T. H. Green 1836 – 1882
Thomas Hill Green was an English philosopher, social reformer, and tutor at Balliol College, Oxford, who shaped a generation of British political and ethical thinking. Drawing on Kant and Hegel, he articulated a vision of positive freedom in which liberty consists not merely in the absence of constraint but in the cultivation of the moral capacities of the self in community with others. His Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation and Prolegomena to Ethics provided much of the intellectual foundation for the New Liberalism that produced the British welfare state. He died at forty-five.
Key facts
- Nationality
- English
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Continental
Selected quotes
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Attributed to T. H. Green:
“Will, not force, is the basis of the state.”
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Attributed to T. H. Green:
“Liberty is positive: it is the power to do what one ought to do.”
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Attributed to T. H. Green:
“The good is the realization of the moral capacities of the self.”
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Attributed to T. H. Green:
“All political power must serve the moral development of citizens.”
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Attributed to T. H. Green:
“Self-realization is achieved only in society.”