| Josiah Royce |
Article Index for Josiah |
Website Links For Royce |
Information AboutJosiah Royce |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT JOSIAH ROYCE | |
| 1855 births | |
| 1916 deaths | |
| american philosophers | |
| 19th century philosophers | |
| idealism | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
|
LIFE Royce grew up in pioneer California, very soon after the Gold Rush. He received the BA from the University of California in 1875. After some time in Germany, where he came to admire Hermann Lotze , he was granted one of the first four PhDs, in Philosophy , awarded in 1878 by the new Johns Hopkins University . He then taught philosophy, first at the University Of California , then from 1882 until his death at Harvard , thanks to the good offices of his friend and philosophical antagonist William James . Royce's key works include ''The World and the Individual'' ( 1900 - 01 ) and ''The Problem of Christianity'' ( 1913 ), both based on previous lectures. Remarks by Royce of an autobiographical remarks can be found at and [http://www.thoemmes.com/american/royce/auto2.htm . Clendenning (1999) is the standard biography. IDEAS The heart of Royce's idealist philosophy was his contention that the apparently external world has real existence only as known by an ideal Knower, and that this Knower must be actual rather than merely hypothetical. He offered various arguments for this contention in both of the aforementioned key works. He appears never to have repudiated this view even though his later works are largely devoted to exposition of his philosophy of Community . Two key influences on the thought of Royce were Charles Peirce and William James . In fact, it can be argued that a major way Peirce's ideas entered the American academy is through Royce's teaching and writing, and eventually that of his students. Peirce also reviewed Royce's ''The Religious Aspect of Philosophy'' ( 1885 ). Some have claimed that Peirce also supervised Royce's Ph.D., but that is impossible as Peirce arrived at Johns Hopkins in 1879. Royce is also perhaps the founder of the Harvard school of logic, Boolean Algebra , and Foundation Of Mathematics . His logic, Philosophy Of Logic , and Philosophy Of Mathematics were influenced by Charles Peirce and Albert Bray Kempe . Students who in turn learned logic at Royce's feet include Clarence Irving Lewis , who went on to pioneer modal logic, E. V. Huntington, the first to axiomatize Boolean algebra, and Henry M. Sheffer , known for his eponymous Stroke . Much of Royce's writings on logic and mathematics, reminiscent in some ways of Bertrand Russell 's much better known ''Principles of Mathematics'', and on scientific method, are reproduced in Royce (1951, 1961). In recent decades, Royce appears not to have attracted as much attention as other now-classic American philosophers, such as Peirce, John Dewey , and his Harvard colleagues William James , and George Santayana . Philosophers influenced by Royce include Brand Blanshard in the United States and Timothy L.S. Sprigge in the United Kingdom . REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS |