Abstract

American philosopher Josiah Royce is known for having concerned himself with the question of evil and experience of tragedy. In this essay, I focus not on the question of evil but rather on the associated problems of sin and tragedy, and the suffering that exists in their wakes. In particular, I take as my starting points Royce's claims that meaning is found and created only in the context of a community,2 that interpretation and a shared dedication to common goals unite persons into a community,3 that these processes of interpretation and shared dedications create meaning in the community, and that human beings all crave meaningful lives. Given this framework, I argue that sins and tragic events are ..