|
|
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| | [[Image:lighterstill.jpg]] | | [[Image:lighterstill.jpg]] |
| | [[Image:Josiahroyce.jpg|right|frame]] | | [[Image:Josiahroyce.jpg|right|frame]] |
| − | ==Affiliation==
| |
| − | Josiah Royce (1855 - 1916)
| |
| − | Professor of History of Philosophy, Harvard University
| |
| | | | |
| | + | Royce, born in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Valley,_California Grass Valley], California, on November 20, 1855. He was the son of Josiah and Sarah Eleanor (Bayliss) Royce, whose families were recent English emigrants, and who sought their fortune in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush westward movement] of the American pioneers in 1849. He received the B.A. from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Berkeley University of California, Berkeley] (which moved from Oakland to Berkeley during his matriculation) in 1875 where he later accepted an instructorship teaching English [[composition]], [[literature]], and [[rhetoric]]. After some time in Germany, where he studied with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Lotze Hermann Lotze], the new [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johns_Hopkins_University Johns Hopkins University] awarded him in 1878 one of its first four doctorates, in [[philosophy]]. At Johns Hopkins he taught a course on the history of German thought, which was “one of his chief interests” because he was able to give consideration to the philosophy of history. After four years at the University of California, Berkeley, he went to Harvard in 1882 as a sabbatical replacement for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James William James], who was at once Royce's friend and philosophical antagonist. Royce's position at Harvard was made permanent in 1884 and he remained there until his death, on September 14, 1916.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Royce] |
| | ==Gifford Lectures== | | ==Gifford Lectures== |
| − |
| |
| | * [http://www.giffordlectures.org/Browse.asp?PubID=TPWATI&Cover=TRUE 1898–1900: The World and the Individual, vol. 1] | | * [http://www.giffordlectures.org/Browse.asp?PubID=TPWATI&Cover=TRUE 1898–1900: The World and the Individual, vol. 1] |
| | * [http://www.giffordlectures.org/Browse.asp?PubID=TPWTIT&Cover=TRUE 1898–1900: The World and the Individual, vol. 2] | | * [http://www.giffordlectures.org/Browse.asp?PubID=TPWTIT&Cover=TRUE 1898–1900: The World and the Individual, vol. 2] |
| − |
| |
| − | ==Biography==
| |
| − | Josiah Royce was born in Grass Valley, California, on 10 November 1855. His parents, Josiah and Sarah Royce, were head of their local primary school, which Royce attended. He took his first degree, a B.A. in [[Classics]], at the University of California in 1875. He then went to Germany to study [[philosophy]] for one year before returning to the United States to take a Ph. D. at the John Hopkins University in Baltimore, completing in 1878.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | Royce’s career was not restricted to philosophy. His first appointment was as an instructor in English at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1878. He resigned from California in 1882, having accepted a one-year position at Harvard, replacing [[William James]], who was on a sabbatical. He remained there, attaining a permanent position as assistant professor of philosophy in 1885. In 1892 he became Harvard’s Professor of the History of Philosophy, and acted as chair of the philosophy department there from 1894 to 1898. He continued at Harvard for the rest of his life, publishing a great deal. Although his chief work was in philosophy, he also published a history of California in 1886, and a western novel, The Feud of Oakfield Creek in 1887.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | Royce is best known for his [[absolute idealism]], first expounded in The Religious Aspect of Philosophy (1885). In this work, he offers a [[transcendental]] argument for the [[truth]] of his absolute idealism from the undeniable existence of error. He characterises truth in terms of a correspondence of an idea or judgment to its object. Error or falsehood obtains when an idea or judgment does not correctly represent its object. Royce goes on to argue that this would mean that no judgement could ever be erroneous, since all ideas refer to the objects they intend, unless there exists an absolute knower, a ‘mind’ in which all ideas necessarily correspond to their objects.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | Despite winning few adherents, Royce further developed his view, defending and modifying it over the years. Based on his [[Gifford Lectures]] presented at the University of Aberdeen between 1898 and 1900, The World and the Individual (1899–1900) was an attempt to stave off criticism that his earlier presentation of absolute idealism eliminated the possibility of [[individual]]ity, [[personality]] and moral responsibility. The criticisms from his colleague and friend William James influenced later revisions and defences. These were embodied in The Philosophy of Loyalty (1908), in which he utilised a principle of loyalty as the ground of morality in his system, and later The Problem of Christianity (1913), in which the relation of the [[finite]] individual to the absolute as well as the community was further explored.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | Royce died on 14 September 1916. He was survived by his wife, Kathrine, whom he had married in 1880, and, to much regret, only two of their three children: Edward and Stephen. Their firstborn, Christopher, had died from typhoid fever in a state mental hospital in 1910.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | ==Bibliography==
| |
| − | Royce’s works include The Religious Aspect of Philosophy (1885), The Spirit of Modern Philosophy (1892), The Conception of God (1897), The World and the Individual (2 vols., 1899–1900), The Philosophy of Loyalty (1908), Race Questions, Provincialism, and Other American Problems (1908), The Sources of Religious Insight (1912), The Problem of Christianity (1913), War and Insurance (1914) and The Hope of the Great Community (1916). A biography of Royce is B. Kuklick’s Josiah Royce: An Intellectual Biography (1985). For critical discussion of Royce’s works see R. Auxier, ed., Critical Responses to Josiah Royce, 1885–1916, (2000), and F. M. Oppenheim, Royce’s Voyage Down Under: A Journey of the Mind (1980).
| |
| − |
| |
| | [[Category: Philosophy]] | | [[Category: Philosophy]] |
| | [[Category: Biography]] | | [[Category: Biography]] |
Royce, born in Grass Valley, California, on November 20, 1855. He was the son of Josiah and Sarah Eleanor (Bayliss) Royce, whose families were recent English emigrants, and who sought their fortune in the westward movement of the American pioneers in 1849. He received the B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley (which moved from Oakland to Berkeley during his matriculation) in 1875 where he later accepted an instructorship teaching English composition, literature, and rhetoric. After some time in Germany, where he studied with Hermann Lotze, the new Johns Hopkins University awarded him in 1878 one of its first four doctorates, in philosophy. At Johns Hopkins he taught a course on the history of German thought, which was “one of his chief interests” because he was able to give consideration to the philosophy of history. After four years at the University of California, Berkeley, he went to Harvard in 1882 as a sabbatical replacement for William James, who was at once Royce's friend and philosophical antagonist. Royce's position at Harvard was made permanent in 1884 and he remained there until his death, on September 14, 1916.[1]
Gifford Lectures
