Essay On Religious Philosophy V1 1863

Author : Josiah Royce
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780259462620
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (626 download)

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Download or read book The Religious Philosophy of Josiah Royce written by Josiah Royce and published by . This book was released on 2017-07-11 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Religious Philosophy of Josiah Royce: Edited, With an Introductory EssayRoyce was a clear, if somewhat laborious writer. His religious writ ings are lucid enough. But their essential continuity, as selected in this volume, may perhaps be illumined by some consideration of the two major theoretical formulations, one early and the other late, which underlay their progression. These are his arguments for the Absolute and his theory of a community of interpretation. The former is the matic in all his work from his first book, through The World and the Individual, to The Philosophy of Loyalty, while the latter gives a some what different character to The Problem of Christianity and The Hope of the Great Community.As both james and Santayana early pointed out, and Royce himself readily confessed, his argument for the Absolute was a distinctive varia tion on the medieval ontological formulation. The distinction lay in his emphasis on thought. While the ontological proof had been intended simply to demonstrate the existence of an unlimited being, which could then be equated with the God of Christianity, Royce wished to show that the Absolute Being was a mind, or better, Mind itself. And so he worked out his argument in terms of judgments rather than comparisons.Starting with simple judgments, Royce argued that none could be true unless some were false. Error must be possible. At any rate no one would deny the proposition. But if errors occur, how do we know them? In practical situations we appeal to witnesses, chosen because they are believed to have better perspective. Thus if John and Thomas disagree, William is appealed to for arbitration. However, William's judgment may also be erroneous, so that it is necessary to appeal further. The process of appeal continues. Indeed, so long as error remains possible, it must continue until a mind is found which Views simultaneously from all perspectives, and so, actually, contains all judgments. Such a mind would be without limit and therefore absolute. Its judgment would be final truth. Finite minds are seen to be minds at all only by their relation to Infinite Mind. The rejection of this argument, Royce maintained, involves the assumption that error is not possible, which is manifestly absurd.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.