ABSTRACT
As early as 1877, Josiah Royce had been impressed with the doctrine of the nature of ideas as explained in a course of lectures which he there heard from William James on Knowledge and its character, and especially with the opening sentences which he was accustomed to quote in his own college seminar. The main question of ethical and religious philosophy, Royce’s answer consists in a fresh and original application of the old principle that a scepticism which is in earnest with itself cannot rest in mere indifference. In all something might be said in criticism of Royce’s interpretation of the great ethical philosophies of the past as appealing to mere brute fact, and of his failure to see that in the end he has himself to make the same appeal in what he says of our “nature as voluntary beings”.
