Josiah Royce: Community, Interpretation, and the Philosophy of Loyalty

An elaboration of American philosopher Josiah Royce's work on community, interpretation, and loyalty.

In a society where human interaction mirrors the interaction of monads in Leibniz’ system; where, although windowless, we are in a predetermined harmony by the forces of capitalist markets, the question of the potential for a real community presents us with a daunting task – how can human individuals, “sundered from one another” by seemingly “impassible” gaps possibly come into some form of community? It is this task which Josiah Royce takes up in The Problem of Christianity.[1]