Does anybody know anything about Josiah Royce and his philosophical absolute idealism? All I know is he was an American philosopher born in 1855 in California. Has he been forgotten?
Are there other philosophers who are underrated or overlooked?
I don’t know much of anything about his philosophy. I know he was of course an American idealist, he taught at Harvard in the late 1800’s, and his philosophy rejects Jame’s pragmatism. I have very little know about American philosophy…except for the later guys, like Quine and Putnam. Interestingly though, I have read a good bit of philosophy and have never came across him as far as I can remember. When you find something out about his thought (I do know he wrote a book called ‘The World and the Individual’) then post and tell us about him.
Trey
Mirabilis,
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----- To paraphrase the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy (Best i’ve found. 440 contributors. About $30 U.S. dollars in paperback)
Josiah Royce (1855-1916) known for his pragmatic idealism, ethics of loyalty, & theory of community. received his education: Berkley, Johns Hopkins, Germany, started teaching at Harvard in 1882.
----- Saw the individual as both moral and sinful, and held that a concept of the absolute or eternal was needed to account for truth and ultimate meaning. Self limitation and egoism undermine individual goals, and thus the self needs saving, and this is the message of religion.
----- Salvation comes through the community, Royce’s idea of community comes through intrepretation, reconciling ideas, goals, and persons, and brings understanding and shared meaning. Intrepretation comes through respect of selves, the will to intrepret, dissatisfaction with half-meanings and narrowness of view, and reciprocity.
Some of his more influential students include C.I. Lewis, William Earnest Hocking, Norbert Wiener, Santayana, & T.S. Eliot.
Thanks for your help on Royce, I will have some reading to do now. I’m still not quite sure which of the great philosophers his philosophy is most like?