The Journal of Speculative Philosophy 14.3 (2000) 179-191

Josiah Royce's name has begun to appear in calls for the reassertion of philosophy in public life, with several recent authors recommending Royce's thought as the basis for a "public philosophy." Such a reliance on Royce may appear misguided to some. After all, William James, John Dewey, and others among Royce's contemporaries were extremely critical of the allegedly abstract and speculative character of his philosophy, with its central focus on metaphysical and religious themes. Royce, in turn, rejected much of what he termed their "recent pragmatism" as too narrow in its conception of truth and of the community of interpretation that is capable of attaining truth. Current philosophers who are more familiar with these disputes than with the rest of Royce's work may be inclined to dismiss Royce out of hand. I believe that any serious reading of Royce shows that such disregard is a mistake, though it is not my intent to repeat here the arguments that others have made elsewhere. Suffice it to say, with his distinctive treatment of such important topics as community, religion, metaphysics, and the notion of truth, Royce indeed offers many significant insights for the development of a contemporary public philosophy.

A clear understanding of Royce's view of philosophy itself would seem necessary for any full appreciation of his work. Beginning in 1911 and continuing through his late "Peircean" period, Royce developed concepts of community and interpretation that shaped his mature view of the nature of philosophy. Thus, one finds in his late works occasional discussions of the nature of philosophy, its methods, and its role in social life, evidently offered in response to the criticisms mentioned previously. None of these discussions rises to the level of a systematic exposition, however.

The 1914 manuscript "The Spirit of the Community" moves furthest of all of Royce's writings toward stating his fully developed view of the nature of philosophy. In this work, Royce explicitly raises the question of the nature of philosophy, asserting that the traditional conception of philosophy and philosophical method, deriving from Socrates and Plato, is overly narrow, a deformation of genuine philosophy. He establishes the terms of an analogical argument whose conclusion would delineate his broader, more authentic conception of philosophy and its method. Unfortunately, Royce abandoned work on "The Spirit of the Community" with the outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914. He apparently never returned to complete the argument and the description of philosophy that he had begun. With the aid of statements drawn from several other of Royce's late writings, I will attempt to articulate the conclusion to Royce's unfinished argument, and to describe the more authentic philosophy Royce sought to identify in "The Spirit of the Community."

Terms in Royce's Analogical Argument

In "The Spirit of the Community," Royce defined two forms of mediation. The first, called the "forensic" or "dyadic" form of mediation, consists in arbitration between two antagonistic parties in a dispute. Royce noted, "This view of the nature of mediation has played a great part in the history of philosophy" (1914b, 6). He suggested that it underlies the familiar paradigm of philosophy as verbal combat, whether in the form of the Socratic elenchus, Platonic dialogue, or Hegelian dialectic. A few paragraphs later, Royce wrote, "But we need to observe that the best forms of mediation, in the practical world, do not consist in the settling of disputes but rather in processes which prevent disputes from arising" (9). These other processes involve "non-forensic" or "triadic" forms...