Reading Royce

While I think the writings of Mary Whiton Calkins (to whom I referred in a previous post as "Little Miss Metaphysics) stand on their own, and are extremely friendly to readers who have not read a great deal of academic philosophy, there is a nice little work by Josiah Royce, Calkins' philosophical guru, that might serve as a very nice introduction to the "Absolute Idealism" that she and he both embraced during their respective heydays. It will, or course, be hard to find, as virtually all of Royce's works are; and so well-stocked libraries and used-book sellers are your best bet. The work is called The Conception of Immortality. It was published in 1900, by Houghton, Mifflin and Company (Boston, MA). Its aim is specific -- to defend the idea that the human individual's personality has an eternal existence, but the defense is grounded in the Absolute Idealist metaphysic that Royce embraced, most notably in The Conception of God and The World and the Individual. Each of these is a worthwhile read, but each is much lengthier, and probably less digestible for those who've read only a little or no works in this vein. The Conception of Immortality, by contrast, is a tiny work, a very quick read.