The Basic Writings of Josiah Royce, Volume II: Logic, Loyalty, and Community

Josiah Royce In His Own Words

Subtitled "Logic, Loyalty, and Community" this book is the second of two large volumes of "The Basic Writings of Josiah Royce" edited and with an introduction by philosopher John McDermott. Fordham University Press published this paperback edition of the volumes in 2005 after the original 1969 edition had gone out of print. Taken together, the two volumes offer a comprehensive selection from Royce's writings. Royce (1855 -- 1916) was a great American idealist philosopher who fell into obscurity following his death. His works have been attracting a great deal of recent interest both on their own merits and as part of the revival of interest in American pragmatism.

The two volumes consist of over 1200 pages which show the range of Royce's thinking. The selections consist of 36 separate entries, and exclude only Royce's 1912 book, "The Problem of Christianity" which is accessible on its own. The writings range from highly technical and difficult philosophical discussions to popular, topical lectures intended for lay audiences. McDermott wrote a valuable introduction reprinted in both volumes while Royce scholar Ignas Skrupskelis prepared an extensive annotated bibliography of Royce's published writings included in volume 2.

I have reviewed volume 1 of the "Basic Writings" here on ALibris "The Basic Writings of Josiah Royce, Volume I: Culture, Philosophy, and Religion (American Philosophy)", and review here the contents of volume 2, which is divided into three large sections titled, "Logic and Methodology", "Moral and Religious Experience", and "Community as Lived".

The seven selections from Royce's logical writings can be difficult, but they offer fascinating insights into Royce's thought and into logic. Royce wrote at a time of great advances in mathematical and symbolic logic, highlighted by Russell and Whitehead's publication of "The Principles of Mathematics" in 1904. Royce was not part of this development but his essays show awareness and insight about it. Royce also is aware of the logical and early phenomenological work of Edmund Husserl. Royce's logical essays are at the cutting edge of logic and psychology, pragmatism, and the new symbolic logic and he discusses their interrelationships. He even tried to develop his own formal logical language to capture the philosophy of idealism. These essays are not only historically valuable; they also show Royce wrestling with the new logic, including the theory of classes. Royce insists that the new logic must have a metaphysical basis to avoid skepticism and self-contradiction.

The second section of the volume, "Moral and Religious Experience" includes the full text of Royce's 1908 study of ethics, "The Philosophy of Loyalty". The Philosophy of Loyalty (Vanderbilt Library of American Philosophy) This book, together with Royce's related discussion of community, has been extensively studied by modern students of Royce. Probably no other philosopher made as extensive claims for the importance of loyalty as did Royce. Royce tries to show the centrality of loyalty and of "loyalty to loyalty" to living an ethical life. He gives two definitions of loyalty, a preliminary definition and a full definition near the end of the book. He first defines "loyalty" as the "willing and practical and thoroughgoing devotion to a cause." His final definition emphasizes what Royce sees as the metaphysical aspects of loyalty: "Loyalty is the will to manifest so far as is possible the Eternal, that is, the conscious and superhuman unity of life, in the form of the acts of an individual self".

The section on "Moral and Religious Experience" also includes two important essays in which Royce addresses the problem of evil, "The Problem of Job" and "The Religious Mission of Sorrow" together with a selection from Royce's book, "The Sources of Religious Insight" which emphasizes the communal bases of religion as opposed to the individualistic bases emphasized by William James in his famous book, "The Varieties of Religious Experience".

The final section of this volume, "Community as Lived" includes five essays of Royce's understanding of the human community and its importance to understanding the nature of human selfhood. The section includes what I find one of Royce's most accessible and still timely writings, "On Certain Limitations on the Thoughtful Public in America" which offers a nuanced assessment of the strengths and weaknesses in much American life. The section also includes an essay "Provincialism" which shows the importance Royce placed on community, as opposed to both sectionalism and to universalism, in leading a responsible life. The ambiguous essay "Race Questions and Prejudice" is frequently studied to determine Royce's attitude towards racial questions. The final two essays were written near the end of Royce's life and propose an international system of insurance to prevent the catastrophe of WW I from occurring again. Apart from the insurance scheme, the essay "The Hope of a Great Community" is an eloquent statement of Royce's communal idealism.

There is no substitute for close and repeated readings of a philosopher to understand that philosopher's thinking. There is much to be learned from Royce by readers who study him in detail. These two volumes are an excellent way to engage with the thought of Royce. They will be of interest to readers with a strong philosophical background and an interest in American pragmatism and American idealism.

Robin Friedman