Philosophy, religion, the world

“Philosophers have actually devoted themselves, in the main, neither to perceiving the world, nor to spinning webs of conceptual theory, but to interpreting the meaning of the civilization which they have represented."

That is from Josiah Royce.

We do tend to think of philosophers as "representing" -- as Socrates represents Periclean Athens and Leibniz represents the fragmented condition of the German speaking world as the Holy Roman Empire sank into irrelevance. Heck, the metaphysics of monadology might be linked to the inner-directedness of the various principalities of that world.

Royce's statement was not plainly wrong though it may constitute an overstatement.

The source of the quote is The Problem of Christianity (1913). For much of the book Royce follows the practice of philosophers as he defined it. That is, he takes himself to be a representative of a Christian civilization and he explores Christian theological concepts: sin, atonement, saving grace.

Beyond that, though, he makes the argument that world religions are converging, world communities are converging, and we should all learn to direct our loyalty at the community of the entire human family.

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