Josiah Royce (November 20, 1855, Grass Valley, California. – September 14, 1916 Cambridge MA) was an American objective idealist philosopher. November 20 is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1855 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Grass Valley is a city located in Nevada County, California. ... September 14 is the 257th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (258th in leap years). ... 1916 (MCMXVI) is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... Map of the Cambridgeshire area (1904) The city of Cambridge is an old English university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire. ... Objective idealism is a metaphysics that postulates that there is in an important sense only one perceiver, and that this perceiver is one with that which is perceived. ... A philosopher is a person devoted to studying and producing results in philosophy. ...

Royce grew up in pioneer California. In 1878, he was granted one of the first four PhDs, in philosophy, awarded by the new Johns Hopkins University. He taught philosophy, first at the University of California, then at Harvard, the latter 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. Some claim that Royce's Ph.D. advisor was Charles Peirce but that is impossible; Peirce arrived at Johns Hopkins in 1879. Nevertheless, Peirce substantially influenced Royce's thinking, and reviewed his The Religious Aspect of Philosophy (1885). These five broad types of question are called analytical or logical, epistemological, ethical, metaphysical, and aesthetic respectively. ... The Johns Hopkins University is a private institution of higher learning located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. ... The University of California (UC) is a public university system within the State of California. ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ... William James (January 11, 1842, New York – August 26, 1910, Chocorua, New Hampshire) was a pioneering psychologist and philosopher. ... 1900 (MCM) is a common year starting on Monday. ... 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1913 (MCMXIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Charles Sanders Santiago Peirce (pronounced purse), (September 10, 1839, Cambridge, Massachusetts – April 19, 1914, Milford, Pennsylvania) was an American polymath. ... 1885 is a common year starting on Thursday. ...

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. ...

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 C I 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, reminescent in some ways of Bertrand Russell's much better known Principles of Mathematics, are reproduced in Royce (1951, 1961). Wikibooks has more about Boolean logic, under the somewhat misleading title Boolean Algebra For a basic intro to sets, Boolean operations, Venn diagrams, truth tables, and Boolean applications, see Boolean logic. ... The foundations problem in mathematics was the late 19th century and early 20th century term for the search for the simplest metamathematics. ... Philosophical logic is the study of the more specifically philosophical aspects of logic: the term contrasts with mathematical logic. ... Philosophy of mathematics is that branch of philosophy which attempts to answer questions such as: why is mathematics useful in describing nature?, in which sense(s), if any, do mathematical entities such as numbers exist? and why and how are mathematical statements true?. Various approaches to answering these questions will... Charles Sanders Santiago Peirce (pronounced purse), (September 10, 1839, Cambridge, Massachusetts – April 19, 1914, Milford, Pennsylvania) was an American polymath. ... Henry Maurice Sheffer (1882-1964) was an American logician. ... NAND Logic Gate The Sheffer stroke, |, is the negation of the conjunction operator. ... Wikisource has original works written by or about: Bertrand Russell Writings available online [http://www005. ...

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. Clendenning (1999) is the standard biography. Democracy and Education (WikiSource) Works by John Dewey at Project Gutenberg Excerpts from Experience and Nature (pdf file) [http://geocities. ... William James (January 11, 1842, New York – August 26, 1910, Chocorua, New Hampshire) was a pioneering psychologist and philosopher. ... George Santayana George Santayana (16 December 1863 – 26 September 1952), was a philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist. ... Percy Brand Blanshard (August 27, 1892, Fredericksburg, Ohio – 1987) was an American philosopher known primarily for his defense of reason. ... Timothy L.S. Sprigge (1932- ) is a British idealist philosopher who has spent most of his career at the University of Edinburgh. ...

Royce liked to tell a story about his conversation with a ship's captain. The captain confessed that although he had no education in philosophy he had often wondered whether the whole ocean on which he sailed, and the land and sky, might not be a dream. Royce confessed that he had such thoughts, too.

"What do you teach about that at Harvard?" the captain asked. "I teach that the ocean and stars are real, but not as real as we might be tempted to think," Royce replied.

References

• Primary
  • 2001 (1912). The Sources of Religious Insight. Catholic Uni. of America Press.
  • 2001 (1913). The Problem of Christianity. Catholic Uni. of America Press.
  • 1914. War and Insurance. Macmillan.
  • 1916. The Hope of the Great Community. Macmillan.
  • 1919. Lectures on Modern Idealism. Ed. by J. Loewenberg. Yale University Press.
  • 1920. Fugitive Essays, ed. J. Loewenberg. Harvard University Press.
  • 1951. Royce's Logical Essays: Collected Logical Essays of Josiah Royce. Robinson, D.S., ed. Dubuque, IA: W. C. Brown Co.
  • 1961. Principles of Logic. Philosophical Library.
  • 1963. Josiah Royce's Seminar 1913-1914: As Recorded in the Notebooks of Harry T. Costello. Ed. by G. Smith. Rutgers University Press.
  • 2005 (1969). The Basic Writings of Josiah Royce, 2 vols. Ed. by J. J. McDermott. Fordham University Press.
  • 1970. The Letters of Josiah Royce. Ed. by J. Clendenning. University of Chicago Press.
  • 1998. Metaphysics / Josiah Royce: His Philosophy 9 Course of 1915-1916. Hocking, W. E., R. Hocking, and F. Oppenheim, eds. State University of New York Press.
  • 2001. Josiah Royce's Late Writings: A Collection of Unpublished and Scattered Works, 2 vols. Ed. by Oppenheim, F. Thoemmes Press. Online.

• Secondary
  • Auxier, R., ed., 2000. Critical Responses to Josiah Royce, 1885-1916, 3 vols. Thoemmes Press.
  • Clendenning, J., 1999. The Life and Thought of Josiah Royce, 2nd ed. Vanderbilt University Press.
  • Ivor Grattan-Guinness, 2000. The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870-1940. Princeton Uni. Press.
  • Kuklick, B., 1985. Josiah Royce: An Intellectual Biography. Hackett.
  • Lewis, C. I., 1916, "Types of Order and the System [Sigma]," Philosophical Review 25: 407-19.
  • Oppenheim, F. M., 1980. Royce's Voyage Down Under: A Journey of the Mind. University Press of Kentucky.
  • -----, 1987. Royce's Mature Philosophy of Religion. University of Notre Dame Press.
  • -----, 1993. Royce's Mature Ethics. University of Notre Dame Press.
  • Trotter, G., 2001. On Royce. Wadsworth.

Ivor Grattan-Guiness is a prolific contemporary historian of mathematics and logic. ...

External links

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry