Josiah Royce in Focus

Royce And Contemporary Philosophy

In May 2007, I had the good fortune to attend a seminar at the Harvard Divinity School titled "William James and Josiah Royce a Century Later: Pragmatism and Idealism in Dialogue." It was a rare privilege to hear scholars who had devoted much of their lives to the study of James and Royce explore their thoughts and explain their current importance. Among the speakers at the conference was Professor Jacquelyn Ann Kegley who gave a paper titled "Community: the Context of Creative Action" which considered the social theory of Royce. I was pleased to revisit the HDS Conference and Kegley's consideration of Royce by reading Kegley's recent book, "Josiah Royce in Focus" (2009), published in the Indiana University Press series on American philosophers. Kegley is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Department at California State University, Bakersfield.

Josiah Royce (1855 -- 1916) has frequently been overshadowed by his fellow pragmatically-oriented thinkers, Peirce, James, and Dewey in the "Golden Age of American Philosophy." Yet a growing number of philosophers, as witnessed by the HDS Conference, believe that Royce has many insights to offer to contemporary philosophy. Thus, Kegley's book explores some of Royce's major themes and relates them to current philosophical debate.

Contemporary philosophers tend to shy away from Royce due to his perceived commitment to a strong form of absolute philosophical idealism. Kegley's book attempts to downplay the significance of this large metaphysical position. Instead, Kegley argues that Royce eschewed philosophical or metaphysical certainties and adopted a questioning, tentative and experientially-based approach to all philosophical questions, including questions about the idealist Absolute.

Kegley understands Royce as a "model philosopher" whose life and thought testified to the importance of the philosophical endeavor. She sees Royce as a synthesizer, as a "bridge builder", who tried to mediate between various disciplines, the sciences, mathematics, humanities, and religion for the insights each had to offer. Royce's philosophy, for Kegley, is fundamentally nonreductionistic, as Royce accepted the teachings of the natural sciences but argued that human knowledge and life could not be reduced to scientism. Drawing on Royce's early life in California, Kegley characterizes Royce as a "pioneer" an "explorer" and as a "wanderer" who resisted pat answers and engaged in a lifetime of search.

Kegley identifies (p.1) seven sub-themes that pervade Royce's thinking: "(1) philosophy as a reflection on life as experienced in all its richness, variety, conflict, and unity; (2) philosophy as personal and as a philosophy of life; (3)enrichment of life and thought through a critical exchange of ideas; (4) the philosopher as a 'frontiersman"; (5) forging a life and self as a narrative with a central cause or ideal as a theme; (6)the prime importance of the temporal, of history, and of the irrevocability of the past; (7)nature as part of life and as a philosophy."

Kegley explores Royce's voluminous writings, beginning with a story "Pussy Blackie" he wrote at the age of 8 to his final writings on universal insurance at the end of his life. Besides his philosophical works, Royce wrote a still-valuable history of early California. As stated earlier, Kegley gives only limited attention to Royce's metaphysics, focusing instead on his late books, "The Problem of Christianity", "The Sources of Religious Insight" and in particular "The Philosophy of Loyalty" which culminates Royce's efforts in ethics and social theory.

Kegley offers detailed examinations of Royce's understanding of the self, of Royces's ethical theory, his approach to religion, and his thoughts on the development of genuine individuals in genuine and loving communities. Royce rejects an atomistic, individualistic approach to life and thought. He sees the essence of human personhood as a "being-with-others" in which people learn about themselves, about science, and about living a good life in a community. Science is viewed as an interpretive endeavor rather than as the source of certainties or the only means of knowing. Ethics cannot be reduced to naturalism or to evolution, as Royce tries as well to find a ground between intuitionism and utilitarianism in his development of an ethics predicated on loyalty. Individuals find their authentic selves only as part of a community devoted to the pursuit of ethical ideals.These ideals move in ever-widening circles from the nuclear family to a group the individual chooses, to large groups devoted to their own individual forms of loyal behavior, and ultimately to humanity at large. Religion too is a communal matter. Kegley argues that Royce rejects a creationist God in favor of an internalized God immanent in human activity. She quotes Royce (at 157):

"He is not a being who exists in separation from the world as its external creator. He expresses himself in the world. God expresses himself in the world as an artist expresses himself in the poems and the characters, in the music or in the other artistic creations, that arise within the artist's consciousness and that for him and in him embody his will. In this entire world, God sees himself lived out."

Kegley's book is well-documented with quotations from Royce, and she effectively compares and contrasts his ideas with many contemporary thinkers. It remains questionable whether Royce's metaphysical commitments can be separated from the many insights that Kegely finds in his work. As is generally the case in a study of a historical philosopher, Kegley's book is both a reexamination of Royce and an examination and critique of the current state of philosophy. Kegley shows that Royce is an important thinker, and she offers a critique as well of the scientism and compartmentalism that still dominate much of academic philosophy. Readers with a strong background in philosophy and with an interest in American philosophy will benefit from Kegley's study.

Robin Friedman