The Moral Philosophy of Josiah Royce

Harvard University Press has partnered with De Gruyter to make available for sale worldwide virtually all in-copyright HUP books that had become unavailable since their original publication. The 2,800 titles in the “e-ditions” program can be purchased individually as PDF eBooks or as hardcover reprint (“print-on-demand”) editions via the “Available from De Gruyter” link above. They are also available to institutions in ten separate subject-area packages that reflect the entire spectrum of the Press’s catalog. More about the E-ditions Program »

Peter Fuss offers the first full-length systematic and critical study of Royce’s moral philosophy as a whole. Although Royce emphasized a doctrine of metaphysical idealism and absolutism and presented his moral philosophy in a subordinate and somewhat fragmentary manner, Fuss insists that Royce did develop a coherent, intelligible, and relatively thorough ethical theory. By gathering together all that Royce had to say about moral problems and issues, both published and unpublished, and focusing on his distinctive contributions to self-realization theory, the author demonstrates Royce’s relevance to and position in contemporary philosophical discussion.