The collection presents a variety of promising new directions in Royce scholarship from an international group of scholars, including historical reinterpretations, explorations of Royce's ethics of loyalty and religious philosophy, and contemporary applications of his ideas in psychology, the problem of reference, neo-pragmatism, and literary aesthetics.

Now back in print, and in paperback, these two classicvolumes illustrate the scope and quality of Royce’sthought, providing the most comprehensive selection ofhis writings currently available. They offer a detailedpresentation of the viable relationship Royce forgedbetween the local experience of community and thedemands of a philosophical and scientific vision ofthe human situation.The selections reprinted here are basic to any understandingof Royce’s thought and its pressing relevanceto contemporary cultural, moral, and religious issues.

: William James's letter of 12 January 1883 to William Erasmus Darwin is here published for the first time. The letter brings out the importance for the development of James's philosophy of the Darwinian emphasis on concreteness and the activities of organisms.

A Pluralistic Universe by William James: Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College on the Present Situation in Philosophy. William James, January 11, 1842 - August 26, 1910, was an American philosopher and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. Our age is growing philosophical again. Change of tone since 1860. Empiricism and Rationalism defined. The process of Philosophizing: Philosophers choose some part of the world to interpret the whole by. They seek to make it (...) seem less strange. Their temperamental differences. Their systems must be reasoned out. Their tendency to over-technicality. Excess of this in Germany. The type of vision is the important thing in a philosopher. Primitive thought. Spiritualism and Materialism: Spiritualism shows two types. Theism and Pantheism. Theism makes a duality of Man and God, and leaves Man an outsider. Pantheism identifies Man with God. The contemporary tendency is towards Pantheism. Legitimacy of our demand to be essential in the Universe. Pluralism versus Monism: The 'each-form' and the 'all-form' of representing the world. Professor Jacks quoted. Absolute Idealism characterized. Peculiarities of the finite consciousness which the Absolute cannot share. The finite still remains outside of absolute reality. (shrink)

This book offers a comprehensive theory of metaphor, constructed out of various components selected from recent psychology and theories of language. It is a well-organized book--at times perhaps too repetitious--dealing with the semantics of metaphor, metaphor and knowledge, metaphor as a cognitive process, metaphor and memory, metaphor and cultural evolution, metaphor as a speech act, metaphor and meaning, and metaphor and truth. The author limits himself to linguistic metaphors, but notes that he has become very interested in the role which (...) visual metaphors play in the development of linguistic metaphors. In his conclusion he suggests the need to extend the investigation by studying the metaphysical aspects of metaphor. (shrink)