PART I. Book Length Works Summaries and Critical Evaluations Royce’s Theoretical Works1 1. The Religious Aspect of Philosophy (1882-1884) Boxes 1-4 Box 127, folder 2; Box 129, folder 4 Description – This work reflects Royce’s first experience with the world of powers. Trying to find an ethical root leads him to the argument concerning the possibility of error. The possibility of error presupposes a consciousness of error and the fact that this error cannot be erroneous without the apprehension that there is the Truth known by some mind. FMO Evaluation: Overall, the manuscript shows cut-and-paste construction. The condition of the manuscript, despite the fact that this work gained him considerable fame for his work in philosophy, shows a Royce so rushed to reach publication promptly that he did not take time to revise his text thoroughly nor even to create an index. FMO estimates that Royce himself would not have included the whole of this work in some later critical edition since he proved himself a methodical reviser of his later works. The primary thrust of RAP is preserved, synthesized and much deepened in his mature writing. See, for example, Royce’s response to Peirce’s Neglected Argument in The Problem of Christianity. See also Royce’s late metaphysical works of 1916. There the “appeal function,” implicitly at work in his original argument,” is described at length, and the later Royce also makes sure to emphasize the interpersonal aspect of the consciousness of error, apparently not at work in the original argument. 2. California, from the Conquest in 1846 to the Second Vigilance Committee in San Francisco [1856] (1886) [MS absent from HARP collection, but see Box 103, folder s 4-8] Description: See BWJR 2: 1179, under the heading, 1886, 3. 1 Part I of this Comprehensive Index, The Book Length Works, is divided into two principle sections: Royce’s Theoretical Works, and his Practical Application Books. The list is not, therefore, entirely chronological. Indeed, Royce’s first book, his Primer of Logical Analysis for the Use of Composition Students, precedes The Religious Aspect of Philosophy. Notes on Royce’s Primer are included below as item 15, in the Practical Application section. 1 3. The Feud of Oakfield Creek: a Novel of California Life (1887) [MS absent from HARP collection] Description: BWJR 2: 1182-83, under 1887, 3. 4. The Spirit of Modern Philosophy: an Essay in the Form of Lectures (1889-1892) [MS absent from HARP collection; Box 55, document 10, contains a fragment of the text.] Description: A very readable volume which fills a great need in American education. Royce’s exposition of the philosophers treated remains important to our present day. The last sections that touch on systematic philosophy build on his basic insight. This “Part II: Suggestions of Doctrine” was written at the height of Royce’s self-confessed Hegel period. Despite this fact, Royce does not give Hegel more time or attention than other philosophers, such as Kant. Royce does not address Nietzsche’s writing here but saves that topic for a later date. In the Spirit of Modern Philosophy, for the first time, Royce develops the distinction between the world of description and world of appreciation. He is also restating the argument of RAP concerning the truth of God’s existence. The latter is no simple matter since the discussion of sin, as something recognized as to be detested and as an infraction against the will of the supreme goodness and wisdom, begins to take center stage at the end of the work. FMO Evaluation: This work comes on the heels of his Australian experience and reflects the insights of the trip. Royce is coming to realize that the Absolute must include not only thought but also will and feeling. 5. The Conception of God (1895) Boxes 5 &6 Box 91, documents 1 & 2; Box 97, document 7 Published in 1895 simply as an Address with Comments from three Participants, but re- edited and re-published in 1897 with Royce’s new book-length “Supplementary Essay” under the new Title: The Conception of God: A Philosophical Discussion Concerning the Nature of the Divine Idea as a Demonstrable Reality. FMO Note: After the 1895 “CG” Address, Royce delivered three papers “to the Union,” (his expression) (See Box 97, document 7): (1) “The Conception of Will as It Relates to the Absolute,” [see CG 182]. (2) He delivered as his second minor paper to the Union “The Anomalies of Self- Consciousness,” first delivered in 1894 to Boston’s Medico-Psychological Association. 