Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation - Hardcover

Thomas Hill Green

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1904303021 ISBN 13: 9781904303022

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2002

Synopsis

The present work is Thomas Hill Green s account of his conception of the common good and its importance in determining a set of criteria that will give us the means to evaluate the conduct of political establishments. The principles of political obligation are all founded on this attractive idea of a common good, and Green is able to apply his principles to a wide range of matters from land law to personal freedom. How well the book succeeds in convincing the reader that a common good ought to act as a basis for evaluating the role of political establishments may be unclear. But there can be little doubt that the work is one of the most important contributions to political philosophy made by any English philosopher, and almost certainly the single most important contribution made by any British idealist. The book has attracted philosophers, sociologists, politologists and others since the day of its appearance, and continues to fuel lively debate today.

About this title

Synopsis

Green is remembered primarily through his contribution to the idealist movement in Britain, his resurrection of the Hegelian way of treating philosophical subject-matter, his criticism of, and lack of sympathy towards, empiricism and its separation of man from the world. But he was also very influential as a liberal political thinker. Though one could argue that we should not try to use the same sort of framework for understanding Green as politologist as we should for studying Green as idealist, the two Greens are, in fact, remarkably compatible. His political thinking, as expounded in the present set of lectures, fits in very well with his idealism. Rules, for Green are made for and by man, and should be understood as such. We should not, instead, try to begin with rules and then see how we can fit ourselves and habits to conform to them. This is, roughly stated, a way of seeing the world as existing for man rather than independently of him. But Green's idealism, perhaps in contradistinction to the German idealists whose impact on his thought cannot be doubted, is employed as a means to sociopolitical progress rather than conservatism.

Although Green's work, as with the work of other British idealists, was not taken too seriously after the objections the latter received from the likes of Moore and Russell in the early 20th century, we can today, blessed with the gift of distance, more effectively extract the fruits of their labours, without allowing the well-known objections to blur our understanding of the work of these idealists in their entirety. The lectures are based on a series of lectures given by Green in 1879 but not published until after Green's death in 1882. They represent the most important contribution to political theory among works of the British idealists. The present edition makes use of several earlier editions, including volume 2 of the collected works of Green on which it is based, as well as the 1986 Cambridge University Press edition.

About the Author

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Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1904303021
• ISBN 13: 9781904303022
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 230
• Editor: Thomas Hill Green