own house. Plainly men had lived and died thereabouts. I dimly reflected that this sort of life had apparently been going on ever since men dwelt in that land. The logs and the grave looked old. The sunsets were beautiful. The wide prospects when one looked across the Sacramento Valley were impressive, and had long interested the people of whose love for my country I heard much. What was there then in this place that ought to be called new, or for that matter, crude? I wondered, and gradually came to feel that part of my life's business was to find out what all this wonder meant."
Part II of this volume is titled "The American Context". It includes generous selections from Royce's 1886 history of California, subtitled "A Study of American Character". Royce's history is concrete and factual, unlike some of his later books. It introduces themes of community and loyalty which play large roles in his philosophy. This part also includes a selection from Royce's long-forgotten novel set in early California, together with a later essay on the history of the State and a famous late essay titled "William James and the Philosophy of Life".
Part III, "The European Background" begins with an essay on the poet Shelley but picks up force with the essay "Pessimism and Modern Thought" which addresses pessimism and suffering as formative elements of Royce's own philosophy. It also includes an excellent historical essay on philosophy between Spinoza and Kant. This section concludes with an essay "The Concept of the Absolute and the Dialectical Method" which transitions between Royce's study of the history of philosophy and his own thinking.
Part IV, "Religious Questions" includes critical Royce texts and issues. It begins with a selection from Royce's 1885 book "The Religious Aspect of Philosophy" in which Royce first argued that the possibility of human error led, through a complex argument, to the existence of God and the Absolute. When other idealistic philosophers, including the American George Howison, took issue with this argument and with Royce's Absolute, Royce refined and elaborated his argument in a paper called "The Conception of God", which was subsequently published in a book together with Howison's critique. Royce's essay, included here, is important for its effort to combine a philosophical Absolute with recognition of individual personhood. These themes are developed in the somewhat misnamed essay "Immortality" included here and in the insightful historical overview of religious philosophy, "Monotheism" with which this section concludes.
This volume concludes with Part V, "The World and the Individual". It consists primarily of large excerpts from Royce's two-volume set of Gifford Lectures published in 1901 under the same name. For a long time, this was thought to be Royce's most representative work. It offers in outline an impressive and large statement of philosophical absolute idealism and of what Professor McDermott terms "metaphysics in the grand style and certainly the supreme example of an American philosopher doing 'System' philosophy." In its abstractness, repetitiveness, obscurity, and bloated character, this work is most difficult and can be highly frustrating to read. One can understand in part the rejection of this form of philosophizing for clarity and concreteness. With this said, the book remains a centerpiece for understanding Royce, both his earlier and his subsequent work. It includes broad discussions and distinctions in ways of understanding Being that are important, together with insightful discussions of the will and of time. "The World and the Individual" remains important in understanding Royce although the work is hardly pleasurable to read.
Professor McDermott's introduction to this volume is short but it includes an excellent overview of Royce and of the contents of the "Basic Writings". Over the years, I have read a good deal of Royce and of modern scholars of Royce and of American pragmatism. This collection and its companion volume of Royce's "Basic Writings" are difficult but rewarding in helping to understand both Royce and the American pragmatists. The volumes are invaluable for serious study of Royce in gathering important selections from his voluminous writings in one place. There is no substitute for close original study of a philosopher in getting to understand the philosopher's thinking.
Robin Friedman
Note: Fordham University Press has graciously made this volume and its companion volume available online for free access.
Josiah Royce (1855 -- 1916) was an American philosopher who has become known for his development of the philosophy of absolute idealism. Royce taught at Harvard for most of his life and wrote and lectured extensively. Although regarded (and self-described) as an idealist, Royce is frequently studied with his fellow American philosophers Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey for his interactions with American pragmatism. Both "idealism" and "pragmatism" are, indeed, notoriously slippery terms.
In 1969, the American philosopher John McDermott edited and introduced a comprehensive two-volume selection of Royce's writings, "The Basic Writings of Josiah Royce". In 2005, Fordham University Press republished the set in two paperback volumes, with the book under review, volume 1 subtitled, "Culture, Philosophy, and Religion". The book consists of 635 pages of Royce's writings. With its companion volume, the "Basic Writings" include over 1200 pages and do not include any selections from what has become Royce's most famous work, "The Problem of Christianity" published in 1912 and available separately. Even with this exclusion, these two volumes offer a broad, thorough overview to the thought and concerns of an important American thinker whose work has seen an increased interest since the original 1969 publication of the "Basic Writings'.
