The Religious Aspect of Philosophy

by Josiah Royce

THE

RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF PHILOSOPHY

A CRITIQUE OF THE BASES OF CONDUCT
AND OF FAITH

BY

JOSIAH ROYCE, Ph. D.

INSTRUCTOR IN PHILOSOPHY IN HARVARD COLLEGE

Der Anblick giebt den Engeln Stärke,
Da Keiner Dich ergründen mag.

Goethe’s Faust, Prolog.

BOSTON
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY

New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street

The Riverside Press, Cambridge

1887

Copyright, 1885,
By JOSIAH ROYCE.

All rights reserved

SECOND EDITION.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge:
Printed by H. O. Houghton and Company.

To

My honored Friend,
GEORGE BUCHANAN COALE,

OF BALTIMORE,

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK,

IN EARNEST AND GRATEFUL RECOGNITION
OF HIS KINDNESS, OF HIS COUNSEL,
AND OF HIS WISDOM.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

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CHAPTER I.
		PAGE
Introduction; Religion as a Moral Code and as a Theory.		1
I.	The Three Elements of Religion	2
II.	Relation of Religion and Philosophy	4
III.	The Essentials of Religious Doctrine	6
IV.	The Place of Skepticism in Religious Philosophy	9
⁠
BOOK I. THE SEARCH FOR A MORAL IDEAL. CHAPTER II.
The General Ethical Problem		17
I.	The Priority of Ideals in Religious Philosophy	18
II.	The Fundamental Difficulty about all Ideals	19
⁠
CHAPTER III.
The Warfare of the Moral Ideals		32
I.	The Difficulty about the Ideal as it appears in Greek Thought	34
II.	The same Difficulty in Christian Morals	39
III.	Summary of the Difficulty thus far	47
IV.	The Difficulty as illustrated by the Doctrine of Conscience	50
V.	General Summary and Skeptical Result	58
⁠
CHAPTER IV.
Altruism and Egoism in Certain Recent Discussions		61
I.	Illustration of Certain Doctrines about the Nature of Altruism	63
II.	Is Altruism Disguised Selfishness?	65
III.	Inquiry as to the real Difference between Altruism and Selfishness	66
IV.	If Genuine Altruism cannot now be Disguised Selfishness, can Evolution explain the Relations of the two?	74
V.	Schopenhauer's Effort to define Altruism in Terms of the Emotion of Pity	85
VI.	Further Explanation of Schopenhauer's View	89
VII.	The Selfishness and Cruelty that often are the Result of Pity	94
VIII.	The Cruelty of the Happy, and the Selfishness associated with active Sympathy	100
IX.	Rejection of Pity as the Basis for a Distinction of Altruism and Egoism. Negative Result of the Chapter	104
⁠
CHAPTER V.
Ethical Skepticism and Ethical Pessimism		107
I.	The Skeptical Motive in Pessimism	108
II.	The Skeptical Motive in the Romantic Pessimism of Modern Poetry	110
III.	Ethical Skepticism in Mr. Balfour's Statement of its Positions	127
⁠
CHAPTER VI.
The Moral Insight		131
I.	The Meaning of Ethical Skepticism, and the Ideal consequently involved in it	131
II.	Answers to Objections	141
III.	Application to the Problem of Altruism	146
IV.	Selfishness as Illusion	149
V.	Altruism as Insight	166
VI.	The Real Conflict of the Separate Ideals, and the Nature of the Moral Insight	162
⁠
CHAPTER VII.
The Organization of Life		171
I.	The Duties of the First Class	173
II.	The Duties of the Second Class, in relation to Hedonism	183
III.	The Worth of the Individual	195
IV.	The Phases of Individualism	201
V.	The Universal Will as aiming at Organization. Definition of the Ideal	211
VI.	Passage to the Study of Reality	218
⁠
BOOK II. THE SEARCH FOR A RELIGIOUS TRUTH. CHAPTER VIII.
The World of Doubt		227
I.	The Fundamental Difficulty concerning the External World. Temporary Postponement of the Discussion of this Difficulty. The World of the Powers	228
II.	The Popular Scientific Concept of the World and the Religious Insignificance of the Law of Evolution	238
III.	The Monistic Theories of the External World of the Powers. Metaphysical and Religious Difficulties of these Theories	252
IV.	Monism and the Problem of Evil	264
V.	Dualistic Theism in the World of the Powers, its Metaphysical and Religious Difficulties	271
VI.	Empirical Theism and the Design-Argument	279
VII.	Religious Insignificance of the Design-Argument in the World of the Powers	283
VIII.	The World of the Powers as in itself Necessarily a World of Doubt	286
⁠
CHAPTER IX.
The World of the Postulates		291
I.	Postulates in Science and Religion	292
II.	The General Nature and Use of Postulates	297
III.	Postulates in the Notion of the External World	299
IV.	Psychological Analysis of the Postulates of Common Life. Beliefs in Relation to the Will	305
V.	The Postulates of Science Defined. The Religious Use of the Postulates. Transition to a Higher Point of View	324
⁠
CHAPTER X.
Idealism		333
I.	The General Nature and Religious Uses of Philosophical Idealism	333
II.	Idealism as an Hypothesis founded on Postulates. A Modification of the Berkeleyan Hypothesis stated	337
III.	Explanation and Justification of this Hypothesis, as Simple and Fair. Subordination of the Postulate of Causation to other Postulates. Criticism of the Notion of "Possible Experience"	354
IV.	Difficulty as to the Nature of Error, and Transition to Absolute Idealism. Religious Consequences anticipated	370
⁠
CHAPTER XI.
The Possibility of Error		384
I.	Sketch of the History of the Investigation	386
II.	The Doctrine of the Total Relativity of Truth and Error	390
III.	The Problem of the Nature of Error stated	396
IV.	Psychological Aspect of the Problem	402
V.	The Problem in Case of Errors about one's Fellow-Beings	406
VI.	The Problem in Case of Errors about Matters of Experience	417
VII.	Summary and Solution of the Problem	420
VIII.	Answer to the Objection that views Error as barely Possible	426
IX.	Absolute Idealism as the Result of the Chapter	431
⁠
CHAPTER XII.
The Religious Insight		436
I.	General Survey and Religious Aspect of Philosophical Idealism as stated in the previous Chapter	437
II.	The Doctrine of the Absolute Thought as Perfect	441
III.	The Problem of Evil	449
IV.	The World of the Postulates and the External World once more	460
V.	The Conception of Moral Progress	464
VI.	Practical Bearings of the Doctrine	468
Epilogue		475