Free me from my fellows, let me alone to work out the salvation of my own glorious self, and surely (so I may fancy) I shall now for the first time show who I am. No, not so; on the contrary I merely show in such a case who I am not. I am no longer friend, brother, companion, co-worker, servant, citizen, father, son; I exist for nobody; and erelong, perhaps to my surprise, generally to my horror, I discover that I am nobody.

Written by Josiah Royce

Narrated by Joshua Noyer

Read Along: https://www.nationalreformation.org/post/the-social-self

Royce, Josiah. Essay. In The Spirit of Modern Philosophy, 207–8. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1892.