New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-09-16
An American Philosopher.

The limitations of American culture
show nowhere more uncompromls'ngiy
than in the field of speculative philoso2hy.
II is a field to which few Americans have
been attracted. for the bent Of the Ameri-
can mind-as is natural in new country
with enormous material tasks yet unac-
comnlished and pressing economic and So
cial establishments still ahead of lt-has
been toward the practical and away from
the metaphysical.
Metaphysics has been looked on general
~ by Americans as a sterile intellectual
pursuit. without unitarian value. Its
teaching or study at American universities
has been regarded mainly as a concession
70 ancient traditions of scholarship-to
medieval or semi-medieval conceptions o.
the Importance of abstract learning.
The life and work of Josiah Royce were
protest against this Philistine, though
thoroughly natural, conviction. He was
real NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. the technical
sense. and perhaps, too, in the broades'
possible sense, the first and greatest meta
physician whom this country has produced
His name and that of William James-for
many wears his colleague in the philosophy
cal department of Harvard University
will always be linked together as those OF
the founders of an American metaphysical
tradition.
Emerson and the Transcendentallsts
taught a sort of speculative philosophy
largely literary or theological in It's origin
and content But they were not meta
musicians according to strict construc-
ton of that term. They built no specula-
tive systems and contributed little or noth e
ing of original or creative value from the
purely metaphysical point of view. Royce
and James struck out for themselves INTO
the void, constructing and reconstructing.
They were speculative philosophers who
took their calling seriously, not mere Dor
rowers and elucidators. AS critics and
original thinkers they asked odds OF NJ
one. Each established following both at
home and abroad. and their work eventual
~ won recognition the world over as real
American contribution to the volume or
philosophic thought.
1t is interesting to recall the conditions
under which metaphysics was taught IN
our colleges and universities when James
and Royce began their careers at Harvard.
Instruction in philosophy was in the hands
of men of the retired clergyman type, who
toved with Locke, Berkeley, Hume and
Kant and possibly with Schopenhauer and
Hegel, expounding the systems of those
philosophers in superficial way and cor
recting their heterodoxies, when necessary,
by an appeal TO conventional religious con
ceptions or TO the conceptions OF the So
called philosophy Of common sense.
The Rev. DR.. James McCosh, long presi-
dent Of Princeton University, was lumi-
nary in that school. So, in a different
way, was DR.. Francis Bowen, the head of
the philosophical faculty at Harvard when
James and Royce became junior members
of it. A happy, easygoing eclecticism was
the ideal of the more liberal teachers OF
that period Stern denunciation of the I'M
orthodoxy Of systems which offended &C
cepted moral or religious ideas was the
habit Of the more conservative group.
Thirty or forty years ago there was lit
tie or no welcome in the American college
or university for work like that done by
\ James and Royce. Now there is. The old
barriers of conventional prejudice, the
old restrictions on free thought, have been
swept away. Intellectual America rejoices
in the fame which has come to its two
great pioneers in speculative reasoning.
Even under the strain of our huge nate
realistic tasks and in the midst of our pre-
occupation with the practical, with the ma
tionalization Of our mixed population and
the upbuilding Of an economic and social
system which will endure and Justify our
democratic theories, we are proud to have
produced two such leaders of high rank in
field Of effort uncultvated heretofore by
Americans and in large measure uncon-
genial TO our tastes and mental habits.
Among American metaphysicians Royce
and James were giants. There may not
be others like them soon again. But their
work has proved that America il no longer
a barren ground for metaphysical genius
that our culture has become at last
broad and deep enough TO furnish susie
rance and encouragement 10 an intellect
ual pursuit until recently, at least, a mere
exotic in our American environment.
II would be out Of place here 10 discuss
the content Of Royce's philosophy or 10
contrast his serene and lofty monistic ideal
ism with James, more impulsiye, prscti-
cai-mnded pragrnatisn. Each system has
It's attractions Each has It's devotees. The
main fact 20 be considered is that they are
complete, clear-cut systems Of America