The volumes are arranged thematically rather than strictly chronologically with the chapter headings themselves providing an overview of the themes of Royce's thought. Thus, volume 1 opens with Royce's own "Autobiographical Sketch" from 1915. Royce's discussion of his early boyhood in frontier California provides an introduction to his work,
"My native town was a mining town in the Sierra Nevada -- a place five or six years older than myself. My earliest recollections include a very frequent wonder as to what my elders meant when they said that this was a new community. I frequently looked at the vestiges felt by the former diggings of miners, saw that many pine logs were rotten, and that a miner's grave was to be found in a lonely place not far from my own house. Plainly men had lived and died thereabouts. I dimly reflected that this sort of life had apparently been going on ever since men dwelt in that land. The logs and the grave looked old. The sunsets were beautiful. The wide prospects when one looked across the Sacramento Valley were impressive, and had long interested the people of whose love for my country I heard much. What was there then in this place that ought to be called new, or for that matter, crude? I wondered, and gradually came to feel that part of my life's business was to find out what all this wonder meant."
Part II of this volume is titled "The American Context". It includes generous selections from Royce's 1886 history of California, subtitled "A Study of American Character". Royce's history is concrete and factual, unlike some of his later books. It introduces themes of community and loyalty which play large roles in his philosophy. This part also includes a selection from Royce's long-forgotten novel set in early California, together with a later essay on the history of the State and a famous late essay titled "William James and the Philosophy of Life".
Part III, "The European Background" begins with an essay on the poet Shelley but picks up force with the essay "Pessimism and Modern Thought" which addresses pessimism and suffering as formative elements of Royce's own philosophy. It also includes an excellent historical essay on philosophy between Spinoza and Kant. This section concludes with an essay "The Concept of the Absolute and the Dialectical Method" which transitions between Royce's study of the history of philosophy and his own thinking.
Part IV, "Religious Questions" includes critical Royce texts and issues. It begins with a selection from Royce's 1885 book "The Religious Aspect of Philosophy" in which Royce first argued that the possibility of human error led, through a complex argument, to the existence of God and the Absolute. When other idealistic philosophers, including the American George Howison, took issue with this argument and with Royce's Absolute, Royce refined and elaborated his argument in a paper called "The Conception of God", which was subsequently published in a book together with Howison's critique. Royce's essay, included here, is important for its effort to combine a philosophical Absolute with recognition of individual personhood. These themes are developed in the somewhat misnamed essay "Immortality" included here and in the insightful historical overview of religious philosophy, "Monotheism" with which this section concludes.
This volume concludes with Part V, "The World and the Individual". It consists primarily of large excerpts from Royce's two-volume set of Gifford Lectures published in 1901 under the same name. For a long time, this was thought to be Royce's most representative work. It offers in outline an impressive and large statement of philosophical absolute idealism and of what Professor McDermott terms "metaphysics in the grand style and certainly the supreme example of an American philosopher doing 'System' philosophy." In its abstractness, repetitiveness, obscurity, and bloated character, this work is most difficult and can be highly frustrating to read. One can understand in part the rejection of this form of philosophizing for clarity and concreteness. With this said, the book remains a centerpiece for understanding Royce, both his earlier and his subsequent work. It includes broad discussions and distinctions in ways of understanding Being that are important, together with insightful discussions of the will and of time. "The World and the Individual" remains important in understanding Royce although the work is hardly pleasurable to read.
Professor McDermott's introduction to this volume is short but it includes an excellent overview of Royce and of the contents of the "Basic Writings". Over the years, I have read a good deal of Royce and of modern scholars of Royce and of American pragmatism. This collection and its companion volume of Royce's "Basic Writings" are difficult but rewarding in helping to understand both Royce and the American pragmatists. The volumes are invaluable for serious study of Royce in gathering important selections from his voluminous writings in one place. There is no substitute for close original study of a philosopher in getting to understand the philosopher's thinking.
Robin Friedman
Note: Fordham University Press has graciously made this volume and its companion volume available online for free access.
December 21, 2022
If there's a way to God through Nature, surely it's not through the long-winded and hackneyed phraseology of this thinker, whose authorial voice is centered on ideals of faith and tradition. Actually, I enjoyed his writings on philosophy, which I could finally appreciate now having read all of Kant, Hegel, Descartes, Nietzsche, Freud and William James; however, his writing on religious matters leave me a little cold. Truthfully, it's a little unfair to criticize Royce's blindered philosophy, considering the fact that he wrote his philosophy before writers such as Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein tied the knots of critical thinking, exchanging mathematics for metaphysics in an attempt to try to impose a mathematical logic onto the illogicality of human language. Three stars.
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