Thomas Hill Green

English philosopher

• Born: April 7, 1836
• Birthplace: Birkin, Yorkshire, England
• Died: March 26, 1882
• Place of death: Oxford, Oxfordshire, England

Both a theorist and a reformer, Green established the Idealist school of philosophy at Oxford, contributed political ideas that facilitated the movement away from liberalism, and was a powerful advocate of educational reform.

Early Life

The youngest of four children, Thomas Hill Green was born into a family with extensive clerical affiliations. His mother died when he was one year old, and his father, the Reverend Valentine Green, assumed full responsibility for his youngest child, educating him until he was fourteen. The personality traits Green displayed during early childhood did not augur well for the future—he was shy, awkward, and indolent—and, indeed, these characteristics occasionally asserted themselves during his later life.

At the age of fourteen, Green was sent to Rugby, a public school that enjoyed some fame as a result of its recent leadership by Thomas Arnold, the father of poet and critic Matthew Arnold. Green appears to have been a willful student, choosing to do well only when his interest was aroused by the subject matter. While compounding his indolence with rebelliousness, Green did assert himself in translating a passage from John Milton’s Areopagitica (1644) and won a prize. On graduation, Green entered Balliol College at Oxford and began an association that lasted the rest of his life. That association did not begin auspiciously, because Green retained the same independence in pursuing his own interests and the same indolence that characterized his earlier life. Typical of his Oxford days was his fulfillment of the requirement that an essay be turned in every Friday. One of his friends remarked that Green’s essay was usually submitted on Saturday, but it was also the best essay submitted.

Green chose to stand apart from most of his fellow undergraduates. His strong sense of personal purpose and commitment to social equality made him interested in the working class and the poor. His reputation as a political and religious radical kept him out of the mainstream of undergraduate life; most of Oxford was not ready to accept a serious undergraduate whose politics were directed toward practical rather than romantic ends, and his view that law and morality are the sole result of humankind’s reason rather than natural law or innate rights undercut the foundation of popular liberalism as it existed in Oxford during his student days. Green’s appearance may have led his peers to make assumptions about his personality. Green had thick black hair, a pale complexion, and brown eyes that were deep-set and thus gave the impression of seriousness.

Green was undecided about a career: The Church attracted him, but his unorthodox ideas led him to conclude that ordination in the Unitarian Church was the only honest possibility available to him; he also considered journalism a possibility. The problem was solved for him by the offer of a one-year appointment teaching ancient and modern history at Balliol, and by the end of the year he was elected to be a Fellow of Balliol College. During the subsequent eighteen years, Green assumed ever-greater responsibilities for running Balliol. He also accepted a broad range of responsibilities dealing with social and political reform outside the university.

Life’s Work

The work of historian Thomas Carlyle and two summer visits to Germany in 1862 and 1863 made Green reject the philosophy of John Stuart Mill, which was popular at that time. Instead, Green’s philosophical thinking was shaped by Aristotle and the Germans Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Immanuel Kant. Like Kant, Green objected to the proposition of David Hume that knowledge was gathered by the impressions of the senses (that is, that knowledge was empirical) and to the notion that one should make choices based on the ability of the choice to give one happiness or to help one avoid pain, thus making morality and ethics a matter of calculating the alternatives.

Green argued that information gathered by the senses was connected in the mind by a “consciousness” or a “spiritual principle” that actively participated in creating knowledge. “Consciousness” also allowed one to establish and obey moral rules higher than the pursuit of happiness or the avoidance of pain. The mere pursuit of happiness does not explain humanity’s pursuit of excellence, observance of duty, concept of a higher and lower self, or willingness to sacrifice oneself in so many varied ways. There was a spiritual principle ultimately underlying everything that could be realized through the practical activities of humankind.

For Green, it was imperative for a person to make decisions based on whether the action would further his own development or that of others. Self-development and social development were the fundamental goals in Green’s system of thought. That emphasis marks the distinction between social reformers who believe that social problems can be solved by reforming the system and those who, like Green, consider the solution to social problems to lie in correcting the defects of individuals.

Green’s metaphysics complemented his long-standing interest in social problems, and since his arrival at Oxford as an undergraduate, he had been active in various enterprises designed to help the working class. In December, 1864, he received an appointment to the Royal Commission on Middle Class Schools, headed by Lord Taunton. Many objections to popular education had prevented its introduction. Some opposed it as too expensive and a burden to taxpayers. Others opposed it on religious grounds as not offering instruction in their religion; there was serious disagreement between members of the Church of England and Dissenters as to the religion that should be taught.

As a member of the Royal Commission and afterward, Green put forward arguments that advocated popular education as both expedient and morally desirable. Green proposed expanding and improving the secondary schools, reforming the existing universities, and creating new universities throughout the country. The benefits from his scheme were numerous. Social barriers would be broken down. Members of different social classes would be at ease with one another because they would become familiar with one another. Although Green normally favored improvements through the voluntary association of interested parties, education was an exception.

The task was so large that it was beyond the capacity of voluntary associations; only the state could create and run a successful system of education. Furthermore, the voluntary principle would not be effective because some could not afford to pay for education; others were too mired in ignorance to want education for their children. Thus, while Green preferred voluntarism whenever possible, education was central to the self-development that would make social equality and justice possible, and state action was necessary.

