Abstract

This meticulous and thorough book will stimulate new insights into the thought and life of Josiah Royce as well as into the ideas and experiences of three other giants in American philosophy, Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey. The interactions and relationships of the four philosophers are explored in terms of their impact on the thought, experiences, and developed philosophies of each individual. This astute probing reveals previously neglected contributions. Thus, Royce’s notions about the “psychology of belief,” the attack on mind stuff, and the “stream of consciousness” contributed to James’s ideas on these topics. Then there are Peirce’s strong contributions to Royce’s logic and later thought as well as the influence of James’s Principles of Psychology on Dewey.