Of his philosophical doctrine proper, the most striking characteristic
is Integration, as opposed to Disintegration, both in thought and in
reality. "That which is" is a _whole_, not an _aggregate_; an organic
complex of parts, not a mechanical mass; a "whole" too not material
but spiritual, a "world of thought-relations." On the critical side
this teaching is now admittedly valid against the older empiricism,
and the cogency of the reasoning by which his constructive theory is
supported is generally recognized. Nevertheless, Green's statement of
his conclusions presents important difficulties. Even apart from the
impossibility of conceiving a whole of relations which are relations
and nothing else (this objection is perhaps largely verbal), no
explanation is given of the fact (obvious in experience) that the
spiritual entities of which the Universe is composed _appear_
material. Certain elements present themselves in feeling which seem
stubbornly to resist any attempt to explain them in terms of thought.
While, again, legitimately insisting upon personality as a fundamental
constituent in any true theory of reality, the relation between human
individualities and the divine Person is left vague and obscure; nor
is it easy to see how the existence of several individualities--human
or divine--in one cosmos is theoretically possible. It is at the
solution of these two questions that philosophy in the immediate
future may be expected to work.
Green's most important treatise--the _Prolegomena to
Ethics_--practically complete in manuscript at his death--was
published in the year following, under the editorship of A. C. Bradley
(4th ed., 1899). Shortly afterwards R. L. Nettleship's standard
edition of his _Works_ (exclusive of the _Prolegomena_) appeared in
three volumes: vol. i. containing reprints of Green's criticism of
Hume, Spencer, Lewes; vol. ii. Lectures on Kant, on Logic, on the
Principles of Political Obligation; vol. iii. Miscellanies, preceded
by a full _Memoir_ by the Editor. The _Principles of Political
Obligation_ was afterwards published in separate form. A criticism of
_Neo-Hegelianism_ will be found in Andrew Seth (Pringle Pattison),
_Hegelianism and Personality_. See also articles in _Mind_ (January
and April 1884) by A. J. Balfour and Henry Sidgwick, in the _Academy_
(xxviii. 242 and xxv. 297) by S. Alexander, and in the _Philosophical
Review_ (vi., 1897) by S. S. Laurie; W. H. Fairbrother, _Philosophy of
T. H. Green_ (London and New York, 1896); D. G. Ritchie, _The
Principles of State Interference_ (London, 1891); H. Sidgwick,
_Lectures on the Philosophy of Kant_ (London, 1905); J. H. Muirhead,
_The Service of the State: Four Lectures on the Political Teaching of
T. H. Green_ (1908); A. W. Benn, _English Rationalism in the XIXth
Century_ (1906), vol. ii., pp. 401 foll. (W. H. F.,* X.)
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