Evasion or Insight? Mead on Royce

Abstract

This article turns around a neglected issue in the pragmatist literature: the linkage between the philosophies of Josiah Royce and George Herbert Mead. From a systematic point of view, I maintain that a relation of corrective
complementarity can be constructed between them that rests on a historicalreconstructive step. The development of this step is the central aim of this work. My fundamental hypotheses on these topics are three: first, that Mead’s and Royce’s works share similar philosophical commitments on significant themes; second, that this is inadvertently concealed by Mead’s analysis of Royce; third, that this analysis works more as an exemplification of Mead’s bifurcated pragmatism than as an accurate description of Royce’s philosophy.