ROYCE, IOSIAH – Philosopher, born on 10 November 1855 at Grass Valley (California) and died on 14 September 1916 at Cambridge; professor at Harvard University. Besides Kant and Hegel, SCHOPENHAUER, ARTHUR (v.), Peirce, James (v.), that is, by German idealism and American pragmatism.
Of his numerous writings, the most significant remain: The world and the individual (2 vols., New York 1899–1901; Italian trans., Bari 1913–16); The philosophy of loyalty (New York 1903; Italian trans., Bari 1911); The problem of Christianity (New York 1913; Italian trans., Florence 1924–25).
pragmatism (v.), R. distinguishes between the “external meaning” and the “internal meaning” of an idea, whose truth does not consist in correspondence to an external reality, but in the end (“internal meaning”) that it seeks to realize. The idea is an “instrument” of an end; more than an intellectual process, it is a volitional process, a will seeking to realize itself. Yet the end of an idea must be considered in relation to the absolute end (of which every end is a moment), which can only be an act of an absolute Consciousness or infinite Will, to which all the ends or truths of finite consciousnesses are present (and which preserves them). Therefore this Consciousness encompasses all particular subjects, implies the totality of time, and is an actual present inclusive of all the moments of the temporal process. This Consciousness or God, for R., is the world itself, which is an “individual totality,” in which the fragments of finite experience are enclosed and our individualities completed and perfected. In God thus conceived there is room not only for time, but also for error, suffering, defeat, etc., and together with them the correction and overcoming of all these limitations and, consequently, the fulfillment and fullness of individual wills. The world, which is God himself, is the realization, through us, of God’s perfection and, with it, of our own, insofar as individual consciousnesses are preserved in God, unlike what F. H. Bradley (v.) had maintained. It was difficult for R. to justify this preservation of finite subjects within such a radically pantheistic conception. He attempted the impossible undertaking twice: first, by drawing upon the theory of numbers of G. Cantor and R. Dedekind (the Absolute—the World or God—is a self-representative system in which the multiplicity of individuals is preserved; they are one with it, insofar as it is structurally one—a single system—and at the same time infinite as a chain of realized ends); and later by employing Peirce’concept (v.) of “interpretation,” as a third cognitive process (the other two being perception and thought). Interpre-
tation involves three terms: the interpreter, who interprets something to someone. Now, for R., the process of interpretation makes the universe a realizable spiritual community. No individual in the world can save himself alone or find the truth alone; this is possible in the universal community. This would be, according to R., “the problem of Christianity,” especially that of St. Paul (v.), who finds the Kingdom of heaven realized in the Church, or communion of the faithful. Christian love means fidelity to the community, and fidelity to a freely chosen mission is the foundation of morality.
