ABSTRACT
In 1895 Josiah Royce was invited to give an address before the Philosophical Union of the University of California, in which his book upon The Religious Aspect of Philosophy had been the special subject of study for the year. Coming to the question raised by Bradley of self-consciousness in the Absolute, Royce recognizes the difficulty that, while in finite individuals it involves the contrast between ideal and fulfilment, self and others, it is just the absence of these contrasts that characterizes the absolute experience. All that is clear to the loving consciousness is that “no other object fills the place or could fill just the place occupied by the beloved object”. It is in this way that Royce seeks not only to supplement the conception of God as “thought” with the attributes of will and feeling, but to subordinate it to them.
