1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Royce, Josiah

ROYCE, JOSIAH (1855–1916), American philosopher, was born at Grass Valley, Cal., Nov. 20 1855. He graduated from the university of California in 1875 and the following year went to the newly established Johns Hopkins University, being one of the extraordinary first group of fellows elected there. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1878 he was instructor in English literature and logic for four years at the university of California. In 1881 he prepared A Primer of Logical Analysis for students of English composition. In 1882 he was called to Harvard where he taught as instructor in philosophy, assistant professor (1885-92), professor of the history of philosophy (1892-1914) and Alford professor of religion, moral philosophy, and civil polity (after 1914). He was the leading American exponent of idealism (see 14.284) and his works were distinguished for their literary qualities. He was made a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and received hon. degrees from Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Aberdeen, St. Andrews and Oxford. After the outbreak of the World War he was a staunch supporter of the Allies, and on Jan. 30 1916, in a notable address delivered in Tremont Temple, Boston, advocated a breach with Germany. He died in Cambridge, Mass., Sept. 14 1916.

He was the author of The Religious Aspects of Philosophy (1885); California (1886, in the American Commonwealth Series); The Feud of Oakfield Creek (1887, a novel); The Spirit of Modern Philosophy (1892); The Conception of God (1895); Studies of Good and Evil (1898); The World and the Individual (2 vols., 1900-1, Gifford Lectures at the university of Aberdeen); The Conception of Immortality (1900); Outlines of Psychology (1903); Herbert Spencer: An Estimate and Review (1904); The Philosophy of Loyalty (1908); Race Questions, Provincialism and Other American Problems (1908); William James and Other Essays on the Philosophy of Life (1911); Brass Lectures on the Sources of Religious Insight (1912); The Problem of Christianity (2 vols., 1913, lectures before Manchester College, Oxford); War and Insurance (1914); The Hope of the Great Community (1916, war addresses) and the posthumously published Lectures on Modern Idealism (1919).