Josiah Royce on Race: Issues in Context

Abstract

all philosophy, whether or not we want to admit it, is done in context, filtered through lenses that are personal, intellectual, historical, cultural, social, and political. Thus to fairly treat and fully understand Royce s views on race, we must set situational framework. First, Royce s 1906 article entitled Questions and Prejudices is the lead piece in collection that implements his philosophy of loyalty. It applies his principle of loyalty to what he considers one of the most significant social/political issues of his time?the race ques tion. As we discuss Royce and race issues, the philosophy of loyalty must be in the background as point of reference. Indeed, Royce tells us that he will address the various questions in his article Questions and Prejudices by calling attention to a few principles which seem to me to be serviceable to any one who wants to look at race questions fairly and humanely (6). Secondly, except for W. E. B. DuBois and Jane Addams, no other major figure associated with pragmatic philosophy substantially addressed issues of race and racism in their written work, nor did anyone so early in the twentieth century as did Royce. DuBois's The Souls of Black Folk, which came out in 1903, immediately preceded Royces article. Jane Addams briefly touched on race issues in her 1915 Democracy and Social Ethics. Alain Locke, who sought to study with Royce at Harvard but could not because of Royce s premature death, gave his Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Race in 1915, but they were published posthumously. John Dewey's Prejudice and Friction appeared in 1922. There is an absence of treatment of race issues in George Herbert Mead, Charles Sanders Peirce, and Alfred North Whitehead. Thus Shannon Sullivan and I agree that Royce stands out in the history of classical American philosophy in taking an antiracist focus on race questions when very few philosophers?especially white male philosophers?took scholarly time to think about these issues.1