[MD] Boromir's Journey

[John Carl]

"When Royce and James taught at Harvard the issues between pragmatism and
idealism were most muddied because the two men were pictured as opponents.
 I shall try to show, however, that Royce was a pragmatist as early as 1880
and that it was easy for him to develop an idealistic ontology *because* he
was a pragmatist.  As Royce later called his doctrine, Absolute Pragmatism,
we may interpret James as a pluralistic idealist.  The epistemological
disputes between the two men were over highly technical points, buty they
shared certain peculiar beliefs whose central feature we may label pragmatic
and whose affinities to idealism we ought to recognize"
The affinity of pragmatism for an idealistic metaphysic is not difficult to
explain once we realize that pragmatism is a neo-Kantian development ..."


Kuklick


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On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 8:25 AM, Matt Kundert
<pirsigaffliction at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> John said:
>
> > So, anytime I hear Royce disparaged as Hegelian, I
> pound on 'em.
>
> Matt:
> Eh, intellectual historians have to quibble like that.  I still
> think Hegel is a useful heuristic that captures what's
> common to Royce and say Bradley and McTaggert.  And
> bare in my mind that I think Hegel was one of the most
> important things to happen to philosophy--I just think the
> Absolute Geist from his later period misguided the earliest
> generations following him.  In fact, come to think of it, the
> difference between the early Hegel and the late is much
> like the distinction I made between hope and faith--it
> would've been better to have the hope (early) without
> feeling like you had to transform it into faith (late).
>
> But, fair enough.  On the other hand, Peirce is my least
> favorite pragmatist, and he perceived himself as a Kantian,
> and stepping from Hegel to Kant looks, well, like a step
> backward.
>
> Matt
>


Kuklick makes a strong distinction  between a post-Kantian and a neo-Kantian
that I think answers your concern about backward steps.

His Intellectual Biography of Royce is an interesting read, Matt.  I highly
recommend.

John