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Josiah Royce (1855 -- 1916) was born to a family of poor pioneers in California and became a professor of philosophy at Harvard from 1882 until his death. Royce taught a philosophy of absolute idealism which largely became marginalized even during the later part of his life and remains so today. In recent years, there has been a modest revival of scholarly and, to a limited degree, popular interest in Royce which focuses on his philosophy of loyalty and on the importance Royce placed on community.
Following Royce's death, his wife entrusted Royce's student Jacob Loewenberg (1882 -- 1969) with the task of going through and organizing Royce's papers. Loewenberg's work resulted in the publication of two books: the "Lectures on Modern Idealism" (1919) which is the text of lectures Royce delivered in 1906 at Johns Hopkins and the 1920 "Fugitive Essays", which I am reviewing here, which consists of uncollected essays of Royce mostly from early in his career.
Royce had been among the first to earn a PhD in philosophy from Johns Hopkins in 1878. To his disappointment, he was unable to secure a position teaching philosophy at the time. Instead, he returned to California where he spent four years teaching English and literature. Of the fifteen essays collected in "Fugitive Essays", twelve date from Royce's California years while the final three essays date from the 1890, 1893, and 1903. Jacob Loewenberg was at the beginning of his career as a professor of philosophy in California where he would become a gifted thinker in his own right. He wrote a lengthy insightful introduction to this collection of Royce's essays.
Most of these essays date from when Royce was about 25 and they show a young, ambitious, erudite scholar eager to publish and to express his thoughts. The essays range over literary and philosophical topics with considerable attention to the German authors Royce had read during a year's study in Germany. There is a lengthy essay devoted to Schiller who, together with Goethe and others, is also discussed in many other essays. Royce devotes an essay to "Shelley and the Revolution" and the 1893 essay "The Problem of Paracelsus" explores Robert Browning's lengthy early poem of that name. Browning and the Victorian poets were particularly close to Royce. The best of the primarily literary essays is "George Elliott as a Religious Teacher" which discusses Elliott's philosophical and religious studies in German literature and in Spinoza and then offers thoughtful readings of several of Elliott's novels. In all the literary studies included in this book, Royce focuses on religious, philosophical and ethical issues.
The essays not devoted to a particular literary figure combine in various degrees philosophy and literature. The collection includes two essays in which Royce explores the nature of pessimism from both literary and philosophical perspectives. An essay, "The Nature of Voluntary Progress" is an early effort to deal with social and political philosophy. Royce's own absolute idealism is clearly in evidence in several essays including "On purpose in thought" "Doubting and working" and "How beliefs are made".
The essays I especially enjoyed include Royce's short early study of Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise titled "Natural Rights and Spinoza's Essay on Liberty" and an essay titled "The Decay of Earnestness" which seems to me to set out some of the considerations which drove Royce to philosophize and set out some of the background conditions for his work. The essay shows, among other things, the influence of Darwinism and the theory of evolution upon Royce.
In the introduction to the volume, Loewenberg places the essays in the context of Royce's work as a whole. Loewenberg sees Royce's philosophy as essentially consisted from these early essays to Royce's late works including the important 1913 study "The Problem of Christianity". Loewenberg also sees, consistent with Royce's own observations, the nature of community as the central feature of Royce's thought from these early essays to the end of Royce's life. Loewenberg shows the importance of both community and of idealism in these early essays and shows how Royce carried through and developed his philosophical understanding of them throughout his career.
With even Royce's major works having only a modest readership, it is understandable that the "Fugitive Essays" receive little attention. It is still a gift to have this collection. Several of the essays, including those on Spinoza, George Elliott, and Browning are worth reading in their own right. The book as a whole will be of most interest to scholars with a strong interest in Royce, idealism, and the development of American philosophy. The book has been digitized and is readily accessible to readers who may be interested.
