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Summary
An edited transcript of the great Harvard philosopher Josiah Royce's last year-long course in metaphysics, given at Harvard in 1915-1916.
This book is an edited transcript of Josiah Royce's last year-long course in metaphysics at Harvard in 1915-1916.
"Nowhere else did Royce have an opportunity to explain the relations between his two most ambitious works, The World and the Individual and The Problem of Christianity and to show how they complement each other, the former being the 'logical' approach to metaphysics and the latter the 'social' approach. In extended discussions aimed at showing the justice done to realism in his idealistic philosophy, Royce responds to the thought of George Santayana, Bertrand Russell, and R. B. Perry and shows in particular that Santayana's sundering the connections between essence and existence leaves him with an incoherent position that cannot make room for the individual; that Russell's defining the real in terms of truth makes an appeal to possible experience and this goes beyond present fact; and that Perry's celebrated 'ego-centric' predicament is a superficial presentation of what idealism is supposed to mean and is easily resolved.
"This discussion is new and shows how circumspect Royce was in responding to the realists whom he had so much criticized. At the same time he was trying to show that his own idealism included the truth in realism, but goes beyond it in dealing with certain human questions--the interpretation of evil, the truth of mysticism--that are ignored by the largely naturalistic outlook of most realists." -- John E. Smith, Clark Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Yale University
"This is of central importance to our understanding of the last decade in the extraordinary tradition of classical American philosophy. Quite simply, this book is vintage Royce and a mature presentation of his very important position in the history of philosophy." -- John J. McDermott, Texas A&M University
Richard Hocking is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Emory University and son of the late William Ernest Hocking. Frank Oppenheim is Professor of Philosophy at Xavier University. He is the author of Royce's Mature Philosophy of Religion and Royce's Voyage Down Under, and editor of The Reasoning Heart: Towards a North American Theology.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Symbols and Abbreviations
Highpoints of Josiah Royce's Intellectual Development
Analytical Table of Chapters
Part I: The "Social Approach" to Metaphysics
Chapter 1: Introduction: The "Social Approach" to Metaphysics
Chapter 2: The Social Nature of Knowledge: The Theory of Interpretation
Chapter 3: The Social Theory of Truth
Part II: The "Logical Approach" to Metaphysics
Chapter 4: Santayana on "is": His Sharp Distinction between Essence and Existence
Chapter 5: The Relational Form of the Ontological Argument
Chapter 6: Identity and Identification
Chapter 7: Mysticism
Chapter 8: The Third Conception of Being
Chapter 9: The Fourth Conception of Being
Midyear and Final Examinations in Phil. 9, Metaphysics, 1915-1916
Supplementary Essays:
Provenance of the Phil. 9 Course and Present Text of Royce's Last Lectures on Metaphysics, 1915-1916—Frank Oppenheim
Excerpts from "The Ontological Argument in Royce and Others"—William Ernest Hocking
Resources
Notes
Critical Apparatus
Comments Interjected by the Stenographer, Ralph W. Brown
Selected Glossary of Persons to Whom Royce Refers in His Phil. 9 Course of 1915-1916