The result of the Taunton Commission’s work was the Elementary Education Act of 1870. From Green’s point of view, this was a sorry compromise that commissioned the Education Department of the government to determine whether a district ought to have state schools. School boards were to be created in districts where they did not exist, but these authorities would have no jurisdiction over existing voluntary schools, which could not be given state aid.

Green proposed a scheme of interlocking schools that would permit intelligence to be recognized and forwarded through the highest level appropriate to the child’s ability. All children were to be educated to the age of thirteen; those destined for business might stay until fifteen or sixteen, and others would remain in school until eighteen, when they would go to a university. That was, indeed, a radical proposal. According to Green, universities would be occupied by real scholars instead of those who were merely economically advantaged. Green believed that his system of education would produce civil servants who represented the best minds in society and who were committed to the pursuit of the betterment of all. The very basis of the state would be changed by educational reform.

Green remained active as a champion of educational reform throughout the remainder of his short life. He became active in the National Education League, formed to promote reforms that would make school attendance compulsory and to support schools in places that lacked adequate financial support. Green also was active at the community level. In 1874, he was elected to the school board in Oxford (the following year, he was elected to the Oxford town council), led a movement to establish a grammar school in Oxford, established a scholarship for boys from Oxford, and served on the governing board of King Edward’s School in Birmingham. At the university, Green extended efforts to make Oxford more accessible to poorer students; he also supported the extension movement, which offered Oxford’s services to working men, and worked to create new universities. He died in Oxford on March 26, 1882.

Significance

Thomas Hill Green’s diverse achievements have caused him to be considered by subsequent generations for his individual achievements. He is considered an important figure in the introduction of German Idealist philosophy into Great Britain. His political theory, which redefined freedom, not as the legal possibilities open to a person, but as access to the possibilities for self-development that are available to the person, in fact, was, for a time, considered a necessary assumption for state intervention, and Green is considered by some to be one of the forebears of the welfare state.

In the long run, the position that Green delineated regarding the place of education in society is his most significant legacy. Green proposed that education be provided to all children and that it be based on the abilities of the student rather than membership in a social class. Each individual would get the access necessary to allow him to realize his all-important self-development. Society would be reshaped by a government composed of the subsequent meritocracy, becoming more egalitarian. Omitting the Idealist emphasis on the importance of self-development, these practical issues have been at the heart of English educational social policy since Green first addressed them during the 1860’s. Considered together, Green’s separate achievements mark him as one of the most important intellectuals who helped shape the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century.

Bibliography

Barker, Ernest. Political Thought in England from Herbert Spencer to the Present Day. London: Williams & Norgate, 1915. This is a classic study in the Home University Library series. Barker’s chapter “The Idealist School—T. H. Green” is an excellent brief interpretation of Green’s thought, although it should be read in conjunction with Clark (see below).

Brink, David O. Perfectionism and the Common Good: Themes in the Philosophy of T. H. Green. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. After a brief chapter discussing Green’s life and work, the remaining chapters analyze various aspects of his philosophy, including metaphysics, idealism, self-realization, and the common good. Other chapters determine Green’s impact, legacy, and relationship to other philosophers.

Clark, Peter. Liberals and Social Democrats. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1981. Clark has written an excellent survey of political thought that questions the notion that Green was one of the forefathers of the welfare state.

Dimova-Cookson, Maria. T. H. Green’s Moral and Political Philosophy: A Phenomenological Perspective. New York: Palgrave, 2001. Analyzes Green’s theories of human practice, the moral idea, the common good, and freedom and human rights. Discusses how Green’s idealism has the potential to address contemporary debates about human rights, moral agency, and positive and negative freedom.

Green, Thomas Hill. The Works of Thomas Hill Green. Edited by R. I. Nettleship. 3 vols. London: Longmans, Green, 1885-1888. This collection contains almost all of Green’s works, except for his Prolegomena to Ethics, edited by A. C. Bradley and first published in 1883. The first two volumes are devoted to Green’s philosophical works. Volume 3 contains a memoir that Nettleship assembled from Green’s speeches and personal papers. The same volume includes Green’s writings on education and religious essays.

Leighton, Denys. The Greenian Moment: T. H. Green, Religion, and Political Argument in Victorian Britain. Charlottesville, Va.: Imprint Academic, 2004. Analyzes Green’s philosophy through his public life and political commitments, describing how some of his ideas were informed by evangelical theology, popular Protestantism, and nineteenth century British liberalism.

Milne, A. J. M. The Social Philosophy of English Idealism. London: Allen & Unwin, 1962. Milne examines the influence of Kant and Hegel on Green’s thought.

Richter, Melvin. The Politics of Conscience: T. H. Green and His Times. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1964. Richter’s study is unusually good as a biographical sketch, a survey of Green’s intellectual context, and an analysis of the content and meaning of Green’s thought. It is unquestionably the best single volume about Green.

Rodman, John R., ed. “Introduction.” In The Political Theory of T. H. Green: Selected Writings. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1964. Rodman gives an accessible, insightful, and convenient introduction to Green’s political thought, as well as reprinting Green’s essays “Liberal Legislation and Freedom of Contract,” “The Senses of Freedom,” and “The Principles of Political Obligation.”

Ward, Mrs. Humphry. Robert Elsmere. London: Macmillan, 1888. Reprint. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967. Mrs. Ward, a friend of Green, wrote a novel that includes a character (Mr. Grey) who is modeled on Green. Indeed, Mrs. Ward dedicated this novel to Green and put portions of his work into the mouth of her character.