Prolegomena to Ethics

by Green, T. H.; Bradley, A. C.

• ISBN13: 9781108040327
• ISBN10: 1108040322
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-12-08
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

T. H. Green (1836-82) was a leading member of the British Idealist movement, which adopted the continental philosophy of Hegel and Kant while rejecting utilitarianism. As well as being a prominent philosopher, Green was an influential educational reformer and an active member of the Liberal party. Green's writings can be placed into three categories: religion, philosophy and politics. This work was the most complete statement of Green's philosophy, although it remained unfinished at his death (though parts had been published in the philosophical review Mind in 1882). Edited by A. C. Bradley, a former student and brother of Green's fellow Idealist F.H. Bradley, the book, which contains four parts (on metaphysics, the will, the moral ideal and progress, and the application of moral philosophy to the guidance of conduct), was published posthumously in 1883. Like other Idealists, Green criticised empiricism for creating an unnecessary dualism between thought and the real.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction: The idea of a natural science of morals

Metaphysics of Knowledge

The spiritual principle in knowledge and in nature

The relation of man, as intelligence, to the spiritual principle in nature

The freedom of man as intelligence

The Will

The freedom of the will

Desire, intellect, and will

The Moral Ideal and Moral Progress

Good and moral good

Characteristics of the moral ideal

The origin and development of the moral ideal

The development of the moral ideal - continued

The development of the moral ideal - continued

The Application of Moral Philosophy to the Guidance of Conduct

The practical value of the moral ideal

The practical value of a theory of the moral ideal

The practical value of a hedonistic moral philosophy

The practical value of utilitarianism compared with that of the theory of the good as human perfection

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