2 [see CG 169-97]. (3) Finally, he gave as his third minor paper to the Union on September 4, 1895, Part IV of his “Supplementary Essay,” “The Self-Conscious Individual.” Fragments of two of these minor addresses may be the fragments found in Box 91, documents 1 and 2. As yet, there is no strict parallel of texts found, although the subject matter is often parallel. “I should prefer [as the title] ‘The Idea of God’ if Fiske had not already a mortgage on that title.” [Letters 336] The MS, including “Supplementary Essay,” is found in Boxes 5 and 6. Royce’s deletions (see below) probably indicate his edits for publication, and probably were also read to the Philosophical Union. Much of the MS is written on pages previously drafted and used, and then renumbered. (“Fresh” = “not previously used.”) Numbers 1-5 are fresh. Numbers 6-8 were used. Numbers 9-32 are fresh. Numbers 33-39 were used. Numbers 40- 44 are fresh. Numbers 45-103 (the end) were used. Box 5 contains a 104-page MS, with an introduction and nine sections. Pages 98 to 100 are missing from the MS, but are included in the published text. These missing MS pages are copied by Ron Wells from the published text. The text of the book inserts headings for each section, headings not found in the MS. In both Boxes 5 and 6, all edits which Royce makes to the manuscript and typescript are included in the printed text. In the cases of the typescripts, this indicates Royce had the manuscript typewritten before he edited it. The Introduction and Section I contain no deletions of a sentence or longer. Section II: On page 33 of MS, page 15 of the published CG text, after sentence ending “… the theory of human knowing,” Royce deletes the following six lines: “The ingenious device by which Ferrier, in his charming Institutes of Metaphysic makes a positive use of the theory of the nature of ignorance to demonstrate something with regard to the constitution of Reality, is a device that influenced what little of that wisdom it is even given us to attain.” Section III: 3 On page 46 of MS, page 21 of CG just before the sentence beginning “The relatively indirect …” Royce deletes from MS the following lines: “In this sense, however, our human ignorance, so far as it is defined in these physiological [or rather psycho-physiological] terms is known to us only insofar as we are supposed to have, contrasting with this sensory ignorance, another sort of knowledge, viz., physical knowledge.” On page 47 of the MS, page 21 of CG, after the sentence ending “… a wider experience indirectly acquired reveals to us” Royce deletes the following 14 lines: “But the current doctrine that I am analyzing taken as one usually finds it stated, confuses inextricably these two utterly diverse points of view viz., the hyper-physical and the psycho-physical. Human experience is inadequate to grasp the absolute, the hyper-physical reality, the Ding an Sich. Why? Because our experience comes to us through our sensations, and our sensations depend rather upon their specific nervous conditions than upon the natures of external physical facts. But how does one know this latter assertion to be true? Answer: This is the “verdict one need not question their relative consistency.” [sic] On page 49 of the MS, page 22 of the CG text, Royce deletes ten lines which read “On the other hand, the view that we are now analyzing proves by an appeal to what science is supposed to know, that no experience can reveal to us anything but our passing sensory states, and the presence of something else unknowable. Thus what science knows is used to prove that no true science is possible. To assert this, however, is to seek to destroy the very branch upon which the fruit of science grows. “ Section IV: Page 50 of the MS, page 22 of the CG text, after retaining first sentence ending “… much truth.” Royce deletes nine lines: “… or rather concealed it. A conception is not always unenlightening because it is unenlightened. It is something to meet with what sets us to thinking. As a fact even the conception of the Ding an Sich, – a conception which, as you are no doubt now accustomed to suppose, an idealist abhors as a New York banker abhors free silver, – is, as I must assure you, not without its relative usefulness even in the contemplation of an idealist.” On page 57 of the MS, 25 of CG. Royce deletes three lines namely: “Platonic ideas. One who is trained to think is not therefore protected from chance experiences.” He replaces this with a text that starts “… as it torments his neighbor,” and ends just before the text “Remember how full of mere chance …” On the same page, after “that one suddenly feels,” Royce deletes this line “in head or in leg, the stray tickling that troubles this or that point on the skin,” then continues with text “confusion our associative mental… ” Just before page 59 of the MS, page 26 of CG, after “the interruption of intruding sensations,” Royce deletes six lines: “the explosion of a mass of giant powder at yonder factory, the trembling of a passing earthquake, the tickling of a point on your forehead, the chance memory of the moment when your awkwardness offended or amused that formidable lady” 4 Sections V through IX: No major deletions in MS, but some heavy editing of previously drafted and used pages.