Communities, Traitors, and the Feminist Cause: Looking Toward Josiah Royce for Feminist Scholarship

Kara E. Barnette, University of Oregon

The unfortunately sparse body of scholarship on Josiah Royce contains very few feminist interpretations of his works. This oversight misses the extraordinary contributions Royce's work could make to feminist philosophy. In particular, Royce provides a model in which individuals depend on communities for knowledge, causes, memories, and even salvation. Through his intense focus on community, Royce crafts an alternative to the traditional individualism that is so often criticized in pragmatism. Importantly, this focus on communities gives another option to feminists who have rightly questioned the liberal individualist concept that is jarringly inconsistent with the practical experiences of women. However, Royce's unique take on the community and individual also offers a critique to traditional communitarian models that often trap women into oppressive gender roles for the sake of a greater good. Yet, Royce's most valuable contribution to feminist scholarship is his rich notion of a traitor, which serves as one of the most striking examples of his conception's uniqueness.