Prolegomena to Ethics (British Moral Philosophers) [Paperback]

T. H. Green (Author), David O. Brink (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0199266433 | ISBN-13: 978-0199266432

This is a new edition of T. H. Green's Prolegomena to Ethics (1883), a classic of modern philosophy, in which Green sets out his perfectionist ethical theory. In addition to the text of the Prolegomena itself, this new edition provides an introductory essay, a bibliographical essay, and an index. Brink's extended editorial introduction examines the context, themes, and significance of Green's work and will be of special interest to readers working on the history of ethics, ethical theory, political philosophy, and nineteenth century philosophy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

David Brink's self-styled 'edition' of T. H. Green's classic text of Victorian moral philosophy ... is very welcome indeed ... Brink's 'edition' makes Green's interesting criticisms of classical utilitarianism accessible to a new generation of readers and helps to fill a much needed gap in the history of English-speaking moral philosophy. The volume is attractively produced by Oxford University Press, and will help to promote interest in Green's neglected work. Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie

About the Author

T. H. Green (1836-1882) was White's Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of Oxford. David O. Brink is in the Department of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego.

Product Details

• Paperback: 632 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 8, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199266433
• ISBN-13: 978-0199266432
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,778,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The great Thomas Hill Green at his best., June 9, 2000

By 

John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Cuyahoga Falls, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Prolegomena to Ethics (Paperback)

Thomas Hill Green died of blood poisoning in 1882, and his arguably greatest work -- _Prolegomena to Ethics_, which he hadn't quite finished -- was published a year later under the editorship of A.C. Bradley. While certainly not setting out a complete system of ethics, this great work supplies both a refutation of "empiricism" and a metaphysical foundation for ethics in rationalistic Idealism.

It is Green's conviction, supported here by massive argumentation, that the world in which we live cannot possibly be pieced together out of the sensations and feelings upon which such earlier British philosophers as Locke had tried to rely. On the contrary, our absolute presupposition in the possession of anything deserving to be called "knowledge" is that the world in which we live is an interconnected system, a whole bound together by relations neither the existence nor the apprehension of which can be accounted for in "empiricist" terms.

This world must, Green argues, be the activity of a single Mind the activity of which we reconstruct in some manner as we develop our own knowledge. And the activity of this single Mind, he contends, is also the ground of our moral life. This doctrine he applied to great effect in his _Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation_, in which he salvaged Rousseau's flawed doctrine of the "general will."

His reformulation of this doctrine was influential on both Bernard Bosanquet and Brand Blanshard, and in general his writings on ethics and political obligation mark a watershed in the history of liberal political thought. Specifically, his departure from Mill and Spencer marks the precise point at which liberalism began to allow an increasingly active positive role for the State -- an issue, by the way, on which I continue to disagree with him.

(For the record, I would contend that the ideal "evenly rotating economy" of the Austrian school of economics is a better expression of the "general will" or "rational will," at least as regards exchangeable goods, than any State activity will ever be. However, I think Green's metaphysics are basically sound and do in fact provide the proper foundation for the liberal commonwealth. In any case, any critics of modern liberalism will have to come to terms with Green at some point, and in my view they will find much in his thought that is worth retaining.)

Green has been criticized for failing to keep clear between two allegedly different views: the view, on the one hand, that reality is _known_ through intelligence, and the view, on the other, that real relations are _constituted_ by the activity of intelligence. I do not think this criticism is well-founded, but at any rate it is in this volume that Green offers his fullest defense of the thesis in question. The reader will have to judge.