The «Publicity» of the Self and the «Kantian Paradox». About Josiah Royce’s Interpretation of Hegel.

In this article, I analyse Royce’s original interpretation of Hegel’s idealism, emphasising his reading of subjectivity as the result of the «publicity» of the self in the community. With this «holistic» interpretation of the Phenomenology of Spirit, Royce comprehensively anticipates some of the most popular contemporary readings of Hegel, most notably that of Terry Pinkard, which valorises precisely the «sociality of reason» on the basis of the idea – first expressed by Royce, as I suggest – that the «Kantian paradox» was fundamental to post-Kantian idealism. In conclusion, referring to Royce’s late book, The Philosophy of Loyalty, I show how he looks both to socialism as an «ideal goal» and, as a corollary, to a new collective subject, interpreted, in Hegelian terms, as a «superhuman» collective being loyal to great causes.