Royce, Whitehead, and the Context of Philosophy at Harvard

Abstract The discussion of logic at Harvard enjoyed a golden era, beginning with Peirce's 1898 lectures and culminating in the work of Whitehead's students, especially Susanne Langer and W. V. O. Quine. Peirce's lectures sparked an exchange with Josiah Royce that led Royce beyond his tinkering with classical forms and into a more mathematized approach. Reading in the recent literature in the philosophy of mathematics, Royce encountered Whitehead's work. The development of System Sigma, Royce's mature formal logic, was an extension of Whitehead's earlier work. In the time between Royce's death (1916) and Whitehead's arrival at Harvard (1924), the accomplishments of Royce were taken up by some of Royce's students (especially C. I. Lewis and Henry Sheffer), who were critical of various aspects of Royce and developed their own approaches. These logicians were among Whitehead's daily conversation partners. That Whitehead knew of Royce's work, secondhand, seems assured, but whether he ever read or got an unmediated account of System Sigma we don't know. Nevertheless, by tracing the conversation through Lewis and Sheffer, up to Langer and Quine, we get a picture of the context of discussion in logic at Harvard during Whitehead's tenure there that shows a surprisingly rich connection to Royce's mature work. That narrative is offered in this article.