Royce, Josiah - MSN Encarta

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Josiah Royce (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
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Royce, Josiah - Hutchinson encyclopedia article about Royce, Josiah
Born in Grass Valley, California, Royce taught at the University of California and Harvard University. His philosophy saw God as cosmic purpose, which man embraces.
Josiah Royce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Josiah Royce (November 20, 1855, Grass Valley, California. – September 14, 1916, Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American objective idealist philosopher.

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Josiah Royce (1855-1916), American philosopher and teacher, who was the leading American exponent of idealism. Born in Grass Valley, California, Royce studied engineering but turned to philosophy after graduation.

While a student in Europe, Royce was influenced by the writings of the absolute idealist G. W. F. Hegel. Royce held that human thought and the external world were unified. He believed in an absolute truth, which, he argued, everyone must agree exists. Denying the existence of absolute truth affirms the existence of another truth, and so confirms the possibility of truth. Royce thought that the essence of religion is community or loyalty and that loyalty to the world's moral order is humanity's chief ethical obligation. He wrote of an invisible church, the members of which are those possessing such loyalty. He believed that salvation results from individual harmony with the purpose and manifestation of the supernatural.

Royce also contributed to the fields of mathematical logic, history, psychology, and literary criticism. Among his many writings are The Religious Aspect of Philosophy (1885), The Spirit of Modern Philosophy (1892), The Conception of God (1897), and The Problem of Christianity (1913).