"The other aspect of idealism is the one which gives us our notion of the absolute Self. To it the first is only preparatory. This second aspect is the one which from Kant, until the present time, has formed the deeper problem of thought"

Josiah Royce discusses two interconnected dimensions within the philosophy of idealism. The first aspect serves as a preliminary stage, perhaps introducing the individual to the broader structures and significances found within idealist thinking. The more crucial, profound aspect is the notion of the absolute Self. Royce identifies this as the central territory explored by post-Kantian philosophy, highlighting a shift in focus from understanding the structures of experience toward a deeper engagement with the foundation of selfhood and reality itself.

The phrase "absolute Self" alludes to a philosophical principle present in German Idealism, particularly with thinkers like Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, where the ultimate ground and unity of all reality is conceived as a self-conscious, rational order – a universal Self rather than a merely individual ego. For Royce, the movement from Kant’s critical philosophy, where human experience is shaped by the categories and forms imposed by the mind, toward a concern with the absolute Self marks the maturation of idealism. This deepens the philosophical problem: it’s not only about how individuals constitute objects within their experiences, but how the unity of self-consciousness might be the very ground of all existence.

Since Kant, the "deeper problem of thought" revolves around articulating the relation between the individual self and the absolute Self. If the absolute Self is the source of all meaning and being, how does it relate to finite, individual selves? Does the absolute Self manifest as the unity underlying all minds? Or is it something distinct from individuals, which somehow structures reality? Royce suggests that grappling with the absolute Self, with its implications for community, knowledge, and ethical life, has become the most fundamental and enduring challenge in metaphysics since Kant. For Royce and his ilk, the journey is not just preparatory but culminates in understanding the deepest essence of selfhood and its role in constituting the world.